Governor Jerry Brown announced yesterday that he cannot find enough Republican votes in Sacramento to allow California taxpayers the right to vote to extend our current taxes in order to avoid the absolutely devastating DOOMSDAY BUDGET SCENARIO if we don't. Now there will be no vote in June on extending taxes. No vote. No vote. No vote. No choice. DOOMSDAY will be enacted.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-state-budget-20110308,0,877221.story
Governor Brown has done everything possible to give Sacramento Republicans political cover to vote to allow, we, the people, to decide whether or not we want tax extensions and severe cuts or the DOOMSDAY BUDGET CUTS. Giving the people the right to decide has been endorsed by many CALIFORNIA business groups who in former times had substantial influence on our Sacramento Republicans, but no more. What Californias think or California business want is no longer the driving force in Sacramento politics.
Here is what the SFChronicle said about Jerry Brown’s successful work with our business community,
“With its support, the San Francisco Chamber joins the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, the Bay Area Council, the Valley Industry and Commerce Association (VICA), the California Association of Independent Business (CAIB), and the Central City Association of Los Angeles in supporting Brown's call for a special election. The governor has said it will allow California voters to weigh in on his proposal for $12 billion in budget cuts and five years of tax extensions to help erase the state's $26 billion in red ink.”
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/nov05election/detail?entry_id=84508#ixzz1G1Sw3oTU
Our CALIFORNIA business community no longer has much influence with Sacramento Republicans. They are now controlled by OUT OF STATE interests. Sacramento Republicans caved to the pressure of, international oil barons, the Koch brothers and their machine. The Koch brothers are among the top twenty wealthiest people in the world, but they are kooks. They do not believe in government. They have unlimited wealth to "convince" hired guns "opinion makers" on FOXnotNews and on the AM radio airwaves to propagate their tin foil hat conspiracy theories.
Read more about the Koch brothers attack on America and American values of truth honesty and fairness here:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer
Cuts limited to severe could only happen if a proposal for existing taxes to be extended were allowed on the June ballot and it passed. Sacramento Republicans say no, they will not even allow it on the June ballot. They have taken your right to vote away from you.
Thanks to the passage of Prop 26 last fall, all legal opinions obtained by the Governor have indicated that it now takes a 2/3rds majority of BOTH houses in Sacramento to put any measure on the ballot that would increase state revenues. Those legal opinions mean that four Republican votes are absolutely necessary to get to the two thirds majority in BOTH houses--the California State Assembly AND the California State Senate.
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/11/03/03greenwire-califs-little-noticed-prop-26-squeaks-through-59912.html
Every single Sacramento Republican has refused to give you the right to have that vote and to make that decision. No Republican dares vote his or her conscience which might be appalled at the cuts to school kids, the poor, the elderly and sick in the DOOMSDAY BUDGET.
The billionaire bullies, aka Koch brothers, financed OUT OF STATE, WASHINGTON lobbyist, Grover Norquist who heads Americans for Tax Reform. Norquist has threatened every Sacramento Republican. With the Koch brothers backing, Norquist has unlimited money to end the political career of any Sacramento Republican who votes to allow, YOU, the taxpayer to decide the fate of our neighbors who happen to be poor, sick, elderly or school kids. Because of Sacramento Republican cowardice the choice has been taken out of your hands. You will not be able to vote.
Without the vote, ONLY a DOOMSDAY BUDGET can be enacted. There is no alternative. Read more:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/04/BASQ1I2M6L.DTL
Hired gun Con man radio, particularly KFI Am 640 afternoon drive, John and Ken are the enforcers behind the drive to stop the vote. John and Ken want to keep their multi-million dollar a year contracts so they support the agenda of those who place ads during their radio "show".
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/04/BASQ1I2M6L.DTL
John and Ken control the actions and votes of hundreds of thousands of CONfused folks who are given no other information except billionaire bully propaganda hour after hour day after day on John and Ken's radio show. Because several key Sacramento Republicans have districts located in the broadcast area of KFI, the broadcast distortions and deception of John and Ken have unique power in our state to stop Republicans with a conscience from giving you the right to vote.
