235301
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On the Blog Post The Perils of Teacher Turnover
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On the Blog Post Don't Give Up on Public Schools...I'm Not
235301
11:25 am on Tuesday, June 19, 2012
I didn't see any complaining or bitching in either the original post or the one above it. The original post is well reasoned. Makes the case that public schools are vital to our future success. Education has to be available to all. Cannot be at any cost(hence Act 10).
Our public school system and even secondary school system need a massive overhaul in the large urban areas. That overhaul will not occur unless we stop fighting each other and work together to figure out what works best. We're not China, we cannot afford to just educate the bright ones. Our population isn't large enough; China can afford to throw away 3/4s of it's citizens and still have enough to be productive. So we need a thriving public education system. It's working in most of the suburban and rural areas. It's completely broken in the large urban areas.
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On the Blog Post It’s Time for the Left to Step Forward, Start Acting and Not Just Reacting — Part I
235301
4:24 pm on Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Had nothing to do with race. The police and fireman unions supported Walker in 2010 and thus were exempt from Act 10. This is the one big hole in Walker's actions. In all fairness the police and fireman's unions should have been subjected to the same Act 10 as the other public unions.
Kind of disappointed here, AWD usually makes valid points, albeit wrapped in racist rhetoric.
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On the Blog Post Who Really are the Job Creators?
235301
11:55 am on Thursday, May 31, 2012
Amen. This blog post is literally the thought process of the liberal wrapped up in one nice tightly bound package. Victor Drover has no clue how business actually works or how products are developed. Innovators and risk takers create companies. If they create a product that is appealing to the consumer then the consumer buys it. When the company has cash it reinvests it in more product development and hiring people to design, manage and produce the product. I will also point out right now that the time value of cash is at an all time low. The stock market is volatile as all get out. So for a company owner their best bet for their cash these days is to reinvest it in their operation.
When will we reach the point where the liberals realize they are completely clueless when it comes to business and job creation and leave it to the adults in the room?
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On the Blog Post It’s Not a War, It’s a Choice
235301
2:33 pm on Monday, April 30, 2012
ReplyIf you are in business and you hire people on a regular basis there is an ugly truth in all the government intervention in "protecting" the protected classes: it usually has the opposite affect. The results are in from ADA(enacted 1992):
Using data from the Current Population surveys for 1988-97, the authors find that the ADA had no effect on the wages of disabled workers, which are still approximately 40 percent below those of the non-disabled. On the other hand, employment rates for disabled men in all age categories, and disabled women under the age of 40, fell sharply after the ADA. This decline represents a clear break from past trends for both disabled and non-disabled workers, and therefore seems likely to have been caused by the ADA. Additional evidence for this claim is the finding that mid-sized companies show the most pronounced decrease in hiring the disabled. Large companies probably have sufficient resources to absorb compliance costs, according to the authors, while small companies are exempt from the ADA requirements. Also, in states with large numbers of ADA-related discrimination cases in previous years, fewer disabled people are hired afterwards. This too suggests that concern about costs from ADA provisions may have been driving the decline in disabled employment.
I would love the hear everyone's opinions on these results and it's implications for protecting other classes of citizens.
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On the Blog Post Kohl Blog: The Importance of Education
235301
7:01 pm on Saturday, April 21, 2012
This topic is a huge one with many answers, not one or two. Some things to think about:
1) The US spends more per capita on it's students than anyone else. Despite that massive spending the US ranks number 10 - 20 on most math and science competencies.
2) The efficiency of just about every other industry in this country has gone up dramatically while education becomes less and less efficient with each passing year? Why is that? Perhaps there is hope with online delivery such as dreambox and Kahn Academy.
3) There is a glut of teachers in this country for most disciplines. In industries that are not dominated by union pressure this should mean a downward pressure on wages.
4) Ultimately, the best indicators of student success are involvement of the parents, motivation and genetics. Without these attributes the best teachers in the world won't make a difference. As they say with a sows ear and a silk purse....I am the child of a teacher. I am not demeaning the profession; it is an important one. But we have to ask why do we spend more than anyone else in the world yet get such a poor ROI? Clearly spending more isn't the answer, it's spending it in the right places.
