Stimulus: Hot for Teachers

According to Reason Contributing Editor and certified chart-monster Veronique de Rugy, more than two out of three jobs that Recovery.gov reports as being funded by the stimulus package are through the Department of Education. Her graphic:

De Rugy also says that "a third of all union jobs" are now in education. No wonder labor and the professionalized left is going nutso over 88 teachers getting fired at Rhode Island's Central Falls High School. We don't fire teachers anymore!

Comments

[Almanian]

In this case at least, clearly, it's for teh chirren. Therefore, it's good.

More Stimulus, Please!

[Jeffersonian]

So what are they shovelin' over at the DoE these days?

[J sub D]

Couldn't they just throw the money into the Potomac and cut out the Education Department middleman?

[Ike]

Why put it in the Potomac, when there's a perfectly good Money Hole we could be using?

http://ike4.me/onmp

[Jim Fister]

So the government wants to take over college loans, and it's already funding the teachers and educators at lower levels. Oh, and they're going national on the student curricula. We thought education was already nationalized, but I wonder if we'll look back on those "glory days" and wish...

[In Time Of War]

I've been bitching about teachers and their "underpaid martyr" complex for so long my wife won't even let me use the word "teacher" in the house anymore.

[Paul]

Don't even get me started.

[John]

They get every holiday and three months in the summer off where they moonlight. And all they can do is bitch about how they sometimes have to work more the 40 hours a week.

[Paul]

I believe teaching is hard. I wouldn't want to do it. I'm happy with the teachers at my daughter's school, especially the one who looks like she's 17. Anyhoo...

It isn't that they don't deserve to be paid well.

A good teacher is a valuable thing. I'm just sick to effing death over the institutional whinging that goes on about how poor and underpaid they are. It's a job, and if you stick to it, and get tenure, it's a damn well compensated job, plus there are some kick ass benefits.

[Bryanc]

See, that's the thing. Teaching isn't really that hard. Certainly no harder than any number of other careers. Any reasonably intelligent normal adult can teach a basic curriculum. And untl you get to high-level work, a "good" teacher isn't going to be consistently more effective than a mediocre teacher.

It's just a job. And one where the major obstacles to success are almost entirely self-perpetuating. The elevation of teaching to some kind of Holy calling was the worst thing to ever happen to public education.

[wylie]

The elevation of teaching medicine to some kind of Holy calling was the worst thing to ever happen to public education healthcare.

[Joshua]

Dude! That's been the case off & on since Hippocrates. The worst thing to happen to healthcare was the AMA & their school certification process. I'm with Friedman on this one.

[John]

More teachers in the class room. More cops on the street. And of course more dues paying public union members. That was always what the stimulus was about.

[In Time Of War]

And to prevent deep, painful cuts in those services, they're sorta going to have to raise your taxes...
Oh, and they'll have to close all the libraries and parks.

[John]

Exactly. If you want your services, you are going to have to pay the man.

[PapayaSF]

If only it were that productive! It's probably more about hiring outside-the-classroom overhead, like administration staff and diversity officers, and higher pay for people already there.

[Paul]

The entire federal government economic apparatus, working to save your job. I wonder what that would feel like.

[wylie]

Dude, get a teaching gig. You managed to post on here, so you're definitely smart enough.

[Paul]

I remember seeing George Clinton on stage back in the late 90's at Bumbershoot. At one point he went on a 5-minute politicized rant about how underappreciated, and yet how important school teachers were.

I was all like "Goddamnit, George, drop some funk on us and shut up about the teachers!"

[Jeffersonian]

He needed to be electrically spanked.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

He was born in 1941, so I guess technically he is a War Baby.

[P Brooks]

It's getting to the point that I seriously want to punch anybody who says we need to spend more on education.

I *might* be in favor of increasing not cutting school budgets if, at the same time, tenure and union representation were dropped, and teachers became "at will" employees on a merit bonus system.

[Joe M]

I didn't know Obama supported the firing of those 93 teachers and assorted staff. That's amazing.

[Paul]

"I think people are putting words in his mouth and jumping to conclusions about what he supports," NEA President Dennis Van Roekel said in an interview, noting that the president didn't use the phrases "merit pay" or "performance pay."

On its website, the NEA says: "Merit pay schemes are a weak answer to the national teacher compensation crisis."

"National Teacher Compensation Crisis"

A fucking "National Teacher Compensation Crisis."

What the fuck? A "national teacher compensation crisis"?!! I keep saying it over and over, but it's not getting any less stupid.

Dare I ask, what is this "National Teacher Compensation Crisis".

[Joe M]

Wow. They've gone full retard.

[Episiarch]

No, they've gone full thievery mode. They see a chance here to get even more off the public dime, and those fucking parasites are going to go for it.

[Michael]

Please, for the love of all that is decent comedy, stop with that bit. It's as nauseatingly unfunny as typing, "racist!"

[R C Dean]

I suspect that what the NEA thinks the National Teacher Compensation Crisis is, and what I think it is, are two completely different things.

[smartass sob]

Dare I ask, what is this "National Teacher Compensation Crisis".

An example of "the Big Lie"?

[Paul]

And once again, Obama's supporters are so completely snowed over, words come out of his mouth, and his supporters deny their meaning. I'm... I'm just... I uhh... never fucking mind.

[2012 Campaign Slogan]

"Are you better off now than you were back before all these meddlesome busybodies had jobs?"

[Episiarch]

I want to make a joke, but all I can do is become literally angry with rage.

"So, why don't you call me some when you have no class?"

