I've been fighting with my ex to get my daughter in Pre-k (she's 4, turns 5 in october, so she misses the kindergarden cutoff by a few weeks). That's not the point of this story. In my last-ditch effort to get my kid into school (I can't afford private school) I went to a local elementary school. They told me there's no state funded Pre-K.

Let me get this straight. You're going to refuse to implement an educational program that has been PROVEN to help advance the education of children. Kids who go to pre-k do better in school. Period. Throughout ALL of school, not just kindergarden.

I understand that this state has a crime problem. Guess what happens when people get a better education? There's less crime. It's called an investment.

FFS, I'm debating leaving this country, it's so fucked up. My tax dollars are paying for scumbag politicians to create MORE political positions for their friends to occupy, lobbying in the interest of their financial backers instead of their constituents, and paying for our fucking congress to hear about a problem with a goddamn GAME (baseball).

I want a president that's going to come in and say enough is enough. Our government IS too big. It IS corrupt. We borrowed trillions of dollars and it did nothing but save a few companies that paid the government to do so.

The Buffalo area received 408 million in stimulus funds, yet only 231 jobs have been claimed to be created. Do the math - that's 1.8million per job.

A project in Rochester received 3.3 million to build 23 low-income houses.

In Emmet County, Michigan 7.5 million in federal funds were used for a new terminal with stone fireplaces and exposed log beams in an Airport. That airport serves an average of 72 departing passengers per day.

If you're not irate at the way this country is being run, you're a sheep, or you're complacent.

http://www.bankruptingamerica.org/spending-fail-map/

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They cut all sorts of money from education...who needs kids who can read anyways?

Seriously, a year ago I got a slight pay cut, but they gave me an extra class to teach. It would "save our jobs". Luckily, I got that money back in a "raise" this year...so I'm back to making what I was making in my second year.

I happen to be very fortunate, I teach in a magnet program funded by the National Guard, so I have things in my room like...maps that my fellow Social Studies teachers don't have.

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"Oh honey, I would but...I don't want to" ~ Karen Walker

Yup, my daughter is pre-K age (4) and we tried to get her into the public school's program and she didn't make it. To top it off the on base pre-school was closed this year due to funding. Yes, military families who go through hell and should get benifits like this can't even have a reliable, safe place for their children to atttened pre-K. They have plenty of money to water the grass on base in this high desert climate (and it is fucking georgeous), build a new head quarters, pay for bull shit projects out the ass.....but fuck education. We can spend through our noses for wars and crooked bankers but screw you Mr. taxpayer. Yeah USA.

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to be fair about the congressional hearings on clemens, its not because he played baseball or that he used steroids, its that he lied and committed perjury. im much more up in arms about them holding hearings on college football playoffs and how they can get that going. both are stupid, but the second one pisses me off even more.

oh, and while i understand your annoyance on that airport in northern michigan, that 7.5 million on a new terminal was spent in 2003. long before the recession.

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Let's get some facts squared away here first.

No one is making education "spending" cuts.
Education spending in the US has gone nothing but up for the last 50 years.



What we are cutting is the money that actually makes it into the hands of teachers, classrooms and school districts.

Get angry with where that money is actually going.
It's servicing pension funds.

Go Unions!

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Hold my beer and watch this...

so if a teacher provides 30 years of service, it doesnt matter and they dont deserve a pension?

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If I provide service to my company for 30 years should I get a pension guaranteed by the taxpayer no matter how badly that fund is managed?

Of course not, I'm a private sector asshole.

Maybe I should downgrade my salary to get in a nice job where I can't be fired, retire early, not work summers and get a pension.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

and I'm not saying they shouldn't get what was promised to them, just that the system is unsustainable and is hurting our kids.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

see, there it is. teaching is not just some clock in-clock out job. teaching is a take home job, if you do it correctly. you have things to grade, and lesson plans (oh those lesson plans are time consuming) as well as meetings and such. secondly, teachers are severely under payed. sure, they get summers off, but most dont, actually. they take on second jobs (or third jobs). i got lucky, both my parents got masters degrees and were making 80,000 a year by the time they retired. pensions or not, its still not enough to make ends meet, and they now substitute teach to help pay bills.

so between putting in 35 years, and dealing with some real bullshit students, and starting off at 28,000 a year, yeah, teachers deserve more then their pension pays for.

this is just a general rant, not directed at anyone, but the next time a millage or a bond issue comes up, and you vote no on it, dont bother complaining about the schools after they dont pass.

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So it's ok in your book that an ever increasing amount of our overall education expenditures go towards servicing pension funds and not to actually educating kids.
All at a time when our education outcomes are getting worse and worse and schools are cutting arts music and sports programs.