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On the article 'Protest' Candidates to Remain on Recall Ballots
235301
4:38 pm on Thursday, April 19, 2012
ReplyYou folks on the left really amaze me in your disdain for your fellow democrats. What you seem to be implying here is that your fellow democrats are capable of perhaps fogging a mirror but forget about any higher level thinking. Basically, what you are saying is a fellow democrat enters the booth, they first wipe the drool off their chin, say "derrrrr, mmmm Demmmookkkrattt", oooh pretty lines on paper, let me color them inzz. And that's basically the voting process of your fellow democrats. If so, the future of this country is completely screwed.
If they are too stupid or uninformed such that they voted for a "fake" democrat, do you think they should be voting in the first place? Of course not. Any reasonable person enters the voting booth knowing the positions of the candidates and votes for the candidate of their choice. They should not be going in there and playing connect the dots for either a Republican or a Democrat. If these "fake" democrats alter the results of the primaries the democrats have no one but themselves to blame. It means the they've attracted a constituency with an average IQ hovering around 80. What does this say about the democrats?
Perhaps you are right about your fellow democrats. After all the votes for smokes and BBQ seems to work for you every time you need to drag that tired ploy out.
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On the article 'Protest' Candidates to Remain on Recall Ballots
235301
1:02 pm on Tuesday, April 17, 2012
ReplyExplain to me how the "real" democrats, if they cannot beat "fake" democrats, have any shot against Walker in the recall. Further, if one of the "fake" democrats win the primary doesn't that imply that any "real" democrat had no shot of defeating Walker in the first place? Are the complaints about the "fake" democrats on the ballot because the typical democrat is either too stupid or uninformed to vote for the "real" democrat and will mistakenly vote for the "fake" democrat? Actually, now that I think about it, I would buy that argument. OK, now these complaints all make sense.
Further, what would happen to the vote count in the primary if one of the "fake" democrats ran a BBQ and smokes for votes campaign in Milwaukee? Would the democrats scream foul on that one too?
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On the article Gov. Walker: For the Next Generation
235301
2:53 pm on Tuesday, April 10, 2012
"How about 18 years of Huber law? If a man earns $50,000/year half goes to pay his "room and board" and half goes for child support." LMFAO...you are truly naive if you think any more than about 1% of the deadbeat fathers in these cases have any income much less something approaching $50k/yr. In most cases these pregnancies are the result of two people with the collective IQ of a bag of doorknobs. Guess what the IQ is likely to be of this newborn ward of the state? 80 would be a stretch. Now, I am on board with you on the following: if you are receiving entitlements for your financial support you ought to be on birth control, specifically something you can't "forget to take"(remember, a doorknob has a higher IQ than the person we're talking about here). So Norplant for the women and ??? for the men. Would solve a ton of problems for our society.
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On the article UPDATE: DA's Office Investigating Romney Sandwich Bribe Complaint
235301
8:25 pm on Tuesday, April 3, 2012
ReplyWell if this one can be equated with the smokes for votes scandal I guess it's a nice juxtaposition; a measuring stick for voters to see which side of the fence they sit on. Do you lump yourself in with the cigarette smokers or the sub eaters? Love it.
235301
8:56 am on Wednesday, June 27, 2012
We have a ton of very good teachers in our school system here in Wisconsin. We also have a ton of very bad teachers in our school system. The goal should not be to protect teachers jobs, rather the goal should be how can we reward the good and remove the bad. Almost every study you see on job satisfaction lists salary and benefits around #3 on the priority list. So all of this Act 10, contributing more to your retirement, etc as a main driver of retirements/leaving the profession is mostly BS. In fact, I would put out there that if you are one of the teachers leaving the profession due to Act 10 then it's very likely you are one of the bad ones in the system. All the good ones I've known do it because they love the job, love working with kids and seeing their progress.
A hidden benefit of Act 10 will likely be that it will drive a great deal of the teachers out of the system that were simply in it for the pay and the benefits. The key now should be finding a way to compensate the high performers well. And let's also be frank about teacher satisfaction: it's no different than any other profession in that one of the great soul sucking/productivity destroyers are having your high performers surrounded by low performers.