Thanks to the Koch brothers money, John and Ken propaganda and Sacramento Republicans cowardice, the Doomsday budget cuts will be enacted.
Under the DOOMSDAY BUDGET every public school district and every public charter school will be reducing the 2011-2012 school year by an additional four to five weeks on top of the week lost this school year. This will result in an additional 15 to 18% pay cut for every employee of every school district in the state on top of the 6 to 7% cut they took this year.
The unions need to go to the source of power for the con men scam that will give us a doomsday budget--shut down the con men on AM radio. Blockade the radio station parking lots and front doors with protesters until we the majority are allowed on the air with the MAJORITY VIEW.
Today there is ONLY ONE viewpoint heard on our PUBLIC AIRWAYS. The view of the billionaire bullies who place the ads where only their view point is heard. The Koch brothers and other billionaire bullies are determined to eliminate all middle class wages and benefits by eliminating all unions. They have been remarkably successful in their thirty year scorched earth campaign against unions.
However, we, THE PEOPLE, own the PUBLIC airwaves. We must take them back. We must stop the lies. Let's take action today against the hired gun AM con men.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Jerry Brown tries to stop DOOMSDAY BUDGET, gains political cover for Sacramento Repubs
Governor Jerry Brown is doing all that he can to find four Republicans that will allow you the voter to decide whether there will just be dramatic and drastic cuts to public education or whether there will be DOOMSDAY CUTS that the Sacramento Republicans are demanding.
Under the DOOMSDAY BUDGET CUTS public schools throughout California will have to fire hundreds of thousands of teachers and raise class sizes from the mid thirties to mid forties or fifties students per classroom teacher per hour of the day.
But that is not the worst. It looks like DOOMSDAY demanded by Sacramento Republicans will cut one full month off the school year and cut the pay of every non RIF-ed teacher by an additional at least ten percent on top of this years salary cuts of 4 to 6%. (RIF means Reduction In Force, it is the term given to teachers fired because of budget cuts)
Making 50K a year as a teacher this year? Next year, under the DOOMSDAY scenario, you will make less than 45K before taxes plus you will also have more cost for medical and dental plans. Thank an elected Sacramento Republican the next time you see one. Better call one right now. The previous post on this blog has a list of our four locally elected, evil Sacramento Republicans plus their phone numbers.
(NOTE: Not all Republicans are evil monsters who care nothing for sick, elderly, or school children. I am a registered Republican, but Republicans like me have no voice in our party now that hired gun radio con men and FOX News runs the agenda for our party.)
Jerry Brown is trying his best to stop the DOOMSDAY scenario from playing out, but because of our archaic 2/3rds state requirement for ballot measures, he will need four Sacramento Republicans to vote in favor of the tax extension initiative being allowed on the June ballot for a vote of the people. If the initiative does get on the June ballot and it passes, it will stop DOOMSDAY.
But it probably won't get on the ballot because our Sacramento Republicans are afraid of the state voters. They are so afraid that they are refusing to let the initiative on the ballot in June. If they succeed in keeping the initiative off the ballot, then DOOMSDAY BUDGET CUTS will come automatically starting July 1st, 2011. That's right. Four months from now is DOOMSDAY if Sacramento Republicans get their way.
Read what Governor Brown is doing to stop DOOMSDAY in this SF Chronicle article:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2011%2F03%2F04%2FBALQ1I4G2C.DTL
Notice that the Anti-Union North County Times has printed NO MENTION of looming danger of DOOMSDAY CUTS. The paper rants about public pensions with front page headlines. Day after day they blame teachers, fireman and police for the Great Recession that caused the state budget deficit.
The Great Recession as every informed person knows was really caused by New York fat cat Bankers who gamed our financial system with derivatives created under Bush era deregulation scam. But not only does our North County Times improperly blame dedicated public servants for budget shortfalls caused by the Great Recession, the paper doesn't even mention our locally elected Sacramento Republicans laughing and celebrating at their ability to force a DOOMSDAY SCENARIO on our state's children, NOT ONE WORD!
Any where else in the state and any other time in history, newspapers would have covered the danger of DOOMSDAY on the front page. Not today, and not the North County Times.
