Reply #10: Naturally, the GOP assumes that NEA members vote Democratic, [View All]

[DemBones DemBones]

so "who cares what they think?"

Teachers, whether NEA members or not, are more likely to realize NEA and the Democrats are good for them. The ones who disagree are acting shortsightedly, usually because they are social conservatives who see the GOP as guardians of traditional values. They cut off their noses to spite their faces since the GOP regards teachers just the same as it regards all other working Americans: as the cheap labor classes born to do the hard work they don't want to do and think is beneath them, anyway. Republicans rarely want to lower class size, add teacher's aides to classrooms, much less raise teacher pay -- it's all about accountability and merit pay with them.

What if accountability and merit pay were applied to elected and appointed govt. officials? Many of them would either be constantly having to formulate plans to improve their work, take special courses to improve their skills, or they'd be unemployed, either because they were unwilling to jump through the hoops they're all too glad to force teachers to jump through, or because they were so incompetent that they couldn't meet their own standards.

Where is the demand for accountability for the man occupying the Oval Office since January 2001?

Did you hear Dim Son the other day, scornfully saying that children should not be simply passed along without having learned? The man has no idea what teaching is like, how teachers often have to fight the system to get kids what they need, how little control teachers have over whether students are promoted to another grade or not. And the man who was given a place in the National Guard ahead of others on the waiting list, given a place in officer candidate's school, and given a slot in flight school despite making the bottom grade to qualify, that man has the audacity to say that no one should be "passed along" without passing tests, without "demonstrating learning"?

"Our first M.B.A. president" has certainly made a dog's breakfast of our economy, taking us from huge surplus to huge deficit, with millions of jobs lost on his watch. His supporters try to peddle the idea of a "Clinton recession" but it happened on his watch, after he and Big Dick talked the economy down during the 2000 campaign. When one party's candidates begin talking about how bad the economy is, how a recession seems to be brewing, etc., they are trying to bring those conditions about to suit their own agenda.

:grr: :mad: :grr: :mad: :grr: