Really, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

MEA Votes E-Newsletter -- May 25, 2010 - Special Edition

5 percent pay cut proposal headed to full Senate

Tell your senator to vote NO

The Senate Reforms and Restructuring Committee today passed Senate Joint Resolution U, a proposed constitutional amendment to cut the pay of all public employees in the state by 5 percent. The proposal would also mandate a three-year wage freeze.
Senate leaders may try to pass the measure soon, so your URGENT help is needed to defeat this proposal. Please contact your state senator TODAY and tell them to vote NO.
If Senate Joint Resolution U receives a two-thirds majority in the Senate and House as required, it will go on the August primary ballot for voters to decide. If approved by voters, it would be implemented Oct. 1.
The Senate panel vote is the latest attack on public employees.
Today's vote comes less than two weeks after passage of legislation that gives a small incentive for public school employees who retire this year. The retirement legislation also requires those who continue to work to contribute an additional 3 percent of their salary for retiree health care.
If you're tired of the attacks, check out MEA's Enough is Enough campaign. And, plan to join other public school employees at a June 24 Capitol rally.
And, don't forget: Contact your senator today. Tell him/her to say NO to Senate Joint Resolution U.
Enough is Enough!

This just makes me want to cry.  Things are tight everywhere, but it seems that the good old public school teacher can just be beat up on again and again and again.  I don't make that much money, really I don't (and please, before some of you start, I do not just work six hours a day, nine months a year.  I average a nine hour a day, and work all summer to ensure that the next school year will be successful).  I am already going to see a decrease in my salary even before the next school year starts because I will now pay 6.9% of my salary into a retiree health care fund that is not guaranteed to even be there for me when I retire.  One of the reasons for the passage of the legislation that  gives a small incentive for public school employees to retire is to open up spots for new teachers so they will not leave the state.  Someone's kidding us right?  This new legislation is going to make new teachers want to teach in Michigan?  My theory is that like everything else in this country, there are people who want educating our children to be a "for profit business."  In order to make that happen it will be necessary to make the present system so unattractive that educators will be willing to do anything to make a decent salary and be treated with some dignity.  "All" children won't receive an equal education under this new system so the rich will get richer, the poor will get poorer, and the middle class will cease to exist.  This is not the time to think that everything will be okay, this is the time to realize that we are being led in the wrong direction!  Oh, and I still wonder what cuts the members of the legislature are taking in order to balance the budget.
Rosemary

Wish I could retire.

I wish I was at a point in my life where I was ready and financially able to retire, but I am not, and boy is it going to cost me!  I have been paying 3.9% of my salary into my retirement benefits fund, now I will pay 6.9% into a fund that is not guaranteed to be there when I retire (you see you keep reading that we will pay 3%, but it is an increase of  3%)!  Thank you Andy Dillon.  New teachers will pay 9% of their salary into some hybrid fund, wow that will entice new teachers to stay in Michigan!  Our senators and representatives by the way earn $79,650 a year and have a $12,000 expense account (they are the second highest paid in the country)!  I am pretty sure they pay nothing for their health care benefits, and after only six years on the job retain these health care benefits for life!  The really funny thing is the headline of the editorial in the Free Press about the passage of the early retirement plan is "State lawmakers show some guts at last" HA!  When are we all going to wake up and smell the coffee?  Politicians have one interest, themselves.  They want to keep their job because it is a very nice job to have, or they want to put themselves into a position to run for a better and higher paying political job.  If there are politicians out there who really feel they are involved in this process to make life better for people like me, and are not looking to further their career, who are they, and why aren't they making some noise?  Representing the people was never meant to be a career, but to have "good" people with something to offer "at a particular time" step up to the plate and get positive things done.  How did we get to where we are today?  Better question, what are we going to do?  The fighting and name calling is not helping me, is it helping you?
Rosemary

My response to Joel Sheltrown's response

I sent my opinion about the Algebra II replacement classes to the bill's sponsor, Joel Sheltrown, (see previous blog post), and he responded.  I knew he was on the side of the sane, and his response stated that he was in full agreement with my argument.  He is working to make changes, but it is an uphill battle.  In his response he used the terminology of "different pathways to a diploma", and it was like a light went on.  So what follows is my response to him.  I think it is right on, and I really would like to know what you think.

Thank you for taking the time to respond.  I am grateful you see the need to make changes to the current curriculum travesty, but I am frustrated by the ignorance in Lansing.  You say you could introduce legislation all year that would "create separate pathways" perhaps that wording is the problem.  We don't want separate pathways, we want all of our high school students on the same path.  We want all of our high school students gaining knowledge, progressing through the curriculum, learning to apply the skills learned so as to be productive citizens, and graduating from high school after demonstrating that they have the skills necessary to continue some sort of further learning.  Some will be ready for a four-year university, some will go to a two-year college, some will attend a trade school, some may find a mentor and do an apprenticeship or internship, some may gain more experience by working in a family business, or just getting a job until they can figure out what it really is that they want to do, but no diploma?  No job, and the welfare line gets longer.  You see, and if you do please start explaining to others, every student that starts high school comes from a different place.  They don't all come in with the same skills, the same motivation, or the same ability to learn.  We do not want to put them on different paths, we want them to have different choices of quality classes that fit their needs, and that will increase their knowledge base so that they end up in the same place and  have the opportunity and the desire to continue down the path of learning.

