Looks like the unions in Ohio finally got their shit together: Live feed of protest in the Ohio Capitol Building.
Which is still a victory for the Unions and the people they protect. The ball is entirely in Walker's court right now: He can ether accept the concessions already given (and potentially get more) in exchange for the right to collectively bargain... or he can have nothing and destroy the political process.Apparently the Democrats are in talks with the more moderate Republican State Senators. Unfortunately, Walker has said he will veto anything which doesn't remove the bargaining rights.
I'm not sure either side here is exactly a shining beacon of a well oiled democracy.Walker was a Tea Party supported candidate, right? Well it's high time the Tea Party learns how politics works.
Except the Tea Party Republicans are a minority of another party. We're talking maybe 2-3 per a state, tops. If they leave, it's not a huge deal.I'm not sure either side here is exactly a shining beacon of a well oiled democracy.
That being said Walker is an idiot for not compromising here but really what you better hope is that all those Tea Party repubs don't look at all those dems running away when they don't like a bill and go "hmmm... interesting strategy...".
Oh come on, it's almost like you are saying people are ok with things as long as it helps their agenda. Thats just crazy, this is politics.hey fleeing the state is a valid political strategy, unlike that damn filibuster that does nothing but hold up the political process and prevent votes from being made
As you were.But the GOP effort produced some of the most spectacular political fireworks in the state's recent history, with Democratic state legislators fleeing Texas en masse last year to deprive Republican leaders of a quorum to vote on the plan.
When they flee as much as we saw filibusters in the last Congress, then I'll take your complaint to heart. I think this once we can make an exception.hey fleeing the state is a valid political strategy, unlike that damn filibuster that does nothing but hold up the political process and prevent votes from being made
Also fleeing actually requires some sacrifice and personal effort. It is such a strain on the legislators that I doubt that it would be used except in the most dire of circumstance (like now). Unlike the filibuster in the Senate, which the GOP liked to trot out on days ending in -y.When they flee as much as we saw filibusters in the last Congress, then I'll take your complaint to heart. I think this once we can make an exception.
I do have to ask, though. Is there anything that Democrats could do, if they were in power, that you would support this type of action for? Be honest with yourself.
Don't get me wrong, I don't want to see this type of action over something silly like tax cuts or something of that nature.
In 2011, we will pay out $385 billion in food stamps, $365 billion for the federal portion of Medicaid (with an almost equal amount due from the states), $200 billion in unemployment benefits and over $100 billion in aid to education. The total cost of these payments will exceed $1 trillion, but the cost of administering these programs will add approximately $300 billion in expenditures to the federal budget.
Considering Providence, RI. just laid off all (nearly 2,000) of the teachers in their district to meet a "budget shortfall", I wouldn't be surprised if he did it. He'd also be just as stupid if he did.So what happens if no one breaks the standoff in Wisconsin? The governor will have to lay off 1,500 government employees.
When the fuck did we become the root of all problems?Considering Providence, RI. just laid off all (nearly 2,000) of the teachers in their district to meet a "budget shortfall", I wouldn't be surprised if he did it. He'd also be just as stupid if he did.
I know you're all up in the "government school" schtick, but I would blame the police a lot more than the school after reading this story.An 11-year-old boy was arrested and hauled away in handcuffs for drawing stick figures in his government school - something his therapist told him to do.
Police don't have doodle sensing radar. Some EduBureaucratorial Commissar had to call them in to haul the dangerous preteen away.I know you're all up in the "government school" schtick, but I would blame the police a lot more than the school after reading this story.
As with most things, there's a very effective middle ground here. Education funding is calculated on a per-student basis. The easy way here to get the best of both worlds (the improvement in service and cost via competition from the private sector with the progressive funding of the public sector) is to issue education vouchers and open up the education service industry to private competition. Make the money follow the student and let the parents decide where their child's education is best served. That way, even the poor poor pitiful poor can afford to send their children to private school. See, the cost per pupil in 2005 was an average of $8,700. Do you think you could find a pretty good education for a kid for $8700 per year?What I've never gotten about Gas here is what he would replace the "horrible" government schools with. Or do we just let the poor and lower middle class go entirely without an education of any kind?
^ This. The only reason private schools have better students is because they are allowed to cherry pick them well before they enter their doors. Public schools don't get that option; they have to take all comers. What you really should be proposing, Gas, is for all schools to have the ability to test and measure their students before they attend... which would result in a vast under class of people no school will take.But wouldn't that program (and pardon me for the ignorance) still leave the students who don't meet private school admissions standards in the cold, with their public school hemorrhaging funding as the top students get the (incredibly finite) spots in private schools? And, I must say, the results there weren't as dramatic as they make them out to be. Basically, parents were happier and 12% more kids graduated, but there was no evidence from test schore that the education they received was of any more impactful than it would have been at public schools.
No, no, no. He's saying let the public schools compete with the private schools. So we'll end up with an underclass of people whom did graduate from a high school that barely had any funding and was therefore left in the dust, rendering their diploma worth even less than usual.is for all schools to have the ability to test and measure their students before they attend... which would result in a vast under class of people no school will take.
^ This. The only reason private schools have better students is because they are allowed to cherry pick them well before they enter their doors. Public schools don't get that option; they have to take all comers. What you really should be proposing, Gas, is for all schools to have the ability to test and measure their students before they attend... which would result in a vast under class of people no school will take.
Putting aside for the moment that you both just acknowledged private schools are that much better than public schools...No, no, no. He's saying let the public schools compete with the private schools. So we'll end up with an underclass of people whom did graduate from a high school that barely had any funding and was therefore left in the dust, rendering their diploma worth even less than usual.
There is nothing a federal bureaucracy can do that the private sector can't do better for lest cost
The day the first student could not pass a standardized test.When the fuck did we become the root of all problems?
... Are you joking?
I can think of a few examples; mail for one.