Harrisburg, PA- As the budget deadline looms, public sector unions such as the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) have maligned the bipartisan effort to allow students from the lowest performing government schools to attain a scholarship for tuition and fees at private schools instead.
With all due respect. Money comes with strings. This has nothing to do with the underprivileged. It has to do with the state controlling all educational opportunities by directly funding the educated, rather than the educators. It will be impossible for institutions to function without government regulations and failed curricula once this is in place. Right now you have under privileged kids trying to get into better schools. That's admirable and we need to help, but if you go forward with this plan there will be no good schools left for these people to aspire to.
Now with Weingarten in charge things will go from bad to worse get the kids out of a failed system you can’t change things by throwing money at it get the union out of education and fund all districts and keep the union out let the locals run it and give them a chance the department of education has made a mess of it get government out of the schools so the kids can learn with no strings don’t leave Weingarten any more kids to ruin
My "prerequisite", for assigning any kind of "weight" to any Legislator's "finger-pointing", related to education, in Pennsylvania,...
...is a clear and unambiguous admission, by the Legislature, that the PSERS (teacher pension fund) was in good, sustainable financial shape, until legislation was passed, that changed the way it was run, and turned "teacher pensions" into a stage-magician's "retractable sword" that "budget hawks" were willing to "fall upon", in the interest of being "financially responsible" (unlike some variously-constituted, ever-changing "motley crew" called, "THEM").
[cf. the 2017 Performance Audit of the PSERS, by the Office of the Auditor-General, page 10 and 11
(NOTE: the word "retroactively", on Page 10, seems amazing, to me, in light of the US Constitution's prohibition of Congress' writing ex post facto laws, and despite the fact that all State Constitutions have to be consistent (or, is it merely "compatible"?) with the US Constitution.
EXAMPLE: Is the Pennsylvania State Legislature able to write a law, in 2023, that says, "Anyone who smoked marijuana, from 1923 through 2023, was never guilty of having committed a crime, but anyone who smoked tobacco, from 1884 through 1975, is, was, and always has been guilty of murder, even before they took their first puff"?
How can the Pennsylvania Legislature RETROACTIVELY change the pension-calculation rules that were in effect, in the year(s) when the teachers performed the work that qualifies them to receive the pension?)
AND WHY does the fact that an extra dollar is flowing into State coffers mean that it ALL has to be spent, when this Commonwealth is FULL of farmers who know, FOR A FACT, that the weather that will produce a "bumper crop" so large that corn is rotting in piles, outside the grain elevators, can be followed by such a drought that not a single farmer would be able to buy hay to keep the livestock alive, over the winter, without a USDA (rather than, for example, "State") agricultural subsidy?]
Until I see an admission, by the Legislature, that the Legislature played a role in the arising of "the education situation"...
...[or, alternatively, "until I see the Legislature's declaration that Auditor-General Pasquale was in error, when he said that the Legislature's action set the stage for the 'unfunded liabilities' issue, with the PSRS],...
I'm going to have to do my best, to steer clear of the "English" that adorns the "pitches" sent streaking toward "home" from "the mound".
If it's of any comfort, to anyone, I'm probably not going to be open to any kind of politically-tinged statement issuing from AFSCME or the Teachers, until I see a quote from a Philadelphia Teachers'-Union shop-steward who can provide a clear and coherent explanation of how it can be possible, for any teacher to put a big, red "X" on a kid's test, if that kid writes, "2 + 2 = 30", when the Philadelphia teachers had, themselves, signed a contract that they knew that there was no money to cover,...
...all the while saying that they're trying to raise up a new generation of Philadelphians who, as adults, are going to be a credit to the City that is the birthplace of the Republic, and the place where Benjamin Franklin proved that lightning is ELECTRICITY, rather than "the Hand of an Angry God" (and, thus, performing a service that has provided benefit to the entire world).
Education is important.
What are we teaching?
Why are we teaching it? For OUR benefit?
What'll those kids do, when we're all dead --even if we all live 40 more years, instead of 20, and even if we're all "at the top of our game" until the day we each drop dead-- if we don't teach them REAL things about LIVING?
Noah built a boat, and lived. The ones who "made points" with quips and jeers, drowned.
See, there're going to be people, who read this, who'll say, "You know, he's talking about me. I'm too heavy. I'm not his brother. I'm going to go, now."
And they will.
And they just... be... gone.
There'll be people who will say, "Nobody'll miss me."
