At long last, mainstream media that cover the state capitol are starting to catch on that it's not the number of dollars we spend on education that counts, it's how those dollars are spent. In a <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/2010/05/22/2768848/editorial-performance-must-be.html"><span style="font-style:italic;">Sacramento Bee Editorial</span></a> published on May 22nd, the Bee took on the issue of choosing which teachers should be kept on as school districts statewide grapple with how they're going to cut spending. <br /><br />It's about time, no, it's long overdue, that we start holding teachers accountable for what comes out of their classrooms. <br /><br />Teachers unions have successfully wiped out any accountability between teacher pay and what goes on in the classroom. Career Teachers are so used to automatic raises and benefit bumps, that even suggesting they should be graded on how well they teach is met with excuses, evasions, and outright hostility.<br /><br />Recent letters from teachers in response to the Bee Editorial demonstrate their hostile attitude toward *gasp* having their workplace efforts evaluated as if they were mere mortals. A self-described social science teacher claimed that layoffs based on performance would infringe on his "rights" as a civil service employee. Is this social science teacher not aware all citizens enjoy equal rights, regardless of who employs them? He goes on to claim that seniority and tenure protections are essential to academic freedom, and to protect teachers from age discrimination and retaliation for labor union actions. You'd think a social science teacher would know that separate laws guarantee academic freedom for teachers, as well as protections from age discrimination and for labor organizing. <br /><br />No wonder he doesn't want anyone checking his work. <br /><br />In another letter, there's the usual party line that seniority and tenures rules "protect all teachers from the whims of supervisors and school boards." Come again? Someone needs to remind this crowd that school board members are elected by the public, who in turn hire the Superintendents that manage our public schools. Is that what's being taught in our classroom? That decisions made by duly-elected public officials are mere whims? <br /><br />If you want to know why schools are failing our kids, all you really have to do is look at the attitudes evident behind these letters. Protected not just by civil service work rules but by union-negotiated labor contracts, public school teachers (with the exception of non-union charter schools) have lost all appreciation for the workplace realities they're supposedly preparing our students for. The teacher who goes straight from earning a teaching credential into public school employment is rapidly enveloped into a collectivist work environment. In teacher land, raises are based on how loudly the group shouts at the bargaining table. Raises and classroom placement aren't based excellence or exceptional performance. In fact, they're forbidden by contract. Whoever it was that first said "90 percent of success is just showing up" must have been a teacher. Those of us competing for jobs and raises in the real job market know just how silly that sounds.<br /><br />Instead, teacher salaries and work assignments are based on time on the job. Is it any wonder 90 percent of new teachers, (often the hardest working and most enthusiastic) leave teaching within three years? <br /><br />Everyone can remember lousy teachers from their own school experience, but firing even the most worthless teachers requires "due process," a lengthy and expensive process costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. That's a tall expense for cash-strapped districts even in the best of times. The inability to fire the worst members of any work force is a guarantee for mediocrity among the rest. <br /><br />Until we break the union-stranglehold over our public school system, our students will be denied the opportunity to learn from teachers whose own work experience demands and instills excellence.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4415342305243133312-4421031008453102847?l=blog.cagop.org' alt='' /></div>

The progressives that advocate the legalization of marijuana are conveniently empathetic; a mind altering drug is acceptable if it potentially raises revenue, despite the societal Pandora's Box that it opens.<br /><br />California has become consumed with an extremely perverse form of progressivism. This ideological drug is so addictive, that its physical counterpart, marijuana, has qualified as a ballot measure for legalization.<br /> <br />Last month I wrote a piece called <span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://blog.cagop.org/2010/04/back-to-reality.html">Back to Reality</a></span>, in which I explained the harsh realities of drug abuse, urban decay, and other societal woes. I was completely mystified by the response. Marijuana users e-mailed me in droves, relying on half-baked and unsubstantiated medical reasons for statewide legalization as if to say that marijuana is the only drug capable of alleviating pain. <br /><br />How pathetic. Since appealing to compassion doesn't work, let's try a more logical and analytical approach.<br /><br />Just think of the mountains of new laws and regulations that will have to be enacted to regulate legalized marijuana. What would be the legal limit for drivers? What about passengers who are smoking-will there be a law prohibiting contact buzz? Go for a jog and ask yourself these questions. How will we determine who is too high? Will the state create an apparatus? Wouldn't that cost more money... where would the revenue come from to enforce these laws? If you guessed out your pocket...bingo.<br /> <br />Let's have a look at the potential impact on business. How will HR departments across the state handle this? Will businesses be forced to allow their employees hourly "pot breaks?" How will that affect productivity? I can tell you... probably for the worse.<br /> <br />There is a tax for everything in this state. If you don't believe me, ask all the small business owners who have fled California in search of tax asylum. Marijuana would only lead this state down a similar tax-ridden path. Who would enforce these new laws and regulations? Would the state create a tax to fund a bureau of marijuana control? Or would it rely on the already understaffed and overburdened local police departments? Both answer leads to more money coming out of your pocket to support someone else's habit.<br /> <br />So many questions, not enough answers.<br /> <br />A drug dealer is not going to give up his income. It's just not going to happen. Even if they did, marijuana is a cash only business. Drug dealers don't walk around with a sign that says "VISA and MASTERCARD accepted". Drug dealers could rake in thousands of dollars and report as little as 50 cents if they wanted to, and the Board of Equalization wouldn't able to do a thing about it. I can only imagine that the medical marijuana system would suffer as well. If everyone can grow marijuana, what happens to those small businesses that legitimately produce the drug? It is not a sustainable system.<br /> <br />Everybody knows somebody who, while stoned, suddenly came up with the "idea of a lifetime." Unfortunately, those great ideas tend to look not so great the next morning after the buzz wears away. The people who believe taxing marijuana makes perfect sense, man, sound like they've been busy smoking the same stuff they want legalized.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4415342305243133312-637317794131866284?l=blog.cagop.org' alt='' /></div>