We pay more, kids get less.

Go Unions!

And seriously...save for retirement like everyone else. Save money in IRA's and 401k's...a pension is NOT NECESSARY.

Why should the public sector be the only ones getting pensions?
Why should those pensions be kept propped up with tax dollars instead of standing on their own?

And don't pull that "teachers are special" crap on me. My Mother was a 2nd grade teacher, my father was a college professor, my grandmother was a high school teacher, my grandfather was a high school principal and my sister is a speech pathologist who works for a school district.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

the public sector benefits more because those working under it have the benefit of scrutinizing it more, specifically because it is in the public sector. perhaps if the private sector, as a whole, was more gratuitous, then there wouldn't be a problem with social security. better yet, if there was better managements of the private sector as a whole, perhaps excessive bailouts wouldn't have been forced down our throats at the consequence of market failure.

i'm sorry, maybe the private sector isn't to blame for social security. i suppose we should just refer to the last administration for using those funds elsewhere, then taking public money to subsidize private pharmaceutical companies. again, i must ask, where is the parity for your views on the larger financial giants concerning capitalism and the right to succeed or fail? why is it okay to demand responsibility on the part of public sector jobs, while claiming the private sector is much more successful and responsible when it isn't?

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young people everywhere have been allowed to choose between love and a garbage disposal unit. everywhere they have chosen the garbage disposal unit. (guy debord)

Teachers deserve a pension. That pensions should be paid for with THEIR contributions, not public dollars. Right now, a teacher in the NY system only has to pay into their pension fund for something like 5 years. They can work for 30 more years and never pay another cent, but still get a full pension based on 5 years of contributions. That needs to change.

They also need to stop the practice of retiring folks padding their last couple years of salary to increase their pension payouts. When your pension payments end up being more than your salary was when working because you cashed in 300+ unused vacation days and coached 3 sports, there's a problem.

Who got bailed out?
Unions. By their best buddies the Democrats.
Why should the Public sector get taken to task...especially now?
Because we keep throwing ever increasing amounts of money at them for ever decreasing returns.

Did you just try to blame SS insolvency on Bush?
It takes 50 years to do that, not 8.
Politicians have been diddling the SS fund for decades.
You're right...in the middle of a multi-year recession, we should all suffer and cut back.
Damn that private sector for screwing us all.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

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Hold my beer and watch this...

Whoa..."Nice job"...the classroom can be a brutal place, especially if you work in a lower socioeconomic area like I do. I can be fired, I'm gonna be working forever, I work summers to suppliment my under $40 thou salary (I would eventually like to buy a condo or something) and I'm pretty sure they're cutting a big precent of our pensions here in FL

That being said, I would have no problem with them diverting pension money to actual in class use. It actually makes my job easier to have things like maps, atlases, computers and textbooks in my classroom. I do agree that we should just save for our own retirement. I've been putting money into my 403B and a seperate retirement plan since I started my career at age 25.

I don't think older teachers would share my views on the matter though.

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"Oh honey, I would but...I don't want to" ~ Karen Walker

that's odd, because it seems to go up and down pretty decisively during any given administration, especially both bushes (in the negative). in fact, the only surplus shown is during clinton's administration. not that i find that administration ideal, but compared to either bush, sure.

if you want to talk about spending, then talk about it. the fact is that money must be spent for money to be made, and as long as it's spent responsibly, then i have no problem with it. spending public money in the private sector generally never works for the public. spending public money for, say, a public works project... generally has a better outcome.

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young people everywhere have been allowed to choose between love and a garbage disposal unit. everywhere they have chosen the garbage disposal unit. (guy debord)

The budget deficit or surplus doesn't have shit to do with Social Security, which was your point.

Ahh fell into that trap did you?

Who writes and passes Federal budgets?
Who votes all spending into law?
Which branch of government oversees SS?

Which party controlled congress when Clinton was President?
Republicans...the whole damn time
Which party controlled congress when Bush Sr. was President?
Democrats, the whole damn time

Blaming a President for any portion of the economy doesn't hold water and I never do it.
The party in control of congress has much more of a direct effect.

So Democratic congresses have pissed away SS and Republicans presided over the greatest federal surplus of modern history.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

I'd love to see the proof of this. Not charts or shit like that. The president directs the congress, the congress acts on the president. Democratic presidents bring to congress ideas that aren't full of shit, and repubs will agree on it because they see it's merit too. So I call BS.

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I was making a rant about my state, not the US. Virginia cut money from the education budget.

Unions continually fuck the "general population", just with different size and shape instruments in different orifices.

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