Happy Cost of Government Day!

Doug Mataconis points us to the report by Americans for Tax Reform that declares today the day of economic liberty in the United States. That’s right–beginning today, and every day for the rest of this year, every dollar you make actually belongs to you! This is very exciting. It’s a Festivus miracle!!!

It now only takes a little over half a year’s worth of work to pay your share of the bountiful gifts of government. Here are just a few examples of the wonderful things you have earned from your toils this year alone:

Failing education for all the kids in your neighborhood, whether you have any or not

A nation building project, err “war” that you probably don’t support

Housing for homeless alcoholics (offer good for Seattle residents only)

A fat pension for your former sheriff (Knox County residents only)

Substandard healthcare for wounded servicemen

A bankrupt government pension retirement fund–a.k.a. socialist security

Countless government subsidies for private industries–a.k.a. corporate welfare

Good job! I think you deserve a raise!!!

Mataconis:

The idea that Americans should have to work more than half the year to pay for the state should be offensive to anyone. Instead we all just seem to blindly accept it.

So It’s the Oil Companies That Are Price Gouging?

I’ve had more arguments than I can count with people about this. They always claim that the oil companies (and Bush) are fixing the prices, there is nothing the common man can do about it, blah blah blah, waa waa waa.

Today in the KNS, Glen Eastes made a point that I think is utterly brilliant about the cost of education. The University of Tennessee is trying to justify another tuition increase, and I hope people will remember this the next time they feel like they’re getting gouged at the pump:

I attended a Big 10 university in 1948. The tuition was $75 a semester. Gasoline was about 25 cents a gallon. Today the tuition at UT will be about $3,000 a semester. Today, gas is $3 a gallon. So, if the oil companies are taking advantage of the public, I don’t know the word to describe the tuition cost.

Beautiful. I could write pages and pages on yet another gouging by the gov’ment, but you get the idea.

Positives Of Rezoning

Well, I’ve complained a couple of times that parents have every right to be angry with the Knox County school board, but they are mad about the wrong thing.  The quality of even the best schools in the county aren’t where they should be, especially with the amount of money spent every year.

Maybe this will light a fire under the taxpayers to hold the schools more accountable.  I doubt it, but maybe.

Knox County Schools To Address Academics?

Now we are hearing the other side of the issue, from parents who are supportive of the rezoning efforts.  Most of these supporters realize that someone has to be moved, and although it may be a tough pill to swallow, it has to be accepted.  School board chairwoman Karen Carson is encouraged, and looks forward to moving ahead:

“We have other issues that we’ve got to start addressing, like the budget, the superintendent search and academics,” she said.

Wow!  As soon as the rezoning issue is resolved, academics will crack the top 3 of the school board’s priorities!!!  I may have to rethink my position that public schools are horribly ineffective and a waste of tax dollars.

Like Private School is a Bad Thing?

From WBIR.

This is what happens when customers are not satisfied with a product…they choose a different supplier.  Unfortunately, Knox County residents will still be forced to pay the provider for a defective product they aren’t even using.

 As stated by rocketsquirrel on rocketsquirrel on KnoxViews:

Perhaps the School Board and the Administration need to look in the mirror and explain why it is losing so many students to private schools and home schooling. Perhaps it has to do with service and quality.

Knoxville’s Hot Topic–Rezoning

I’m still baffled by this uproar and outcry.

I wonder how many of the parents who are ranting and raving about the rezoning (the most common complaint is that their kids are going to be separated from their friends) would ever bother to complain to the school board about the fact that their children are graduating from these institutions with sub-standard skills in reading, writing, and math.

Sorry folks.  When you are willing to turn over your right (responsibility) to decide on how/when/what your children learn to the gov’ment, it is ridiculous to expect that you should be able to choose “where” they are sent to be indoctrinated.

It is a sad situation when what should be a wake up call for people to question the overall failure of the public education system is seen only as a possible inconvenience to the social lives of some teeny boppers.  After all, Farragut people could never learn to be friends with Karns people, right?  “They’re diff’rent from us!!!”

It’s nice to see that Knox County hasn’t compromised its priorities.  Football, social life, commute time, …, readin’, ritin’, ‘rithmatic.

We are getting exactly what we paid for.

