Yesterday’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had an article on the concept of merit pay for teachers. The idea has been floated many times, but not tried very often. Teachers are against it for the most part. Wouldn’t you be? Why give up your $100,000 compensation package in return for having to earn your pay and benefits?
People who support our government engaging in “stimulus” activities are fools. While it sounds good to “stimulate” the economy and there are supposedly jobs created and saved with stimulus dollars, the truth is that these government programs are at best very wasteful, and at the worst downright fraudulent.
Look at the stimulus numbers in general. In Wisconsin, for example, federal stimulus money was reported to have “saved” 8,284 jobs. That sounds impressive, until you find out that 75% of those jobs were government jobs. (And no, I don’t belive the government report that the jobs saved were “essential.” That’s a smokescreen, plain and simple. There are plenty of tax dollars to fund “essential” services, and the reason governments are “broke” is because they’re using tons of tax money to fund non-essential things that they should not be doing!)
This whole “healthcare reform” debate is making me crazy. Mainly because of all the disinformation provided, as well as the alarming sound bites played by the media. The truth is that our healthcare system in America does NOT need “reform.” Yes, there are some good changes that could be made, but we do not need massive changes because the system is really not broken.
Take the issue of “uninsured” people in the United States. This is presented as the biggest tragedy of all. Yet it’s not the tragedy the media would have you believe. The figure of 45 million uninsured people is thrown around as proof that our system is broken. In reality, it’s not proof of that at all.
Wisconsin has been drunk on taxing and spending for a long time. We easily rank in the top ten (or higher) states when it comes to the tax burden. There is no tax our politicians don’t love.
There are three reasons why it’s so easy to increase taxes and create new taxes here:
The idea being proposed is simple: Pay Milwaukee Public Schools teachers more to teach a longer school day so children can learn more.
The response from the teachers union: “We’ve taken a consistent view that doing the same thing longer is going to produce the same results.”
Translation: We’re not teaching children now, and having a longer school day would only have us not teaching more.
The clowns running Milwaukee Public Schools never fail to provide ample fodder for articles at the Fraud Files. I have written several articles here on how taxpayers are being cheated out of their hard earned money. We’ve made it too easy for MPS to do this to us.
We’ve been led to believe “it’s for the children.” No, it’s not. It’s for the employees, both unionized employees and administration. We’ve been fed the lie that more money equals better education. MPS has clearly demonstrated that’s not the case, wasting more than $14,000 per child per school year and still having a large percentage of children who can’t read or do math.
No, that headline isn’t created for any sort of shock value. It’s the simple truth. If you steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from the State of Wisconsin through a (welfare) child care program, all they’ll do is ask you politely (three times) to give the money back. If you don’t, they’ll leave you alone forever.
Sounds like a good business opportunity, doesn’t it?
An article courtesy of DownsizeDC.org:
John Maynard Keynes originated the idea that government spending could reverse an economic downturn, but even he was skeptical of using government construction projects for this purpose.
Nevertheless, Congress, and people like Paul Krugman, want to spend hundreds of billions on public works.
I really don’t understand why politicians continue to push for a “commuter rail line” between Kenosha and Milwaukee. What’s in it for them? Why lie in order to get it constructed?
This rail line is being pushed as something that will increase commerce and be heavily used by people commuting to work. The fact is that no one seems to know anyone who will actually be riding the train. No one seems to know anyone who actually wants it or has any substantive proof that it’s needed. And the commerce? Pie-in-the-sky as well. I promise you that these train stops will be near-abandoned and not the hub of any sort of business activity.
If you’re new here, I should tell you that I’m a fan of writing about Milwaukee Public Schools. Not a fan of MPS, but a fan of writing about it. There’s just so much material to work with!
We’ve got one of the worst school districts in the nation, hands down. The district spends over $14,000 per child per school year, but the children still can’t read, add, or subtract. (And no, the poor performance isn’t due to the fact that MPS is an “urban” district. Nor is it a result of “not having enough money.”)