Thank goodness for Jerry Brown's success in getting the business community behind allowing the voters to decide. Now if the Sacramento Republicans would listen to their biggest campaign contributors, we will get to vote as a people on whether we truly want DOOMSDAY. We will see allow us to vote or force DOOMSDAY on us all.
Under the DOOMSDAY BUDGET CUTS public schools throughout California will have to fire hundreds of thousands of teachers and raise class sizes from the mid thirties to mid forties or fifties students per classroom teacher per hour of the day.
But that is not the worst. It looks like DOOMSDAY demanded by Sacramento Republicans will cut one full month off the school year and cut the pay of every non RIF-ed teacher by an additional at least ten percent on top of this years salary cuts of 4 to 6%. (RIF means Reduction In Force, it is the term given to teachers fired because of budget cuts)
Making 50K a year as a teacher this year? Next year, under the DOOMSDAY scenario, you will make less than 45K before taxes plus you will also have more cost for medical and dental plans. Thank an elected Sacramento Republican the next time you see one. Better call one right now. The previous post on this blog has a list of our four locally elected, evil Sacramento Republicans plus their phone numbers.
(NOTE: Not all Republicans are evil monsters who care nothing for sick, elderly, or school children. I am a registered Republican, but Republicans like me have no voice in our party now that hired gun radio con men and FOX News runs the agenda for our party.)
Jerry Brown is trying his best to stop the DOOMSDAY scenario from playing out, but because of our archaic 2/3rds state requirement for ballot measures, he will need four Sacramento Republicans to vote in favor of the tax extension initiative being allowed on the June ballot for a vote of the people. If the initiative does get on the June ballot and it passes, it will stop DOOMSDAY.
But it probably won't get on the ballot because our Sacramento Republicans are afraid of the state voters. They are so afraid that they are refusing to let the initiative on the ballot in June. If they succeed in keeping the initiative off the ballot, then DOOMSDAY BUDGET CUTS will come automatically starting July 1st, 2011. That's right. Four months from now is DOOMSDAY if Sacramento Republicans get their way.
Read what Governor Brown is doing to stop DOOMSDAY in this SF Chronicle article:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2011%2F03%2F04%2FBALQ1I4G2C.DTL
Notice that the Anti-Union North County Times has printed NO MENTION of looming danger of DOOMSDAY CUTS. The paper rants about public pensions with front page headlines. Day after day they blame teachers, fireman and police for the Great Recession that caused the state budget deficit.
The Great Recession as every informed person knows was really caused by New York fat cat Bankers who gamed our financial system with derivatives created under Bush era deregulation scam. But not only does our North County Times improperly blame dedicated public servants for budget shortfalls caused by the Great Recession, the paper doesn't even mention our locally elected Sacramento Republicans laughing and celebrating at their ability to force a DOOMSDAY SCENARIO on our state's children, NOT ONE WORD!
Any where else in the state and any other time in history, newspapers would have covered the danger of DOOMSDAY on the front page. Not today, and not the North County Times.
Thank goodness for Jerry Brown's success in getting the business community behind allowing the voters to decide. Now if the Sacramento Republicans would listen to their biggest campaign contributors, we will get to vote as a people on whether we truly want DOOMSDAY. We will see allow us to vote or force DOOMSDAY on us all.
DOOMSDAY BUDGET CUTS COMING, because Sacramento Republicans still say, "You can't vote."
An article in the North County times today details the massive cuts to Poway schools under the Governor's proposed budget which will take 6 million from Poway schools if and only if the tax extension proposition passes this June. However, that proposition still has not qualified; so we may not even have a chance to vote on this tax extension proposition that will limit the cuts in Poway to ONLY six million. Our local elected Republicans want cuts to Poway schools of 17 million!
Of course the Governor and rationals in the State Legislature don't want to make even these drastic six million dollar cuts required by the states income problem. However, it would take four Sacramento Republicans to agree to a tax hike of any kind for these 6 million dollar cuts not to be made. Sacramento elected Republicans have said, "No, no, no and Hell No!" to any revenue enhancements to the current state budget.
