I know that I am pushing buttons when I say something like that. In truth I was pissed off by it. I guess because I live with a teacher and get to see all the nonsense and lousy crap that comes with the job...all for what I think most would consider short money. I know people will debate the value of unions until the end of time. The great thing about being a teacher in Massachusetts is you're in more than one union the second you take the job...and each union takes its cut of your already lousy pay.
As a matter of fact for the privilege of being a teacher you are immediately subjected to all sorts of payroll deductions. This in general leaves you at the end of every two weeks with something that hardly resembles compensation for your work. Pile on all the politics involved...like the "No Child Left Behind" disaster...and what you end up with is a job I can't imagine anybody actually wanting to work. I guess we could give these teaching jobs to the immigrant workers who Bush is welcoming into the country to "take the jobs Americans don't want."
The thing is though a lot of these teachers do the job because they really love to teach and they love the kids. The union has hardly done them any favors in getting them anywhere near the compensation they deserve for their efforts. I'm not sure how well they'd do without a union as I think that a lot of people believe that being a teacher is sort of like being a glorified babysitter. Meaning despite the fact that these people are the ones most likely to make the largest positive impact in a child's life...aside from the parents (we hope)...most of the general public does not place appropriate value on what they do. So, who would fight for them? GA wouldn't I'd guess.
It seems that this comment about the union being a "terrorist organization" came from the criticism of the "No Child Left Behind" plan. Now, if I've got things correct I believe they are saying that to properly administer this plan they need more funding. This probably leads to a guy like GA thinking "Oh, here's another union trying to pick my pocket."
The fact is the plan just is not designed to improve the schools at all. It's designed to generate statistics. We know all about those and how much politicians like to use them to further an agenda or get reelected. The union should be arguing that we need to dump this plan altogether. Now I'm not stupid and I realize that they are probably not doing that because there's an opportunity here to go after more funding...which in truth is sorely needed anyway...but in reality they probably have a better chance of getting more money than getting Bushco to drop the policy.
The money is fine but I wish they were fighting the good fight just to get rid of "No Child Left Behind" altogether.
Anyway, yeah...did he really say all teachers were terrorists...no not really. We shouldn't be having this discussion at all though and that's what really kills me.
On baseball, the Yankees are all the proof we need that the sport is falling apart. A-Rod in pinstripes. Yuck!