There'll be people who will say, "I'm not good enough."
There'll be people who will say, "I did a bad thing."
And they'll just... go.
And there'll be people who will stay, until one last word tells them, "I'm done."
And the one who spoke that word will think of that word, and will know what happened, and why.
And they'll just... wait... knowing they'll hear the word that will take them. And they'll watch for it and listen for the first rumblings of it. And they'll go, in order to spare any other person the experience of the pain that follows upon having spoken that word.
"Was it me?"
"Did I do it?"
"Are they gone, because of me?"
"Because of what I did? Because of what I said? Because of my inaction, or because of my silence?"
Somebody will answer, "No. Don't be silly."
But, they'll "know".
And the ones who are "spared" that fate, because of that "knowing", will know that they were protected.
And that will be their word.
Dear Jesus, O God, by whatever Name Your Creation knows You, may You be God! Protect Your Creation from the onslaught!
Take my life and claim it as Your Own, that You and only You have any claim upon it or any right or power to take it. But, please, O God, do not hold me up before them as an example, lest my ego grow too large, and I become obnoxious, and the Word smite me, rather than bring me comfort and aid in time of trouble and trial.
Have mercy upon me, O God! Let it be, that, when You take me, my life will be a gift, to You, gladly and easily given, and pleasing to You, Who receive it!
Yet, You are God; if it be, that Your Will and Your Plan be other than that which I have asked, please, O God, help me to be able to bear that which You have allotted to me, to be my portion.
And have mercy on all of us, O God, for we are human; and have mercy upon me, once more, for having presumed to ask anything of You, Who know best; for, in doing so, I have failed to, simply, wait and watch and trust in You.
You might not believe it, but the "point" of all of the stuff I've been saying, in these comments, has been, that I think it's a serious situation and ought to be taken seriously.
The Republic has to be defended.
The Legislature can't be permitted to be used nor made-fools-of. It's serious business, trying to govern.
Government tries to PRESERVE life, and tries to create and maintain an environment in which human life is possible and as happy as possible.
The USA isn't Heaven; it's part of the real world --the physical world where the inhabitants are people, not gods who work miracles and create something out of nothing-- just like everywhere else.
I really do think people are trying to do the best we all can.
I absolutely do NOT want to crush anyone under some weight of guilt or shame or any other kind of thing.
I really believe in that "no corruption of the blood" business, in the Constitution, where you can't destroy the kids' lives and chances at life, just because the parent or ancestor did something bad.
On the other hand, we can't let people "game the system" by doing horrible things that'll have intergenerational consequences, and doing it specifically because they think their kids'll be safe.
Malice just ruins great swaths of life, by fueling resentments that chill the heart and darken the spirit and outlook of the very ones whose warmth and brightness are indispensable to recovery.
But, on the other hand, there are people who would rather have everyone think they were the Devil, Himself, rather than admit they'd ever made a mistake.
I don't want to live my personal life, constantly screaming at the people I have to look at and live with, every day; and I surely cannot stand it, when the news is full of the most horrible conflicts imaginable, between people who "represent" not just themselves, but 50,000 or 500,000 or 5 million people, or more.
I know things are frustrating, if anyone has anything that means anything to them.
And I know that things are incredibly scary, for anyone who has ever been run-over or put-down or shoved aside; because, "if they did it, once, and I'm just now beginning to see the light of day, again, what are they going to do, THIS time?"
I "get" it.
But, OMG! Is there ANY way that people who have made mistakes can say, "I made a mistake"?
It's not necessary --IS it necessary?-- to live a life of penance, bowing and scraping and pleading for forgiveness from people who just cannot or will not forgive.
I know there's got to be peace and quiet, somewhere , on this side of the grave.
I don't want to meet up with a bunch of people and plot some plots and go barreling through anywhere, and take over the world, and make it "my way, or the highway" for everyone else. This is the USA. We're supposed to be able to pursue our OWN happiness, here, not "buy into" some picture somebody else paints, of what "good order" looks like.
But, the "point" of learning skills is, to be able to build a life that's like the life one wants, and to be able to sustain that life without bothering anyone else or weighing on them any more than is necessary.
I don't want my happiness to be achieved at the price of wrecking somebody else's.
But, really, although I really am generous, (as Americans have been characterized as being, for some substantial amount of time) my resources aren't unlimited; and I do think about some things I'd like to have (or be, or do), myself, for my own enjoyment. I'd like to be able to use some portion of my own resources, to provide myself with those things.