There are not even four who are willing to add a Sarah Palin gas extraction tax on the international oil companies who pay nothing to extract the limited resource that is our underground California oil. That one tax at the same rate that Sarah Palin signed into law as half term governor of Alaska would raise more than a billion dollars and prevent most education cuts.
Yet stopping that tax and all other taxes or revenue enhancements, is not enough for Sacramento Republican bullies. They are demanding the DOOMSDAY BUDGET which would cut nearly three times as much from local school districts--for Poway that is 17 million dollars instead of six million.
Here is the North County Times article:
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/poway/article_bcbb51e7-440a-5e55-a827-111c3a7b6b86.html
The DOOMSDAY BUDGET cuts will be far higher than Governor Brown's proposed budget cuts because Sacramento Republicans are preventing the June initiative to extend our existing taxes for five more years.
Our local Sacramento Republicans don't want you to have the right to vote on whether or not you want the DOOMSDAY BUDGET CUTS (17 million dollars just for Poway) versus the drastic six million Poway will lose in Governor Brown's current budget proposal.
The Sacramento Republicans are afraid you will vote for the tax extensions in June that will stop the DOOMSDAY BUDGET, so they are denying you that right to vote.
If they allowed you to vote, the cuts might be only that 6 million from Poway schools, not good enough for the Sacramento Republicans. Fact based public education in Poway might survive cuts of only six million.
Because of our archaic 2/3rds majority rules in California, rationals have to get four Sacramento Republicans to allow us to have a vote. The evil Sacramento Republicans won't budge, not even one of them wants you to have that right to vote in June.
Governor Brown has offered them concessions like reduction in business tax and still NOT ONE Sacramento Republican will vote to allow you the right to decide. They don't think you are smart enough to decide for your selves.
Brown's concessions here: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-state-budget-20110112,0,221854.story
The deadline to put the measure on the ballot is this Wednesday, March 10th. If just four Republicans change their minds and allow a vote on or before that day, we get to decide. If not, they decide for us--the DOOMSDAY CUTS will be made--100s of thousands of teachers laid off(statewide), class sizes into the fifties, and the end of effective public school education in California.
If you think you deserve the right to a vote before these doomsday cuts have to be made, call all of the local elected Sacramento Republicans and tell them that they can’t take away your right to vote.
OUR LOCAL SACRAMENTO REPUBLICANS:
California Assembly
Martin Garrick (R) (760)929-7998
Nathan Fletcher (R) (858) 689-6290
Diane Harkey (R) (760) 757-8084
California Senate
Mark Wyland (R) (760) 931-2455 or http://markwyland.com/?p=90
More info found here: http://www.educateourstate.org/
Educate our State is an organization founded and run by parents of public school children in our fine FACT based traditional public schools and public school charters.
Of course the Governor and rationals in the State Legislature don't want to make even these drastic six million dollar cuts required by the states income problem. However, it would take four Sacramento Republicans to agree to a tax hike of any kind for these 6 million dollar cuts not to be made. Sacramento elected Republicans have said, "No, no, no and Hell No!" to any revenue enhancements to the current state budget.
There are not even four who are willing to add a Sarah Palin gas extraction tax on the international oil companies who pay nothing to extract the limited resource that is our underground California oil. That one tax at the same rate that Sarah Palin signed into law as half term governor of Alaska would raise more than a billion dollars and prevent most education cuts.
Yet stopping that tax and all other taxes or revenue enhancements, is not enough for Sacramento Republican bullies. They are demanding the DOOMSDAY BUDGET which would cut nearly three times as much from local school districts--for Poway that is 17 million dollars instead of six million.
Here is the North County Times article:
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/poway/article_bcbb51e7-440a-5e55-a827-111c3a7b6b86.html
The DOOMSDAY BUDGET cuts will be far higher than Governor Brown's proposed budget cuts because Sacramento Republicans are preventing the June initiative to extend our existing taxes for five more years.
Our local Sacramento Republicans don't want you to have the right to vote on whether or not you want the DOOMSDAY BUDGET CUTS (17 million dollars just for Poway) versus the drastic six million Poway will lose in Governor Brown's current budget proposal.
