"Hot for Teachers" must see video--on line

Hot for Teachers is a short, funny four minute professional quality video about education cuts in California. The video is a must see for all California teachers, parents and students. My only quibble is that the blame for the billions in cuts is placed entirely on Arnold Schwarzenegger. There are others who are far more responsible--State Senator Mark Wyland, Assembly member Martin Garrick, Nathan Fletcher, and Diane Harkey. Our local state Assembly members and State Senator.

While Schwarzenegger is part of the problem. He is the smaller part. He cannot sign bills or budgets that are not passed by the California State Senate and State Assembly. My fellow Republicans in Sacramento have over and over refused any solutions to our California State Budget crises except massive cuts.

Even easy fixes like a tax on oil production equal to the one Sarah Palin imposed on oil producers in Alaska have been flatly refused by the Sacramento Republicans. Their only solution is cuts and more cuts to education and to health and welfare for the poor, elderly and disabled.

Here is the URL to find the video:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/04/hot-for-teachers-video-produced-by-la-parents-protests-school-budget-cuts-.html



'Hot for Teachers' video produced by L.A. parents protesting school budget cuts
April 7, 2010 9:18 am


The parents at Wonderland Avenue Elementary in Laurel Canyon were irate about the proposed education cuts from the state budget. So instead of going to Sacramento, they went straight to Hollywood.

The school’s PTA president came up with the idea of creating a video, and one parent suggested they ask Brian Austin Green (of "Beverly Hills, 90210" fame) to star in it. Green, whose son attends the school, agreed, and he got his girlfriend, actress Megan Fox, to costar.


The result was a four-minute short called “Hot for Teachers” that went live on Funny or Die, a viral comedy video site, on Wednesday. It begins with the Wonderland principal addressing a group of parents yelling about the budget cuts. Then Green gets a call on his phone from Fox.

“People are freaking out about these budget cuts,” he says into the phone. “It’s like Attica in here.”

Green tells Fox to wait for him in the library, and on her way there, she encounters a group of fifth-graders sprawled on the floor and on top of cabinets because of overcrowding. They mistake her for their new teacher. The kids tell Fox their teacher was laid off and their class was combined with another.


“The kids in this class are multiplying faster than my head lice,” said one of the students as she scratches her head.

“It’s no wonder so many of us end up in prison,” laments another.

The video ends with Green and Fox urging viewers to sign a petition on the Say No to Cuts website and to “call, write, and annoy the governor until he cries for his mommy.”

Wonderland parents wrote the script and and produced the video with the help of Funny or Die, said John Koch, an entertainment public relations expert whose daughter attends the school. He helped write the script.

“The video is an exaggeration. It’s meant to be funny, but the question is, when is enough enough?” Koch said. “How far are these cuts going to go? It’s a tough situation for a lot of people.”

-- My-Thuan Tran