Election 2010: Teabaggin' the Ds & Rs

[Cletus Miller]

Originally Posted by Penske 2.0

Although, on a black/white basis, Seattle is far more segregated (and racist) than I would have imagined before I moved here.

Less segregated than the Chi, tho.

And the racist bit doesn't surprise me anywhere anymore. It's the *individuals* who are racist who surprise me.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by Penske 2.0

Same. I missed the one on kids of other members of Congress running for office in 2010.

At least the current mods of this Board have acceptable political IQs, although for one of us, tendencies towards censourship and overuse of spurious blogs in the past cloud the current achievement. No offence.

Also towards .gifs.

[Atticus Grinch]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

if 60% of the kids drop out, does it really matter what standards we follow?

think.
a
b
out.
it.

Meh. You accidentally just articulated the rationale behind the charter school movement circa 1996. "We've tried failure; now let's try something completely new!" They've come around to realizing that the only way to gin up your test scores is selection effects. No one has yet turned up a magic formula that takes a kid with a mom who didn't go to college and makes him into a kid who does. It happens, but they can't disaggregate the variables to find out what's "making" it happen. The most likely answer is that there are two kinds of moms who didn't go to college -- those who could have but didn't, and those who couldn't have and didn't -- and in some cases we turn it around for the kids with Type A moms, and congratulate ourselves for their achievement of what is largely their genetic destiny.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by Penske 2.0

I have seen the budgets for similarly sized Seattle public schools, and there is a lot of flab, mostly in the wages category. Administrative excess and waste. and Unions. That said, I would be in favour of significantly higher taxes to fund schools if there were appropriate budget controls and performance metrics put into place.

The experience of Washington D.C. suggests that the flab is there because voters want it. Michelle Rhee came in and tried to cut administrative excess and waste, and to move teachers to performance-based compensation. For her efforts, she got Adrian Fenty unelected, largely because District residents who did not have kids in DCPS did not like the cuts, which they saw as axing jobs.

The problem is essentially the same as the way military spending gets hijacked as pork. In a democracy, you will never make it go away, because it's what a lot of voters want. If you stand on that objection, you either get ignored, or you ensure that nothing ever happens to improve things, depending on how much clout you have.

Blaming this on the teachers unions is silly. It's like blaming defense contractors charging what they can. Ultimately, as AG says, the problem is with the voters who want things this way, or are too inattentive to do something to change things.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by Penske 2.0

Although, on a black/white basis, Seattle is far more segregated (and racist) than I would have imagined before I moved here.

It looks less segregated than a lot of places.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Atticus Grinch

Meh. You accidentally just articulated the rationale behind the charter school movement circa 1996. "We've tried failure; now let's try something completely new!" They've come around to realizing that the only way to gin up your test scores is selection effects. No one has yet turned up a magic formula that takes a kid with a mom who didn't go to college and makes him into a kid who does. It happens, but they can't disaggregate the variables to find out what's "making" it happen. The most likely answer is that there are two kinds of moms who didn't go to college -- those who could have but didn't, and those who couldn't have and didn't -- and in some cases we turn it around for the kids with Type A moms, and congratulate ourselves for their achievement of what is largely their genetic destiny.

if your analyzes only made sense it would be quite powerful

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

It looks less segregated than a lot of places.

there is a golf course a block from my home and that map has people living on it.

[sgtclub]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

if your analyzes only made sense it would be quite powerful

board motto

[Penske 2.0]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

The experience of Washington D.C. suggests that the flab is there because voters want it. Michelle Rhee came in and tried to cut administrative excess and waste, and to move teachers to performance-based compensation. For her efforts, she got Adrian Fenty unelected, largely because District residents who did not have kids in DCPS did not like the cuts, which they saw as axing jobs.

The problem is essentially the same as the way military spending gets hijacked as pork. In a democracy, you will never make it go away, because it's what a lot of voters want. If you stand on that objection, you either get ignored, or you ensure that nothing ever happens to improve things, depending on how much clout you have.

Blaming this on the teachers unions is silly. It's like blaming defense contractors charging what they can. Ultimately, as AG says, the problem is with the voters who want things this way, or are too inattentive to do something to change things.

This isn't a democracy. Administrator's like Rhee need to run the schools to maximize their mission not placate an ignorant electorate. She did the right thing and should be lauded as a patriot. and the teachers unions generally do the wrong thing. they obviously hate America. But why?

[Penske 2.0]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

there is a golf course a block from my home and that map has people living on it.

His post made me question whether or not he actually had a 9/10 Political IQ. I wonder if someone else took the test for him.....

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

there is a golf course a block from my home and that map has people living on it.

I've seen people shown as living in lakes and rivers as well. I believe that happens because one dot represents 50 people and is placed in the epicenter of where those people live.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by Penske 2.0

This isn't a democracy. Administrator's like Rhee need to run the schools to maximize their mission not placate an ignorant electorate. She did the right thing and should be lauded as a patriot. and the teachers unions generally do the wrong thing. they obviously hate America. But why?

They don't hate America any more than defense contractors do. The continuous harping on teachers unions is just asinine. In many different areas, you see government policy bent towards the interests of a small minority that cares a lot, and away from the public good: defense contracting, abortion policy, net neutrality, derivatives regulations, etc. For better or worse, our government gives more pull to people who care a lot. I don't see why teachers unions are particularly worse or different than the other case, except that they seem to have irritated you in some particular fashion.

I think it was a good thing that Rhee ran the schools as she thought best instead of trying to placate the electorate, but the end result is that she is no longer running the schools, so that strategy only goes so far. And then it doesn't.

[Penske 2.0]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

They don't hate America any more than defense contractors do. The continuous harping on teachers unions is just asinine. In many different areas, you see government policy bent towards the interests of a small minority that cares a lot, and away from the public good: defense contracting, abortion policy, net neutrality, derivatives regulations, etc. For better or worse, our government gives more pull to people who care a lot. I don't see why teachers unions are particularly worse or different than the other case, except that they seem to have irritated you in some particular fashion.
.

They have irritated because I don't like to pay for failures, and they have failed. Miserably. Outside of that, if you can't understand the difference between negotiating for something with a union and negotiating for something with a private contractor I can't help you, other than to encourage you to get out into the real world, run a business and have some union employers and private contractors whom you deal with. also, I am again questioning your Political IQ results. do you have a screen shot of the results?

[Penske 2.0]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

I've seen people shown as living in lakes and rivers as well. I believe that happens because one dot represents 50 people and is placed in the epicenter of where those people live.

In Star Wars the Gungans lived in a lake. Could that explain it?

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by Penske 2.0

They have irritated because I don't like to pay for failures, and they have failed. Miserably. Outside of that, if you can't understand the difference between negotiating for something with a union and negotiating for something with a private contractor I can't help you, other than to encourage you to get out into the real world, run a business and have some union employers and private contractors whom you deal with. also, I am again questioning your Political IQ results. do you have a screen shot of the results?

This post reads like you were educated in a public school. No offence. If you can't understand the difference between pretending you have something to say without saying it and actually saying something, I can't help you, other than to encourage you to read better blogs.