The Sacramento Republicans are afraid you will vote for the tax extensions in June that will stop the DOOMSDAY BUDGET, so they are denying you that right to vote.
If they allowed you to vote, the cuts might be only that 6 million from Poway schools, not good enough for the Sacramento Republicans. Fact based public education in Poway might survive cuts of only six million.
Because of our archaic 2/3rds majority rules in California, rationals have to get four Sacramento Republicans to allow us to have a vote. The evil Sacramento Republicans won't budge, not even one of them wants you to have that right to vote in June.
Governor Brown has offered them concessions like reduction in business tax and still NOT ONE Sacramento Republican will vote to allow you the right to decide. They don't think you are smart enough to decide for your selves.
Brown's concessions here: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-state-budget-20110112,0,221854.story
The deadline to put the measure on the ballot is this Wednesday, March 10th. If just four Republicans change their minds and allow a vote on or before that day, we get to decide. If not, they decide for us--the DOOMSDAY CUTS will be made--100s of thousands of teachers laid off(statewide), class sizes into the fifties, and the end of effective public school education in California.
If you think you deserve the right to a vote before these doomsday cuts have to be made, call all of the local elected Sacramento Republicans and tell them that they can’t take away your right to vote.
OUR LOCAL SACRAMENTO REPUBLICANS:
California Assembly
Martin Garrick (R) (760)929-7998
Nathan Fletcher (R) (858) 689-6290
Diane Harkey (R) (760) 757-8084
California Senate
Mark Wyland (R) (760) 931-2455 or http://markwyland.com/?p=90
More info found here: http://www.educateourstate.org/
Educate our State is an organization founded and run by parents of public school children in our fine FACT based traditional public schools and public school charters.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Support Wisconsin! Fight the Attack on Middle Class Jobs and Benefits
You can help the working men and women of America win a fight against billionaire bullies and the corporations they control and use to diminish our ability to make a living.
How?
Contribute to the fight in Wisconsin.
We can stop the bullies. We can get our middle class wages and benefits back but first we must finally win a battle. It looks like we will lose to the bullies here in California. Doomsday cuts to our public schools are all but certain because the Republican bullies in Sacramento will not allow the voters a chance to vote to stop the Doomsday cuts.*
But the Wisconsin battle is being won. Let's help in that victory. Let's feel good that the billionaire bullies can at last be stopped in their decades long, relentless war on the middle class.
Go to this website to contribute:
http://www.actblue.com/page/waronworkingfamilies?refcode=DFA-2-20-4pm
*(Since it takes a 2/3rds majority in the State Senate AND in the State Assembly for the measure to go on the ballot, the tiny mean spirited Republican remnant left in the state legislature are stopping the people from voting on the cuts.
The Republicans have just barely over one third of the seats. Since no Republican ever goes against the wishes of his party bosses, the hired gun AM radio con men, all vote together as one on each and every important vote. With that lockstep in place, the Republican bullies have the votes to thwart the right of the electorate to be able to vote.
The deadline is still March 10th or no June ballot proposition to allow for tax extensions to stop the Doomsday Budget. It will take four Republican votes, so far there are none.
By the way the hired gun AM conmen who now give the marching orders to all elected Republicans have been given a monopoly of our public airwaves by billionaire bullies who target their advertisement dollars ONLY to those who say what the billionaire bullies want said.
No criticism of Rush Limbaugh is allowed on AM radio. Ever wonder why, when the most blatant lies and aspersions are launched by the tens of thousands daily at our president and at any politician who opposes the agenda of the billionaire bullies?
Listen to AM radio, see if you ever hear criticism either of Rush Limbaugh or of corporations that are bullying workers, taking away their rights or shipping jobs overseas. Now think why that is.
Do we really have a free press in this country anymore? Are all points of view allowed on our public airwaves? If not, why not? The answer is obvious.
Fight back, contribute to Wisconsin!
How?
Contribute to the fight in Wisconsin.
