The Anchoress
Photosource, Althouse, taken by Meade.
“I NEEN QUALITY TEACHERS.”
They need teachers who can instruct them to love the qualifiers that denote the character of a quality – whether it is high-or-low, good-or-bad teachers that they neen and want.
But apparently Wisconsin students are being pulled from their necessary classes in order to help teachers protest “whatever this dude [Governor Scott Walker] is doin’.
My favorite observation on this story of schools closing so teachers may protest — and offer their dragged-along students some dubious “lessons” — has been made by Glenn Reynolds:
So, at the demonstrations are they saying that we shouldn’t limit children’s educations over concerns about money? Because that’s kinda ironic. . . .
Yeah! Because public schools neen more money and Cadillac-class benefits for teachers of unspecified quality.
As I wrote the other day:
On some level, what is weak knows that it is weak; it understands that foundationally, it cannot support the weight of its own ideas, much less endure an opposing wind. And because weakness knows this, it goes out of its way to deflect the opposition by sowing confusion, chaos, guilt, fear. These are the by-products of weakness and its attendant insecurity.
The teacher’s unions have been sowing weakness for far too long, and getting away with it. And now, strength is rising up. But it needs to be sustained.
Seems to me, all the governors had better learn from the big man, and hang tough or their office will be meaningless.
Look, I am the daughter of union folk; I appreciate why unions were initially formed. I also understand, however, that for too long unions have overplayed their hands, and we’ve reached a point of unsustainability. The money is not there. Tax revenues may have been at their highest levels in 2006 (as the NY Times even admitted) but tax revenues are currently (by at least one measure) at 1950’s levels, and something’s gotta give. The rest of us in the private sector are going without raises, seeing cuts to our benefits, ungodly increases in our insurance premiums and so forth. The unions have to either share the burden or lose the goodwill of the public. They’re right on the edge, right now. Are they going to be smart enough to pull back?
Watch this video
We neen more governors willing to lead, and to make the hard turns that are going to be needed if we’re going to avoid hitting an iceberg.
Take a closer look at the top photo and note the hangman’s noose. And the hyperbole. How is it that the people who are loudly demanding “civility” on one hand are so quick to paint Hitlerian mustaches on a man over a policy dispute? Jay Nordlinger writes:
Many of the letters from Wisconsin today have to do with violence: threats against Governor Walker and members of his administration, the increases in their security details, their worries about their spouses and children, and so on. I have heard from people closely connected to the threatened individuals. Their letters are hard to take.
The last few days have made quite clear that, if you cross the public-employee unions, you run risks: and not merely political risks (which are nothing).
Do the public-sector unions want to overturn an election?
. . .taking the kids out of classes to march with them underscores another significant concern of the public regarding education. Most of the students marching with their teachers had no idea of the finer points of Governor Scott Walker’s proposal to bring teacher pension contributions in line with the private sector, a position the union called “slavery” just a couple of months before conceding the point. Nor do they understand the budget gap that Walker faces, or the nuances of economic policy, tax burdens, and growth policies. All they know is what their teachers told them — and that speaks to political indoctrination conducted in public schools by activist teachers, and the inability of parents and communities to weed out inappropriate politicking in classrooms.
Tipping points and overplayed hands; that’s when strength rises up.
Stay strong, Governors. It’s for the children!
UPDATE:
More pictures at Althouse. What a messy bunch. But they’re “great workers.”
Heh. Irony.
Noisy Room: Obama hasn’t been following Wisconsin but supports the unions.
UPDATE II: More Ed:
First, Walker hasn’t “outlowed” unions, or even proposed outlawing them, either. Walker’s proposal would restrict negotiations with non-law-enforcement unions to wages only, and would require recertification votes each year. It would also make Wisconsin a right-to-work state, ending automatic deduction of union dues from paychecks and instead make them voluntary. That may put unions in a tough position to justify their continued representation, but it hardly outlaws the unions.
Besides, even if it did, it’s a fallacious argument. Hitler was also a vegetarian who owned a dog. Are all vegetarians Nazis? All dog owners? The Nazis aren’t history’s great villains because Hitler opposed public-sector unions. To equate that with Naziism isn’t just reprehensible, it’s downright ignorant and minimizes the actual horrors of Naziism.
And then there’s that tax-revenue issue again…
Ed Driscoll: Financial Catastrope Denialists
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In