Rosemary

The truth is stranger than fiction

You know how sometimes you are just going along  when all of a sudden, WHAM, something hits you and you just say WHAT?  That's how I felt when I was having a leisurely Mother's Day morning reading the paper and I came to this:  "City Administrator (Grosse Point Woods), Mark Wollenweber, who plans to retire June 30, will continue working for the city for 90 days as a consultant at a rate of $9,000 a month."  That's when I felt like something had just hit me, and I screamed WHAT?  So I reread, and then read on.  "The City Council recently approved an agreement that calls for Wollenweber to work 10-20 hours a week (yes you read that right), as a consultant to help with projects and the transitions to a new administrator."  So this now retired City Administrator, will work 40 to 80 hours a month, for three months and make $27,000 dollars!  I don't quite know what to say, I didn't then either so I turned the page of the paper and read; "Troy readies for cuts to staff, library."  And I thought, "It is good to live in Grosse Point Woods because they obviously have money to burn, not so good to live in Troy because they don't."  You see in Troy, voters turned down a five-year 1.9-mill increase last February, so now lots of good things are on the chopping block in order to balance the budget.  Soon to be gone are the library, museum and nature center, not so important some might say, but yes, they are!  Maybe after Mark Wollenweber collects his $27,000 dollars for hardly working, he will drive right over to Troy and make a donation that might enable the city to keep open three really great places for children and families to go, the library, the museum and the nature center.  Wouldn't that be something?
Rosemary

Sente OKs Algebra II Bill

I am shaking my head and muttering, "Joel, Joel, Joel, you just don't get it."  A Free Press article in Friday's paper reports on a bill headed for Gov. Granholm's signature that would "relax" (my wording), the Algebra II requirement.  According to Rep. Joel Sheltrown, D - West Branch (I am sorry Joel, you are a Democrat and I know your intentions are good, but no one in Lansing or Washington seems to get this.  Worse, no one is listening to those of us that do get it), with parent consent, students who do not have very good math skills and who wouldn't be successful in Algebra II, can opt out of this requirement and take business-oriented math courses such as Statistics and Data Analysis. "Those would be far more relevant to students than Algebra II ever would be."  Said Joel, and it gets better.  "If someone has very good math skills, then they probably should take higher-level math courses.  I'm worried about those kids that don't have those skills."  Like the ones who still can't add and subtract?  Or the ones who don't have their multiplication facts memorized?   Or the ones who can't figure out fractions and decimals?  They would never pass Algebra II, you're right, but hey they'll do swell in Statistics or Data Analysis!  Joel, Joel, Joel, there are lots of students who can't do Algebra II, and they won't be able to do Statistics or Data Analysis either.  There are lots of students who don't need to take Algebra II or Statistics or Data Analysis, because their career plan does not necessitate this type of math (the law and politics come to mind).  When are the people who are legislating what our students learn going to get this?  The size of a school district, the number of students in the high school, the makeup of that student population, all need to be considered when the courses that will be offered are considered, and we need to offer courses, that count towards graduation, that meet the needs of all students.  We do not live in a one size fits all society, we can not offer a one size fits all curriculum, not if we want our students to compete in a global economy!
Rosemary

Sarah, Sarah, Sarah

Here is what I read in today's paper.  Sarah Palin said that America is looking for a change from the "hopey changey stuff" of the 2008 election.  What?  Is she two?  Then she said "...Don't allow anyone to to tell you to sit down and shut up."  In my experience, the only time one really wants to tell someone to "Sit down and shut up" is when the speaker is speaking like a two-year-old, and the listener has had just about enough of the babble
. 
Palin cited the president's recent comment that America was the world's dominant military super power, "whether we like it or not."  By saying,  "We like being a dominant superpower, what kind of comment was that?"

This kind.  "It is a vital national security interest of the United States to reduce these conflicts because whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower, and when conflicts break out, one way or another we get pulled into them," Obama said. "And that ends up costing us significantly in terms of both blood and treasure."  This statement was made by President Obama to address the downside of our stature of being obligated to intervene in national conflict. 

So Sarah, read the whole article, or listen to the entire speech, or watch the entire news broadcast, before you comment.

And one last thing, "to see our nation be a more welcoming place for innocent life."  This is one of Sarah's aspirations.   Before I comment, what the hell do you mean by that?  Could you be more forthcoming and more specific?  I don't want to make an assumption. 

Rosemary

10 Questions with Karl Rove

One of Time Magazine's 10 questions with Karl Rove: "As a GOP strategist, what would you be most afraid of Democrats doing strategically as they head into the 2010 election?"  His answer: "Focus on jobs and succeed at doing something in a bipartisan way that helps the economy grow.  But none of those things are going to happen."  I almost think he was thinking, over my dead body will I let any of that happen!  He and others like him don't want the unemployed to have job opportunities.  Karl Roves and others like him don't want any republican to agree with anything the democrats want to try and do, even if it will help the economy grow.  Bottom line, Karl Roves and others like him do not give a you know what about you and me.  And the Karl Roves of this country will spread lies, and try to whip people into a frenzy about things that simply aren't the way they tell us they are, because they want to control the country!  They don't want a two party system, they want to rule, they want everything to be their way because they are very happy with their way life is, it is good for them!  Karl Rove's picture in Time Magazine says it all, he is so pompous, he doesn't even know that his answer to that question basically says; "Anything this administration does that might be good for the country, I will fight against, because I am on the other side, and I want to win."  Karl Roves and others like him are playing a game that costs them personally nothing, but could cost people like me, everything.  It is time for Karl Roves and others like him to be told to go away, we don't want to play them anymore.

Rosemary