Best Comment Yet On the Chicago Teachers Strike

This is even better than "Rahm Emanuel Likes Nickelback."  Check out this gloriously snarky tweet, baseball fans:

LOL: Hitting Below the Belt in the Chicago Teachers' Strike

Somebody brought a wicked sense of humor to the otherwise angry strike and focused a laser-like wit on mayor Rahm Emanuel, who's "the bad guy" in the scenario:

Ouch.

The Emanuel camp even responded that no, the mayor doesn't like that much-aligned bunch of musicians.  Then, not content with this, that teacher kicked Emanuel while he was down with this even uglier accusation.  Now that's one heck of a smear, even for Chicago.  

AWKWARD.

Heh.

Nerds Behaving Badly: The Atlanta Teacher Cheating Scandal

DUDE.  And yet ... somehow predictable.

If Supermarkets Were Like Public Schools

Here's something thought-provoking from the excellent blog of Harvard econ prof Greg Mankiw.  

Nerd News: Public School Teachers and Tenure Vs. Performance

Performance should come first, says Cory Booker.  Yes, that Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey.  I'm beginning to love this guy!

Get Schooled: One Teacher's Perspective on the Wisconsin Protests

Read this.  Interesting.  Remember, "teachers' unions" (and their union bosses) are not the same thing as "teachers" or "education."  To oppose the first thing is not the same thing as the opposing the latter two.

Quote of the Day: The Wisconsin Budget Protests, Part 2

A professor considers:

Despite the terrible impression created by irresponsible teachers in Madison fraudulently calling in sick and hauling children down to protests they do not understand, and despite tactics that have further damaged the already poor image of public sector unions, these working people and their families are not wrongdoers or parasites.  But they have allowed themselves to be deceived by the false promises of demagogic and irresponsible politicians and they now stand in the way of inevitable, necessary and ultimately benign changes in the way our society works.

The whole thing is worth a look.

Unrest in Wisconsin

Ann Althouse, a law professor based in Madison, Wisconsin, is right at in the middle of the current uproar over public sector worker unions, the state government, and Wisconsin's budget troubles.  Madison is starting to look like Greece, for goodness sake.  I've been inside the lovely state capitol building before, and it's a whole lot lovelier when it's not jammed with angry protesters.  As for Wisconsin's budget ills, I hate to say this, but it's not alone, and it might be only a matter of time before we see similar public sector worker unions' temper tantrums in other states.  The states are broke.  

UPDATE 1: On the news video footage, I saw multiple protest placards depicting Wisconsin governor Scott Walker as Hitler.  You know what that means: the group using the Hitler accusation automatically loses.  Twice.

UPDATE 2:  An interesting op-ed from the Chicago Tribune, of all places.

Nerd News: JUST DO IT

Do it!  Resurrect the DC school voucher program!  DO IT FOR THE CHILDREN.  Let the unions howl if need be.  Forcing students to remain in failing schools is an outrage.

Nerd News: Public School Teachers More Likely To Place Own Kids in Private Schools

Hmmmmmmmm. Here are some numbers:

More than 25 percent of public school teachers in Washington and Baltimore send their children to private schools, a new study reports.

Nationwide, public school teachers are almost twice as likely as other parents to choose private schools for their own children, the study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute found. More than 1 in 5 public school teachers said their children attend private schools.

In Washington (28 percent), Baltimore (35 percent) and 16 other major cities, the figure is more than 1 in 4. In some cities, nearly half of the children of public school teachers have abandoned public schools.

In Philadelphia, 44 percent of the teachers put their children in private schools; in Cincinnati, 41 percent; Chicago, 39 percent; Rochester, N.Y., 38 percent. The same trends showed up in the San Francisco-Oakland area, where 34 percent of public school teachers chose private schools for their children; 33 percent in New York City and New Jersey suburbs; and 29 percent in Milwaukee and New Orleans.

Michael Pons, spokesman for the National Education Association, the 2.7-million-member public school union, declined a request for comment on the study's findings. The American Federation of Teachers also declined to comment.

Nerd News: The Public Education System Flunks

Well, OBVIOUSLY.  Of course throwing money at the problem isn't going to solve it!

Nerd News: A Teacher Ponders Teachers' Unions

Fascinating.

