#sb 5

(2013) SB 5_Star Trek Into Darkness Crew (Star Trek Fan Art)

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Texas voter ID law can go into effect, appeals court panel rules

Yeah:  We can all agree with that.

Yesterday the Viall household got a slick political brochure in the mail, supporting a "yes" vote on Issue 2.  That's the referendum vote related to Senate Bill 5. It was a pretty cool ad:  all about merit pay and "rewarding good teachers" and even threw in a little bit of cleavage--a bid to appeal to the "horny vote," I suppose. Supporters of Issue 2 and Senate Bill 5, of course, hope to baboozle you with a little boobage.  They want you to believe the law is designed to REWARD Ohio educators for superior performance.  What they don't want you to do is look past the attractive model--because the history of "merit pay" hasn't been very good. A decade ago, for example, the State of Ohio began promising "great teachers" bonuses if they went through an arduous process and won "National Board Certification."  Some of the best and the brightest applied; but only a fraction of those who submitted materials won this prestigous award.  Then they settled back to collect their $25,000 bonuses, paid over ten years. Unfortunately, the State soon ran into budget problems.  So?  The boys up in Columbus announced that the money wasn't there and the bonus part of the plan would have to be scrapped.  That's what we call "Bernie Madoff Merit Pay." Think it can't happen again?  Of course it can.  Texas just gutted it's entire merit pay plan, citing deficit issues.  Funds for "rewarding" the great teachers were slashed from $392 million to $40 million, headed for zero soon.  New York City had a $56 million dollar merit pay plan; but when no one could offer proof that merit pay actually improved schools, that plan was scrapped.  Atlanta and Washington, D. C. public schools bet heavily on merit pay to "improve" test scores and ended up with rampant cheating, instead. If you vote "yes" on Issue 2, because you don't want to pay higher taxes, that makes sense and if that's your sole focus you have every right. 

Don't be a boob. Vote "No" on Issue 2.

 That still doesn't change the real focus and intent of Senate Bill 5:  to deny bargaining power to every public school teacher in the state--including the very best--and every cop, fireman and social worker, too. 

It's not a law Republican legislators passed to help the average worker--and if you vote "yes" because you think it is, you've been badly fooled.  You've been mesmerized by the two boobs and now you've voted like a boob.



Governor Kasich is NO friend to teachers--or probation officers--or highway workers--or any other working stiff in the state.  He might keep taxes low and he's a friend to powerful business interests, for sure.  He's a former former Lehman Brothers executive, after all.

That doesn't mean you can believe him when he promises, "The check is in the mail."

WHY AM I NOT SURPRISED our good Governor Kasich sends his children to a Christian school? Why am I not surprised he doesn’t know what it’s like to work in a public school system that takes every child, not just those who are lucky and rich, or lucky and not handicapped?

Why do I think the Governor doesn't know what it was like for Loveland Middle School teachers when we had the young man in class with the longest criminal record of any juvenile in Hamilton County?

  Why do I think the private schools, vouchers or not, wouldn’t take that kind of young man?

  Why do I think standardized testing won’t help the nine-year-old boy a friend of mine has in class, whose mother is 24, whose father is long gone and probably sexually abused him, who is supposed to wear a diaper every day to school, but doesn’t, and has “bowel issues?” Why do I think when this boy shits his pants in class and denies it when my friend asks—the poor child who sits stewing in filth—why do I think the private Christian school Kasich’s children attend wouldn’t take him?

  Why do I think, Governor Kasich’s promise of merit pay will turn out to be a bait-and-switch move in the end? Probably because the state promised several years back to give any teacher who could go through a rigorous process and win National Board Certification a $25,000 bonus, paid out in ten annual installments. Does the Governor—do all the senators and representatives who voted for Senate Bill 5—even know this program was canceled due to a shortage of funds and many, many teachers never got paid?

  Why do I think a man who made $600,000 in one year at Lehman Brothers doesn’t care in the end about merit pay for regular workers?

  Why do I think all the poor devils who believe standardized testing will save us are deluded? Is it because we’ve been pushing standardized testing for almost ten years and SAT scores are still in decline? Check it out at collegeboard.com if you don't believe me: National average in 2002           2010               Gain/Loss in the Age of the Testing Fix Reading       504                         501                 -3                                         

Math            516                         516                 even

Writing*      497                         492                 -5

Oh, and why do I think, that Kasich doesn’t know that in 2010, when the national average was 1509, Ohio students averaged 1608?

  Why do I think Senate Bill 5 is a bad idea? These are just a few of my favorite educational things.