Public Education Proving It's Lack of Value

We've all heard that the teachers in Madison, Wisconsin have been calling in sick and marching on the Capitol to protest the Governors plan to balance the budget.

There are so many paths on this story that it's difficult to keep it all straight. Last November the people of Wisconsin turned out the Democrats in favor of the Republicans. Wisconsin was similar to the rest of the country as nearly the entire country turned out Democrats.

The new Governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, proposed that public employees begin paying 12.6% of their health care expenses and to contribute more to their pensions.

Teachers began calling in sick. So many called in that the Madison school district closed the schools. It's now in it's third day. Some of the teachers have shown up at the rally with their students in tow. Many students that were interviewed on various networks didn't really know what they were protesting.

I looked up the code of ethics of the Wisconsin teachers. The first two on the list deal with teachers keeping their political beliefs to themselves and not involving the students in their personal beliefs.

I'm not sure why they would have a code of ethics. Is it ethical to call your employer, tell them you are sick and then march on the Capitol? I could understand them taking personal time, but calling in sick when you're not sick would be a lack of ethics. Unless it's now ethical to lie.

The school superintendent has said that he would be expecting a medical reason for the absences or the teachers would be docked pay for the days that they missed, which now total three days.

These teachers, claim their jobs are a "calling". They claim that the kids are the first priority. Yet, they call in sick leaving these kids without school. Apparently, teachers don't think that kids learn from this just as they should when they are in the classroom.

These teachers (can we really call them teachers if they aren't in the classroom teaching when they are supposed to be) seem to believe that their well-being is more important than the well being of the children that they are supposed to be teaching during the day.

This is only the beginning. It's starting to happen in Ohio as well. New York is rumbling about the same thing. This will be happening across the country as states try to get their budgets in line.

Our public education system is failing. We are no longer number one in the world in educating our children. In some areas, such as math and science, we're not even in the top ten. Yet, these teachers are whining about having to pay for their own health care. Not even all of their own health care, but less than 13% of the cost!

There is another aspect to this. If a student doesn't show up for school or cuts a class, they are punished. The punishment ranges from suspension to an appearance before a Truancy Court. I never understood the suspension for skipping school. On what planet does it make sense to throw a kid out of classes for three days as punishmet for cutting one day of classes? Aren't you just giving him three times as much as he originally took?

The teachers in Madison are really doing nothing more than cutting classes, AND they are being paid for cutting classes by the taxpayers. They aren't suspended, and they aren't put in front of a judge and they aren't suspended for three days.

Our public education system is out of control and Wisconsin just shows how much out of control they are.

Wisconsin, as well as many other states, are facing financial problems. They have choices. They can force their employees to pay more for their own benefits. They can freeze pay. They can raise taxes (which never works), or if none of those things can happen, then they must find the money elsewhere. That "elsewhere" will be jobs. Some of those teachers skipping school, if they are successful with their protests, will lose their jobs. They will have to be laid off. If they are laid off, they lose their health care. They lose their paycheck. It won't be a matter of them paying for their own health care, they won't have it to pay for.

The really ironic part of this is that these people being teachers should be smart enough to know this. After all, they are teaching the children. Shouldn't they be able to exert some common sense? Shouldn't they understand how a state budget works? Shouldn't they understand that if your employer only has $10 he can't pay you $20?

They are also marching with signs. The signs are calling the Governor Hitler. There are some with gun sights on them aimed at the Governor. You won't see it on the liberal media. CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC aren't showing it. But Fox News did show some.

For the past two years, the liberals have been railing on Republicans for the vitriolic signs. You know, the ones that had Obama as a clown. Then following the shooting in Tucson, Arizona (which they originally attributed to right wing extremists and the Tea Party but we've since learned wasn't the case at all) they were talking about the violence of the Tea Party for daring to ask questions in Town Halls across the country and standing up when they were lied to by their representatives in the House and Senate. They complained that Sarah Palin had used gun sights as targets on pictures of Democrats running on their tax and spend record of the past two years. Yet, they are doing the same thing and worse, yet you don't see it on the mainstream media. If they are going to whine about when they accuse Republicans doing it, whether Republicans did or not, isn't it just as wrong when the liberals do it? If they really think they are better than Republicans shouldn't they refrain from such posters?

You're welcome to comment.

Brett