Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This line of reasoning has never made any sense to me -- why does everyone blame the public employees and want to take away their (hardly that great when compared to the rest of the country) salary and benefits? Oh really? Public employees are far more likely to have pensions than the rest of us. Public employees earn significantly more too and have greater job security. We blame them because they have a huge effec…
> Oh really? Public employees are far more likely to have pensions than the rest of us. Public employees earn significantly more too and have greater job security. We blame them because they have a huge effect on who gets elected, which directly affects how much we have to pay for them. So you're saying public employees are one of the few segments of the US population who have enough input on how they're compensated…
There's a big difference between CA and Ford - I can choose whether I want to take the risk that Ford is doing something dumb.
> Instead, demand the same deal from your employer. It really wouldn't hurt their bottom line that much.
Ah, yet another expert who isn't putting his money where is mouth is.
If you're correct, the consequences (better for you, better for your employees, worse for "bad employers) are pretty close to a moral imperative.
Yet....
> I will admit that I don't have a real answer to this.
Then how do you know that the existing system isn't an improvement?
Note that "{x} is bad" doesn't imply "{y} is good", or even that a good {y} exists.
> But I am a fairly recent graduate of the public education system (finished high school in 2006) and I can tell you that 90% of my graduating class managed to pass the tests but were still complete idiots who couldn't think for themselves. (Sadly, I could say this about at least a few of my fellow UC Berkeley 2010 graduates as well.)
You're talking about folks who could read. I'm concerned with folks who graduated despite not being able to read.
> Tests are not the real world.
Neither is anything else.
> My high school had a principal and three assistant principals for 900 students. Probably a little unnecessary.
Actually, a huge fraction of the money disappears before the school. How much educational benefit do you think that it produces?
> Teachers are not the ones to penalize here, dammit. When I have kids, I damn well want their teachers to be well-paid and happy with their jobs.
I do too, but we're pouring enough money into the system. If you can't make sure that it gets to the right place, you're out of luck.
Why are you more upset with the folks who are unwilling to waste more money than you are with the folks who are wasting the money? The latter are stealing from your (future) kids....