I Support Obama, But He's Wrong on Education This Time

2009-03-13T23:18:00.001-04:00

I support Barack Obama, but I feel that he is misguided as far as education is concerned. Charter schools are a big mistake, as they siphon the cream of the crop from the public schools.

Also, longer school days and longer school years will not help the students. The flat scores on NYC’s students’ NAEP and SAT scores has proven that. Everyone knows that after the lunch period, the students can no longer concentrate (which is why reading and math are usually taught in the morning). The longer days is also responsible for students acting up, as some spend as much as 10 hours in school, counting before school offerings, the dreaded extended day, the regular school day and afterschool programs.

Merit pay is also a mistake. It discourages collaboration between teachers, as nobody would want to help a colleague take their bonus away from them. It pits teachers against each other. Also, in states with merit pay in place, there are many reports of cheating and changing scores. In elementary schools, cluster teachers would not be eligible for merit pay. That is unfair.

The deck can be stacked against individual teachers as well. A principal could easily stack a teachers class with the lowest performing students, the learning disabled, and the emotionally disturbed while placing the best and brightest students in a crony’s class.

I urge the UFT, the AFT and the NEA to oppose charter schools, longer days, longer years, and merit pay.

Bloomberg is a Crooked Politician

2008-10-19T16:14:00.000-04:00

Michael Bloomberg, in his Putin-esque lust for power, is playing to the fears of citizens by manipulating the people with the ludicrous claim that he must remain mayor because of the current crisis on Wall Street. However, ruthless businessmen like himself are the reason why Wall Street and our economy are in peril. We've heard such claims before about Giuliani, yet we survived without him. We can survive without Bloomberg. Comptroller William Thompson
would be better suited to be mayor.

Bloomberg has proven that he cannot be trusted. Look at how his schools chancellor, Joel Klein, has cut the school budget under Bloomberg only a month and a half into the school year. Teachers and paraprofessionals are being excessed, other school personnel are being layed off, funding for the classrooms has been drastically cut, yet the mayor is allowing Klein to hire fourteen management personnel at over $170,000 each and to hire one of Bloomberg's business world cronies, George Raab III, as the school system's new chief financial officer. Raab is the genius who drove Bear Sterns into the ground.

In order to overturn term limits, Bloomberg has bribed several city council members a total of $3.1 million to overturn term limits. Those bribed from the mayors once secret slush fund are Simcha Felder, James Vacca, Domenic Recchia, Helen Sears, Erik Dilan and Peter Vallone Jr. According to the New York Post, Sears was appointed to the Government Operations committee in May, replacing term-extension foe Councilman Joe Addabo Jr. In June, Felder abandoned his city comptroller aspirations - which, if limits are extended, may have put him in a tough race against incumbent Bill Thompson. The mayor then endorsed Felder for a state Senate run.

The bribes and the political maneuvers are just one more example of how Mayor Bloomberg is against the will of the people and all for himself. Term limits must be kept. That is the will of the people.

In My Humble Opinion

I Support Obama, But He's Wrong on Education This Time

Bloomberg is a Crooked Politician