[Horde4Lyfe]

Rodney Dangerfield. Nice. Dude was hilarious.

[The Gobbler]

He performed in my city back in about 1985. I was unable to go, but my friends who did go said that eventually it became difficult to stay at the show because their faces hurt so much from laughing.

True story.

RIP, Richard J. Roisum.

[Robert Gibbs]

But all the money hasn't been spent yet. So we dispute your premise. Ass hole.

[Joe_D]

I guess the correct advice to give kids these days is to take a job in the public sector, because that's where the money is... I guess everyone knows this already, but it's like a big red horror movie to me. And now I wait in suspense, for the other shoe to drop...

... or maybe I should register as a Democrat, sign up for the NRA, join Move-on.org, write some pro-life propaganda, get a swastica tatoo, fight for gay rights, and then explode myself in front of the White House in protest against animal cruelty and universal healthcare. That's what I'll do!!

[The Other Kevin]

You know what would really add to the rage? If ChartGirl added another one that showed the amount of money spent per student over time, and a third that showed graduation rates over time, and a fourth that showed standardized test scores over time.

[sage]

She just might, dude. Don't foget, she's a French female libertarian. AAHHHHH....

[Madbiker]

In NJ, we are fast discovering that throwing money at schools is not necessarily correlated to improved graduation rates or standardized test scores.

I am facing the loss of my job right now because my school is possibly losing a lot of state and federal aid for various reasons. I understand cost-cutting and even though it puts me in a particularly bad spot, I support it. NJ taxes are hyper-inflated and it is largely due to school budgets.

IF my union brothers and sisters vote to extend our current contracts and freeze the current salary, we may have to cut only 8 jobs instead of 25. But my faith in my fellow man was shattered long ago, and when it comes down to my job or their $800 raise, I think the raise will come first.

Disclaimer: the only reason I'm part of the union is for due-process protection and legal aid. Even if I opted out of membership, I'd still pay 85% of the union dues for the privilege of getting a collectively bargained contract every three years.

[Sudden]

In New Jersey, money throws you at schools.

[PapayaSF]

Also, show the amount spent in the classroom vs. administration and pensions and etc. and how that has changed over time. And compare everything with private schools.

[wylie]

That would be, like, a lot of work dude. Can't you just adjust your color settings so that 1 pic looks like different charts? And squint, that helps the illusion.

[Ken Shultz]

Coincidentally, I came across this piece over at the WSJ today...

http://online.wsj.com/article/.....ns_opinion

...about how a tripling of tuition costs at the University of California system since 1999 and a soon to be levied 32% tuition hike later this year are both attributable in no small part to the rising salary and benefits costs of the Golden State's employees.

The extent to which California's politicians, and apparently the federal government now as well, will go to avoid laying off state workers is absurd.

Absurd.

It makes sense, though, that the Federal government would have to step in to cover employee costs in higher education. Colleges are thought of as being self-supporting, even if they're not, and I'm sure it's even harder cut jobs at, say, the State's Fish and Wildlife service than it is to cut them at the University.

And after we've bailed out Wall Street investors, who, in these hard times, could possibly be against spending money on education?

I think it was a famous libertarian thinker who once famously said...

"I believe the children are the future,
teach them well and let the lead the way,
show them all the beauty they possess inside..."

...well it was somebody.

[Upgrayedd]

Atleast she is pro drugs.

[UCLA Bruin]

When I was at UCLA in early '90s, fees went up from $450 to $700 a quarter (or about $2k per year). Best deal ever!

[San Diego Therapist]

State colleges are still a bargain compared to private schools.

[Binky]

Obama himself offered similar assurances during the campaign, frequently saying of merit pay: "I'm not going to do it to you; I'm going to do it with you."

If I had it to do all over again, I'd do it all over you.

[Random Oakland Bus Rider]

Say it again...

SAY IT AGAIN BINKY!

[John Thacker]

How many people seriously believe that those teaching jobs were "saved" by the stimulus, instead of it simply being the annual raises for the teachers that were "saved?"

[smartass sob]

I'm wondering how much of it went to administrators as opposed to teachers.

[John Thacker]

A ton, I'm sure.

Teachers like to say that teachers should be paid more and too much is spent on administrators. If they're right, then they should do better off in a system with competition.

What's interesting is that charter schools (and, as Reason.org's Leonard Gilroy notes, sanitation workers with managed competition) do tend to have a lot lower administrative headcount and overhead. So perhaps the teachers have a point-- if only they had the courage of their convictions.

[wylie]

Live by the sword...?

[.]

Wylie, don't you have a date with an anvil, a clift, and a canyon?

[Corduroy Rocks]

In VA, McDonnell is cutting the education expenditures. You cannot possibly believe the massive whining that has occurred as a result.

It's for thu chilluns! Our footure!

Add to that, the massive number of misspellings in your average whiny post and it makes for great theater.

In other news, yoga has been exempted from regulation in VA (for those of you who remember the Reason TV coverage of it)

[P Brooks]

The elevation of teaching medicine to some kind of Holy calling was the worst thing to ever happen to public education healthcare.

Very nice.

[JJ]

You're all stupid. Thank goodness you're not in charge. Read this. I tend to believe a Stanford economist over any of you. On the other hand, since most of you clearly do not value education, a PhD may not mean that much to you.

http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2009.....chers.html

[wizard of oz books]

With many new announcement about the wizard of oz movies in the news, you might want to consider starting to obtain Wizard of Oz books series either as collectible or investment at http://www.RareOzBooks.com.