No worries though. In a few months this will blow over, and we’ll once again be united as a community in our hatred of “Flarda”. Then we’ll debate the real issues that need to be addressed, like who should be the offensive coordinator and starting tailback

Knox County School Rezoning

This one will stir the pot. There is an uproar going on right now over the rezoning of schools in Knox County to accomodate the new Hardin Valley High School. 3,400 students from Farragut, West, Bearden, Karns, Gibbs, Austin-East, Central, Carter, Fulton, Halls, and Powell are going to be affected.

Let me get this straight…

You had no problem paying for failing public schools before you had children attending them. You will have no problem continuing to pay for these failing schools long after your child has graduated. You have no problem allowing the state/county to decide when your children will go to a failing school. You have no problem allowing the state to decide on the failing curriculum. You have no problem allowing the state to lump your child (an individual) into this failing curriculum that is geared towards the masses. You have no problem with the state using funds (tax money) to support athletic programs instead of actual education. You have no problem with teachers’ unions and tenure which potentially allow incompetent and lazy teachers to continue “educating” your children. You have no problem with teachers “teaching to the test” to achieve high scores on state mandated standardized tests for the purpose of getting a raise instead of teaching your child to reason and think for themselves.

But you do have a problem with the state deciding which of these failing schools your child must attend?

Isn’t lack of choice and control an expected part of socialism? Was the fact that public schools, social security, etc are socialist institutions conveniently left out of the failing public education most of us received?

Sounds to me like we are getting precisely what we deserve for turning so much control over to the state in the first place.

**UPDATE**

I stand corrected.  There are very important angles of this story I haven’t considered.  Luckily, the News Sentinel is on the job.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fights!

And teachers are doing nothing about it!  This is news!!!  Local6 in Orlando has video as well, if that’s something you want to watch.  Not for me, thanks.

“The teacher was just sitting there, and as soon as they started hitting each other, the teacher had called someone else,” student Partrick Charite said.

Witnesses also told Local 6 News that the substitute teacher said, “Let them fight,” during the scrum.

First, let me state (again) that it makes my stomach turn every time I hear a fight or scramble for a basketball referred to as a “scrum”.  I don’t think it’s too much to expect professional writers to know the meanings of the words they use, especially when they are sports writers and are using a sports term.  

A scrum is not a frantic melee, but the most complicated and intricate aspect of rugby.  It is kept safe and controlled mostly because its participants are strong, technically sound, and agile.  Saying that a couple of out of shape seventh grade girls slapping and pulling hair is a scrum is like saying that two mixed breed dogs humping Continue reading “Girls Just Wanna Have Fights!”

Pulic Education is “Valuable”

At least for some entities it is.  Freedom Daily has the full article.

Sure, a teacher has some leeway to be flexible but imagine what would happen to a public-school teacher who announced to his classes, “What is written in these textbooks is claptrap, lies, and deceptions. I’m going to be teaching you the truth about the nature of the government, government schooling, free markets, individualism, and liberty.”

Well, luckily, because of tenure, it would probably be virtually impossible to fire this teacher.  Of course, it’s also impossible to fire the teachers who teach anything else, or who don’t teach at all.  Worse still are the ones who are teaching something they know nothing about.

I think the major goal of the public school system is definitely indoctrination over education.  At my high school I had to basically demand an education.  I was lucky to have a few really good teachers, one in particular, who were great educators, but I had others who were there to do the absolute minimum, and frequently not even that.

I actually found a way out this when I was in school.  My strategy was to behave just badly enough to get in-school suspension.  This was the “punishment” handed down for doing something that didn’t really warrant suspension–being disruptive in class, arguing with teachers, etc.  Sometimes, I’d just request it–the few teachers that cared and would let me go every now and then, until our principal caught on.

So for “punishment”, I got to sit in a room with the other bad kids, read the assigned lessons for the day and do the homework.  The beauty was that I could complete all of this work before lunch instead of going to class all day and taking work home.  For the rest of the day we were required to sit quietly without talking to one another.  This provided a great opportunity to read whatever books I wanted or work on extra math problems (yeah, I actually did extra ones just for fun–dork).  Not only did I not have to worry about taking work home, but I also got to study whatever I was interested in–that’s education!  I *gasp* chose to learn things!