With all due respect. Money comes with strings. This has nothing to do with the underprivileged. It has to do with the state controlling all educational opportunities by directly funding the educated, rather than the educators. It will be impossible for institutions to function without government regulations and failed curricula once this is in place. Right now you have under privileged kids trying to get into better schools. That's admirable and we need to help, but if you go forward with this plan there will be no good schools left for these people to aspire to.
Now with Weingarten in charge things will go from bad to worse get the kids out of a failed system you can’t change things by throwing money at it get the union out of education and fund all districts and keep the union out let the locals run it and give them a chance the department of education has made a mess of it get government out of the schools so the kids can learn with no strings don’t leave Weingarten any more kids to ruin
My "prerequisite", for assigning any kind of "weight" to any Legislator's "finger-pointing", related to education, in Pennsylvania,...
...is a clear and unambiguous admission, by the Legislature, that the PSERS (teacher pension fund) was in good, sustainable financial shape, until legislation was passed, that changed the way it was run, and turned "teacher pensions" into a stage-magician's "retractable sword" that "budget hawks" were willing to "fall upon", in the interest of being "financially responsible" (unlike some variously-constituted, ever-changing "motley crew" called, "THEM").
[cf. the 2017 Performance Audit of the PSERS, by the Office of the Auditor-General, page 10 and 11
(NOTE: the word "retroactively", on Page 10, seems amazing, to me, in light of the US Constitution's prohibition of Congress' writing ex post facto laws, and despite the fact that all State Constitutions have to be consistent (or, is it merely "compatible"?) with the US Constitution.
EXAMPLE: Is the Pennsylvania State Legislature able to write a law, in 2023, that says, "Anyone who smoked marijuana, from 1923 through 2023, was never guilty of having committed a crime, but anyone who smoked tobacco, from 1884 through 1975, is, was, and always has been guilty of murder, even before they took their first puff"?
How can the Pennsylvania Legislature RETROACTIVELY change the pension-calculation rules that were in effect, in the year(s) when the teachers performed the work that qualifies them to receive the pension?)
AND WHY does the fact that an extra dollar is flowing into State coffers mean that it ALL has to be spent, when this Commonwealth is FULL of farmers who know, FOR A FACT, that the weather that will produce a "bumper crop" so large that corn is rotting in piles, outside the grain elevators, can be followed by such a drought that not a single farmer would be able to buy hay to keep the livestock alive, over the winter, without a USDA (rather than, for example, "State") agricultural subsidy?]
Until I see an admission, by the Legislature, that the Legislature played a role in the arising of "the education situation"...
...[or, alternatively, "until I see the Legislature's declaration that Auditor-General Pasquale was in error, when he said that the Legislature's action set the stage for the 'unfunded liabilities' issue, with the PSRS],...
I'm going to have to do my best, to steer clear of the "English" that adorns the "pitches" sent streaking toward "home" from "the mound".
If it's of any comfort, to anyone, I'm probably not going to be open to any kind of politically-tinged statement issuing from AFSCME or the Teachers, until I see a quote from a Philadelphia Teachers'-Union shop-steward who can provide a clear and coherent explanation of how it can be possible, for any teacher to put a big, red "X" on a kid's test, if that kid writes, "2 + 2 = 30", when the Philadelphia teachers had, themselves, signed a contract that they knew that there was no money to cover,...
...all the while saying that they're trying to raise up a new generation of Philadelphians who, as adults, are going to be a credit to the City that is the birthplace of the Republic, and the place where Benjamin Franklin proved that lightning is ELECTRICITY, rather than "the Hand of an Angry God" (and, thus, performing a service that has provided benefit to the entire world).
Education is important.
What are we teaching?
Why are we teaching it? For OUR benefit?
What'll those kids do, when we're all dead --even if we all live 40 more years, instead of 20, and even if we're all "at the top of our game" until the day we each drop dead-- if we don't teach them REAL things about LIVING?
Noah built a boat, and lived. The ones who "made points" with quips and jeers, drowned.
See, there're going to be people, who read this, who'll say, "You know, he's talking about me. I'm too heavy. I'm not his brother. I'm going to go, now."
And they will.
And they just... be... gone.
There'll be people who will say, "Nobody'll miss me."
There'll be people who will say, "I'm not good enough."
There'll be people who will say, "I did a bad thing."
And they'll just... go.
And there'll be people who will stay, until one last word tells them, "I'm done."
And the one who spoke that word will think of that word, and will know what happened, and why.
And they'll just... wait... knowing they'll hear the word that will take them. And they'll watch for it and listen for the first rumblings of it. And they'll go, in order to spare any other person the experience of the pain that follows upon having spoken that word.
"Was it me?"
"Did I do it?"
"Are they gone, because of me?"
"Because of what I did? Because of what I said? Because of my inaction, or because of my silence?"
Somebody will answer, "No. Don't be silly."
But, they'll "know".
And the ones who are "spared" that fate, because of that "knowing", will know that they were protected.
And that will be their word.
Dear Jesus, O God, by whatever Name Your Creation knows You, may You be God! Protect Your Creation from the onslaught!
Take my life and claim it as Your Own, that You and only You have any claim upon it or any right or power to take it. But, please, O God, do not hold me up before them as an example, lest my ego grow too large, and I become obnoxious, and the Word smite me, rather than bring me comfort and aid in time of trouble and trial.
Have mercy upon me, O God! Let it be, that, when You take me, my life will be a gift, to You, gladly and easily given, and pleasing to You, Who receive it!
Yet, You are God; if it be, that Your Will and Your Plan be other than that which I have asked, please, O God, help me to be able to bear that which You have allotted to me, to be my portion.
And have mercy on all of us, O God, for we are human; and have mercy upon me, once more, for having presumed to ask anything of You, Who know best; for, in doing so, I have failed to, simply, wait and watch and trust in You.
You might not believe it, but the "point" of all of the stuff I've been saying, in these comments, has been, that I think it's a serious situation and ought to be taken seriously.
The Republic has to be defended.
The Legislature can't be permitted to be used nor made-fools-of. It's serious business, trying to govern.
Government tries to PRESERVE life, and tries to create and maintain an environment in which human life is possible and as happy as possible.
The USA isn't Heaven; it's part of the real world --the physical world where the inhabitants are people, not gods who work miracles and create something out of nothing-- just like everywhere else.
I really do think people are trying to do the best we all can.
I absolutely do NOT want to crush anyone under some weight of guilt or shame or any other kind of thing.
I really believe in that "no corruption of the blood" business, in the Constitution, where you can't destroy the kids' lives and chances at life, just because the parent or ancestor did something bad.
On the other hand, we can't let people "game the system" by doing horrible things that'll have intergenerational consequences, and doing it specifically because they think their kids'll be safe.
Malice just ruins great swaths of life, by fueling resentments that chill the heart and darken the spirit and outlook of the very ones whose warmth and brightness are indispensable to recovery.
But, on the other hand, there are people who would rather have everyone think they were the Devil, Himself, rather than admit they'd ever made a mistake.
I don't want to live my personal life, constantly screaming at the people I have to look at and live with, every day; and I surely cannot stand it, when the news is full of the most horrible conflicts imaginable, between people who "represent" not just themselves, but 50,000 or 500,000 or 5 million people, or more.
I know things are frustrating, if anyone has anything that means anything to them.
And I know that things are incredibly scary, for anyone who has ever been run-over or put-down or shoved aside; because, "if they did it, once, and I'm just now beginning to see the light of day, again, what are they going to do, THIS time?"
I "get" it.
But, OMG! Is there ANY way that people who have made mistakes can say, "I made a mistake"?
It's not necessary --IS it necessary?-- to live a life of penance, bowing and scraping and pleading for forgiveness from people who just cannot or will not forgive.
I know there's got to be peace and quiet, somewhere , on this side of the grave.
I don't want to meet up with a bunch of people and plot some plots and go barreling through anywhere, and take over the world, and make it "my way, or the highway" for everyone else. This is the USA. We're supposed to be able to pursue our OWN happiness, here, not "buy into" some picture somebody else paints, of what "good order" looks like.
But, the "point" of learning skills is, to be able to build a life that's like the life one wants, and to be able to sustain that life without bothering anyone else or weighing on them any more than is necessary.
I don't want my happiness to be achieved at the price of wrecking somebody else's.
But, really, although I really am generous, (as Americans have been characterized as being, for some substantial amount of time) my resources aren't unlimited; and I do think about some things I'd like to have (or be, or do), myself, for my own enjoyment. I'd like to be able to use some portion of my own resources, to provide myself with those things.
Is there any way that can happen?