Comments on: Thursday’s Thoughts

By: pascal

pascal — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:08:15 +0000

Oh, and how a purported intellectual can discuss property taxes and caps and try to keep Article XIII out of the discussion is a neat trick but an unserious one. We do not obsess about this piece of history, after all clear words in 1851 are just as clear in 2009. One could make the case that “education” eating 50% of the State's spending is the “canals” of 2009 and that we would have more and better instruction following the rule of law expressed in the compromise language of Article XIII. It is not like “Caps” of the theft of property is some new idea we imported from Illinois, or sprung full bodied from the brow of Otis R. Bowen. Buy softer sand, it is easier to hide your head in it.

By: pascal

pascal — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:08:15 +0000

By: pascal

pascal — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:06:55 +0000

Government schools in Indiana are insane. It is no more possible to fix them and get them to work than it would be for Soviet collective farms to be able to feed their Soviet people. In a socialist mode are our schools and you can't pay the inmates what they are worth because they would starve. Dey's “professionals”.

By: Think Again

Think Again — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:30:59 +0000

Pascal is mostly right. I've read the resumes, too….the key is, they got their EdAdmin licenses at schools where they were taught by fired former superintendents and other hangers-on, ala Mary Busch…not a drop of new blood in that system for five decades.

We win this battle, Pascal, when we pay them what they're worth…is Eugene were doing his job, he'd be worth half a mil, because that particular job is, well, impossible. You and I both know the local school boards, whose only real power is the super and his contract, don't get it. They love being friends with the guy….we all know parents who don't do a good job because they want to be “friends” with their kids instead of parents.

By: Taxpayer 834512

Taxpayer 834512 — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 20:29:16 +0000

What is an “administrator”? All I see covered in the Star (Sunday 12/20), is related to Superintendents of school districts. Basically, ground that was already covered in 2007.
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I need some help here. Superintendents are “administrators” to the best of my knowledge. But, I believe there are department heads, supervisors, people in transportation, testing, finance, etc., that are also classified as “administrators”. I have been asking for years in this blog and in emailed letters to the Star for a comparative study of school district costs: head counts of pupils, administrators, and teachers- to give us a head count per pupil. Also, at least an aggregate salary per number of dept members for identical job classifications. Despite annoying accusations of not being “…in support of the A)children B)teachers or C)the poor”, some of us remain supportive but also recognize we have limited resources.
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If we can figure out how much money is going where compared to whom, we start making more educated decisions on what to do next. Without the information to make the decisions, we're flying as blind as our recent episodes in banking/Wall Street “self-regulation”, the notion that “everyone can own a home”, and our leacherous health care “reform” devoid of a demand for pricing up-front from the players.
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Remember when Mom or Dad were the bad guys at the store and wouldn't buy the toy you pointed to at check-out? Well, we're all in line now, and it's time to figure-out if we can get that extra toy- or more likely put some things back we already have in the cart.

By: Taxpayer 834512

Taxpayer 834512 — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:12:57 +0000

Well stated, Melyssa. With the former journalistic ethic of illuminating both sides to get “the truth” largely abandoned, Abdul's given us tantalizing example after example of the airing of both sides of many issues. But, BUT, he is still an “arms dealer”. He does seemingly have an ethic for at least “airing” both sides once he brings it to the table, but I think more and more (Wishard & national health care for instance), he choses not to pursue “…The People getting a fair shake at good law abiding government.”
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Some of it may be self-preservation, vanity, or stubbornness? Who among us lacks those qualities? Advance Indiana chases some stuff Abdul won't touch (the conflicts of interest of CIB members or Barrack Obama in general)- yet I've never had a posting turned away on this blog & can't say the same for Advance Indiana.
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In today's world, I'm trying to see a half-full glass in which non-mainstream media chases at least some of the bad guys mainstream media will not.

By: pascal

pascal — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 13:03:33 +0000

Less concern should be shown about the amounts of money supers are raking in IF they have a performing school district. If Eugene were 10% of what his dog thinks he is, he'd be worth what he is raking in. That being said, the number of supers willing and able to work under PL 217 AND obtain quality results is a very small number. I've interviewed great numbers of these people, read their resumes, checked their college transcripts, noticed they were all straight A students in grad schools, etc. Suffer no illusions about these folks, academics is not what they are about and not what they can deliver.
Our 150 person school board now dispenses half the State's budget to the mess they created over and above what existed in 1851. To fix it will be like unscrambling eggs.

By: John Doe

John Doe — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 11:24:11 +0000

"John Doe, I feel your frustration, but for God's sake don't take it out on the kid. His mission is to sell you some cookies or gift wrap or popcorn."

It is time for even more drastic measures. The greedy powers that be don't get it. They continue to push for additional theft of my money. When the old way gets destroyed, they resort to lawsuits and trying to use the courts to get their way. This isn't just the public school industrial complex. It is also the mass transit industrial complex, the pro-sports industrial complex, the public-private partnerships industrial complex. While everyone always complains about private business been greedy, they have turned their backs on government, and quasi-government, entities who have become just as greedy as private business has.

Passing a photo of my Super, with my receipt of what I have paid him, to a kid sounds like a good way to start getting the message out: Those who are raking in six-figures a year need to step-up and pay their fair share. Let us folks who are lucky to hit $50K (only if over-time becomes available) alone. Stop asking for my nickels and ask for the dimes of my district's superintendent, at $115K/year, plus gravy train benefits, he obviously has them to give.

By: Taxpayer 834512

Taxpayer 834512 — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 23:03:59 +0000

John Doe for Mayor.
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Parents of the children going door to door: We'll save some torches and pitchforks for you.

By: Think Again

Think Again — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 10:14:59 +0000

John Doe, I feel your frustration, but for God's sake don't take it out on the kid. His mission is to sell you some cookies or gift wrap or popcorn.

To paraphrase a popular bumper sticker, wouldn't it be nice if the Pentagon had to have a bakesale for their stupid redundancies, but teachers got all they needed for classroom supplies?