Fairweather

Gotta give Bernie props for honesty though. Unlike lying Democrats, Bernie presents his true beliefs. A very likeable guy.

No doubt, the free lunch has appeal among a peculiar block of voters. :[]

It's small wonder this thread became what it is. Name calling, taunting... Thankfully, you and your fellow mods didn't participate in any of it.

Gotta start offering happy endings I am not a mid level practitioner, you idiot. You are like this child, who joined a conversation among adults, and has no fucking idea, what they are talking about. The entertainment value here is OFF THE CHARTS.

Exactly. Then my mistake. I don't believe there is a "frequent" call for debt relief from loans. And as college is getting more and more limited to a elite of America, I would advocate for more support for poor students that otherwise would not be able to afford it. It is much different than from when I went to undergraduate 40 yrs ago - when you could work during the year and hold down two jobs in the summer and come out of 4 yrs of school with little debt. That just isn't possible these days. But if you borrow it - you should just pay it back. Agree. A college graduate is, ostensibly, the most able to repay debt. Still, I do hear this call frequently.

A little sensitive. I wasn't alluding to you, rather, to frequent calls from the left for debt forgiveness. Particularly student debt.

Nope. Probably the simplest strategy of all. Don't spend much and a acquire no debt -- or if you do then pay it off ASAP Finally. I would just add this: If you do accrue debt--student debt in particular--don't expect the rest of us to pick up the tab.

No doubt Jim is investing heavily in healthcare funds. Morningstar has a particularly good return rate. Anti-capitalist capitalists. Gotta love em. Just add a full cup of corruption for a serving of the Clinton orthodoxy.

Well done! Using actual words. This is real progress, SK. Now, I want to hear more about this storm that is coming. Are we talking, like, kagaroo courts with firing squads for landlords n'shit? Go big or go home!

Something tells me I wouldn't last very long in that environment. Thought about teaching at a community college--but they really don't make shit.

I just wrote a check to Pierce County in the amount of $3863. 00--for the privilege of living in my own home for another year. Last year, I paid more than twenty thousand/less than thirty thousand dollars in federal taxes--income and capital gains on trades that never placed a dime of liquidity in my hands. I make less than you and your wife. You are simply wrong, Jim.

You've already admitted that your spouse's teaching job pays well. The argument that taxes ought to be raised on the rest of us so she can be paid even more is yours to make. You haven't even come close.

Wow, talk about biases and assumptions!

Stunning libtard arrogance on display here. You have no clue re my taxes. And now teachers have the audacity to agitate for a 7.5% tax on capital gains? When it's possible to fund education without any tax increases? I think that's called "greedy math." And no, it's not about the kids. Thank God Republicans control the state Senate.

In any event, we're talking state taxes here, Jim. A crock? Try to stay on task.

Of course you're comparing federal spending to federal spending. I would be very, very surprised if combined government spending for education (state, fed, local) didn't dwarf defense outlays. Show me numbers.

Love the way teachers are so hung up on the masters thing--as if it magically entitles them to additional $$$$ without additional contribution. "Why do I deserve an extra $$$$xxxx? Well, because I have a masters degree!" Again, what gives teachers the right to take more of my retirement savings? Maybe they should look at administration salaries and find "efficiencies" there. Does an elementary school principal justify $112,000/year?

More likely yours will carve into mine. In fact, you're trying to do just that.

I think a solo skier disappeared last year on the CD.

wonderful. the capitalist system is great in a number of arenas, especially ones where pushing out widgets is key. paying workers based on how many they can get out the door an hour is perfectly logical in many employment areas. human beings aren't really widgets though, and defining performance in the educational world is frought with difficulty - any given class of 30 kids i teach will have a very ride range of needs, many of which are hard to fashion a metric to - some kids need a brilliant professor type to push them to the pinnacle of Socratic introspection and maybe that can be measured in a meaningful way (ironically, i'm not sure the almighty socrates would agree though) - far more need guidance counselors, social workers, remedial tutors, reading coaches, psychologists, surrogate parents, patient listeners, etc. how do you create a simple, fair, easily explained test to measure that? how, in an environoment as ate-up by politics as any other profession, do you keep politics from creeping into the measurement technique? do you really assume that, if a patient dies, it's his doctors fault? should cops be retained only on the basis of how many tickets they write? is it the fire-fighters fault when he shows up to a building already burning? can every important job really boil down to something that's on a balance sheet? teachers and schools do need oversight and we should use metrics as part of that -graduation rates, students long-term outcomes in terms of college graduation and employment, ap/sat scores, community satisfaction, etc., these are all important things, but no single factor is prime, nor does any particularly get at the value of a single employee in the system. pretending otherwise is facile and foolish, the product of wishing the world was a much, much simpler place than it is. You're adhering to Barry Schwartz's/Kwame Appiah's version of a cosmopolitan, two system model here--and the flawed notion that each can each serve a particular niche independent of the other. If any additional money is to be found for teachers and classroom size, it's within the outlays for administration--not from taxpayers/small business owners who are already getting screwed. Are you telling me that it's somehow "fair" to come and take away 7.5% of a private citizen's retirement nest egg just so it can be redistributed to teachers who already have a generous pension plan? (Yet another benefit that no longer exists in the private sector.) As for "the politics" of performance ratings, well, welcome to the real world. I've got news for you: it's not always fair. But it is, in aggregate. Who the fuck are teachers to think they are somehow above it? In short, I have no problem with private-sector unions. Corporations can be assholes. But public-sector unions ought to be abolished. There is no cigar-smoking, money-counting, robber baron to be fought there. Plenty of laws to protect against poor practices. Let the market dictate teacher salaries based on supply and demand--and performance. It's the real world--and you have no right to insulate yourselves from it.

Oh - chiming in on the teacher pay thing, I can't imagine, by any stretch of the imagination, someone thinking that teachers are over-paid. I work in the private sector and have had 5 years with the feds - but that's now over 25 years in the private sector. My spouse with an MS in a science field left the private and went into teaching 18 years ago. While she doesn't regret it she says she doubled her hours and halved her pay going to teach. With an MS in her field and 18 years teaching she makes decent pay - but particularly if you figure it out on a per hour basis - even including the six week summer break - it's modest. Younger teachers, particularly with families are in a bit more of a pinch. The gravy train argument is a nice conservative fairy tale. How much does she make? Does her MS afford her added responsibilities e.g AP-level curricula development, student performance, etc? Frankly, teachers in hard sciences/mathematics should be paid more. Thank the union for her lack of salary respect. I hold an MA and I can assure you that my private sector pay remains tied to performance and results.

Those of us in the private sector had our last cost of living raise--never. Typically, we get pay increases based on performance. Maybe you should think about dumping that union of yours. Sounds like they're standing in the way of good pay for good teachers.

http://wwwb.thenewstribune.com/databases/school_pay/ Yes, the state schedule. Not really the complete picture--but then you already knew that. Know any teachers? Type their name into the salary finder. Pretty good chance they make more than your chart indicates. Life outside the glass dome.