quote:"I want to apologize to the American people. The last thing we wanted was for schools to upgrade their technology and lower student-to-teacher ratios in hopes of raising a generation of well-educated, ambitious, and skilled young Americans."
Posted by Rakeesh (Member # 2001) on :
Are you familiar with the Onion, Stone_Wolf?
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
Um, The Onion is a satire news site. Nothing in there is real.
Well, there was that one article about how a professional bodybuilder was chosen to be the leader of the world's fifth largest economy. But for the most part, it's all completely made up.
Of course, that's ignoring the real question -- why the heck would the federal budget affect schools like that?
Posted by Stone_Wolf_ (Member # 8299) on :
I'd heard of it...but in looking over the article I didn't see any explicit warning that it was satire...maybe I missed it.
Posted by Strider (Member # 1807) on :
The entire site is satire so they don't put any warnings on individual articles. Posted by Stephan (Member # 7549) on :
Yup. My school is being forced to cut the computer teacher(me), the choir teacher, and the ramp up math teacher (works with the low scoring math students in smaller groups). We are also being forced to cut the media center teacher and all three specialist positions.
Next year will include larger class sizes, less funds in general, and one less administrator to help with discipline.
However, the a middle school down the street was just given a grant to provide all 700 students with an Ipad next year to be used in class. I know that money came from Apple (or some other company or benefactor), but....really?
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
Unless a new bond bill is passed, our local middle school is completely eliminating all electives.
Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
quote:Originally posted by Stone_Wolf_: I'd heard of it...but in looking over the article I didn't see any explicit warning that it was satire...maybe I missed it.
they also do video. also all satirical, of course.
My nieces' high school district is cutting over 300 positions, AP courses, electives and the number of classes students are allowed to take.
Posted by kmbboots (Member # 8576) on :
Some principals in my school system are doing blanket layoffs of all non-tenured teachers. Fortunately, rumor is my principal is NOT among them.
I have been asked if I will teach a different grade level next year which encourages me that I might get to keep my job. I am hopeful.
It's going to be rough year, though. We will lose teacher units. I can only hope they don't cut English.
Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
quote:"I don't care what faith you are, everybody's been making this same mistake since the dawn of time," God said. "The Muslims massacre the Hindus, the Hindus massacre the Muslims. The Buddhists, everybody massacres the Buddhists. The Jews, don't even get me started on the hardline, right-wing, Meir Kahane-loving Israeli nationalists, man. And the Christians? You people believe in a Messiah who says, 'Turn the other cheek,' but you've been killing everybody you can get your hands on since the Crusades."
ah, the onion. depressingly right.
Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
quote:Originally posted by Belle: It's going to be rough year, though. We will lose teacher units. I can only hope they don't cut English.
reddit had a picture of a sign someone put up that said "Say no to more school levy's"
Posted by AchillesHeel (Member # 11736) on :
I never thought that I would consider myself lucky to have gone through school and gotten out while Bush was in office, even if only to avoid the even greater failure that we see today.
Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :
quote:Originally posted by kmbboots: And still my all time favorite Onion article.
This edition, from Nov. 15 2000, was, in my opinion, the all time high for the Onion.
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
quote:Originally posted by AchillesHeel: I never thought that I would consider myself lucky to have gone through school and gotten out while Bush was in office, even if only to avoid the even greater failure that we see today.
Fear not, you were not lucky.
Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
quote:Originally posted by The Rabbit:
quote:Originally posted by kmbboots: And still my all time favorite Onion article.
This edition, from Nov. 15 2000, was, in my opinion, the all time high for the Onion.
'President Vojislav Kostunica pledged to help the troubled North American nation as it struggles to establish democracy.'
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
Samp: That was my favorite part of the page as well.
Posted by DDDaysh (Member # 9499) on :
This article was certainly NOT one of their more subtle attempts...
Posted by SenojRetep (Member # 8614) on :
quote:Originally posted by DDDaysh: This article was certainly NOT one of their more subtle attempts...
They have subtle attempts?
Posted by Belle (Member # 2314) on :
quote:Originally posted by Orincoro:
quote:Originally posted by AchillesHeel: I never thought that I would consider myself lucky to have gone through school and gotten out while Bush was in office, even if only to avoid the even greater failure that we see today.
Fear not, you were not lucky.
Yeah, he was actually. We will have much larger class sizes and fewer resources now than educators did during the Bush administration. Not to say there haven't been layoffs and budget shortfalls before, but our administrators are telling us this is one of the worst in the history of our state. We are losing 90 jobs next year. We will have zero supply money. We pay for copies out of our supply budgets so that means if I want to run off a test for my students next year the paper and 5 cents per page copy charge comes out of my own pocket.
Our county has put in a Reduction in Force policy that will allow them to lay off tenured teachers. That didn't happen in the Bush administration.
I'm lucky - (if you can call it that) the admins want to keep me but my classes will be larger and I will have no money. Of course my job is not guaranteed - if there are layoffs elsewhere in the system and they are forced to move a tenured teacher to my spot I could still lose it. Barring that, I probably have a job next year - which is more than 90 other teachers in our system will be able to say.
Posted by scholarette (Member # 11540) on :
Belle, all the teachers I know are in similar situations and I know teachers in 3 states. One just had a new baby and is praying for a position to come through.
Posted by Stone_Wolf_ (Member # 8299) on :
Of all the stupid things to penny pinch...school is the most worstest.
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
I agree that it is stupid. It's also the biggest item for a lot of local governments, so if you HAVE to cut, then you have to cut where you spend.
Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
![[Smile]](smile.gif)