Nerd News: Teachers' Union Skulduggery in Massachusetts

CONTEMPTIBLE (via Betsy Newmark, an AP History and Government teacher in North Carolina):

In Wrentham, Massachusetts, the teachers and the school board have not been able to reach an agreement on salary disputes. The teachers are demanding a 28% increase over the next three years. No community can afford that sort of jump in payroll even in the best of times. The teachers union hasn't called a strike because that would be illegal and they'd be liable for fines. But they have decided to take what actions they can in order to put pressure on the school board. They're refusing to work with students on independent study classes that they'd previously agreed to. They're not entering grades into a system that allows parents to check on their children's grades. But most unforgivable of all, teachers are refusing to write recommendations for seniors applying to college.

A 28% increase?  In the depths of a massive lingering recession?  Are these people mad?  Still, the worst of it all is the willful use of students as what amounts to little better than hostages.  More from an editorial in the Boston Globe:

... it’s utterly reprehensible that any teacher anywhere put students in the middle of a negotiation. We know teachers should be paid better, but towns are strapped. Parents are losing jobs and taking pay cuts. Nobody can afford higher taxes and princely raises.

So some teachers are throwing petty little tantrums, hurting students they are supposed to help, and giving a bad name to a very honorable profession.

TRUE DAT.

Nerd News: Thoughts on Charter Schools and School Choice in Chicago

Check out this editorial in the Chicago Tribune.

Nerd News: A Critique of Obama's K-12 Public Education Policy

You've heard me rant about this topic repeatedly.  Here is a slice of why.  (Oh, don't even get me started on Obama's higher/college education policy.)  Anyway, as any thinking, objective person knows, you can't fix the education problem simply by throwing money at it.  As for wealthy politicians killing the DC school voucher program (for low-income families!)  even while they send their own kids to expensive elite private schools?  HYPOCRITICAL MUCH?  Pfffffft.

Nerd News: LA Teachers' Union Vs. The LA Times

Because the newspaper ... sort of did its job as a journalistic, investigative outfit.

Nerd News: The Education Debacle of the Decade

Read it and weep.  Then go fight for change.

Edupunk Nerd News: Let's Talk Some Heresy and Say We Need Fewer Public Ed Jobs, Not More

OK, first things first: the word "public education job" is NOT the same thing as "teaching job." Just as "teachers' unions" is NOT the same thing as "teachers." Now read this.

Teachers unions, the Obama administration, and most Democrats in Congress want to spend another $23 billion that we don’t have to shore up public school employment. If we don’t go along, they tell us, it’ll be a “catastrophe” for American education. With fewer teachers our kids will supposedly learn less, further crippling our already wounded economy.

They couldn’t be more wrong.

Over the past forty years, public school employment has risen 10 times faster than enrollment (see chart). There are only 9 percent more students today, but nearly twice as many public school employees. To prove that rolling back this relentless hiring spree by a few years would hurt student achievement, you’d have to show that all those new employees raised achievement in the first place. That would be hard to do… because it never happened.

On college campuses everywhere too, there's been a massive explosion in the number of administrative positions. Does any university need 20 vice-presidents and such? You know what I think of that! What kills me is that the admin is often nickel-and-diming the teaching staff and always cooking up cockamamie schemes that invariably the faculty hates. What does a VP really add to education? If you spend any time at all in ed and higher ed circles, you figure out super-fast that the admin is usually the problem, not the solution. My hatred of all edu-crats and everything they stand for is a matter of public record.

I see no reason why we should have to pad their numbers in the name of "saving education."

You want to save education? GET OUT OF THE WAY.

And what a stupid idea that because education is important, the only possible way to get it is via the government. Hey, wait! Where have I heard this line of "reasoning" before?

RELATED POSTS: PJ O'Rourke vs. Public Schools, Let's Dump the US Department of Education!, and any post tagged as "edupunk."

Nerd News: UK Higher Education Budget Cuts Spark Protests

Things are tough all over. The "financial meltdown on campus" tag is back with a vengeance.

Look, I understand that things are hard and that money is tight on campuses everywhere; believe me, I understand. But the protesters are demanding BOTH no budget cuts AND no tuition increases. It's pretty much impossible to have both in the current real-world circumstances. In fact, even with both unpopular actions in place, some schools are still going to be in deep financial trouble.