We can stop the bullies. We can get our middle class wages and benefits back but first we must finally win a battle. It looks like we will lose to the bullies here in California. Doomsday cuts to our public schools are all but certain because the Republican bullies in Sacramento will not allow the voters a chance to vote to stop the Doomsday cuts.*
But the Wisconsin battle is being won. Let's help in that victory. Let's feel good that the billionaire bullies can at last be stopped in their decades long, relentless war on the middle class.
Go to this website to contribute:
http://www.actblue.com/page/waronworkingfamilies?refcode=DFA-2-20-4pm
*(Since it takes a 2/3rds majority in the State Senate AND in the State Assembly for the measure to go on the ballot, the tiny mean spirited Republican remnant left in the state legislature are stopping the people from voting on the cuts.
The Republicans have just barely over one third of the seats. Since no Republican ever goes against the wishes of his party bosses, the hired gun AM radio con men, all vote together as one on each and every important vote. With that lockstep in place, the Republican bullies have the votes to thwart the right of the electorate to be able to vote.
The deadline is still March 10th or no June ballot proposition to allow for tax extensions to stop the Doomsday Budget. It will take four Republican votes, so far there are none.
By the way the hired gun AM conmen who now give the marching orders to all elected Republicans have been given a monopoly of our public airwaves by billionaire bullies who target their advertisement dollars ONLY to those who say what the billionaire bullies want said.
No criticism of Rush Limbaugh is allowed on AM radio. Ever wonder why, when the most blatant lies and aspersions are launched by the tens of thousands daily at our president and at any politician who opposes the agenda of the billionaire bullies?
Listen to AM radio, see if you ever hear criticism either of Rush Limbaugh or of corporations that are bullying workers, taking away their rights or shipping jobs overseas. Now think why that is.
Do we really have a free press in this country anymore? Are all points of view allowed on our public airwaves? If not, why not? The answer is obvious.
Fight back, contribute to Wisconsin!
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Whoops, I got the deadline wrong. It's March 10th.
Whoops, sorry I got the deadline wrong. It's March 10th. That's four working days, seven calendar days.
http://www.ksro.com/LocalNews/Story.aspx?ID=1371713
Voters of California must get their four Sacramento Republican votes by March 10th or it will be too late to put the tax extension proposition on the June ballot.
Months ago when I first heard there was a time limit to get cooperation to allow a vote of the people, I could not conceive that every one of our Sacramento Republicans would refuse the people their right to vote. That every Republican would force doomsday budget cuts on our state's children on top of the billions already cut.
But here we are. Days away and the moral monstrosity that has become the Sacramento Republican Party members will joyfully go through with the utter devastation and destruction of K-12 California education.
So much for any hope of a bright future for our state.
http://www.ksro.com/LocalNews/Story.aspx?ID=1371713
Voters of California must get their four Sacramento Republican votes by March 10th or it will be too late to put the tax extension proposition on the June ballot.
Months ago when I first heard there was a time limit to get cooperation to allow a vote of the people, I could not conceive that every one of our Sacramento Republicans would refuse the people their right to vote. That every Republican would force doomsday budget cuts on our state's children on top of the billions already cut.
But here we are. Days away and the moral monstrosity that has become the Sacramento Republican Party members will joyfully go through with the utter devastation and destruction of K-12 California education.
So much for any hope of a bright future for our state.
If Republicans refuse to allow a vote, how bad will the July 1st cuts be?
For a sense of how bad the cuts to education and to the ill, elderly, and poor will be if Sacramento Republicans do not allow us our chance to vote here is an excerpt from Educate Our State, a organization of parents of school aged children in California:
__________________________________________________
By Beth Chagonjian
Governor Jerry Brown is lobbying to put an extension of currently existing taxes on the ballot for voter approval. If these taxes are not extended, the Doomsday Cut List will take affect (also known as "Plan B").
What's Plan B? According to the LAO (Legislative Analyst's Office), as reported by California Watch, plan B requires an additional $13.5 billion ($13,505,000,000) in cuts to the California budget.
Make no mistake, all of these cuts are devastating to whatever faction of the public will be affected, but K-12 education would clearly bearing the brunt of pain.
The LAO's* suggested cuts include cuts to the judicial/prison system ($2.612 billion), cuts to the health and social services sector ($1.15 billion), cuts to government and local government (1.796 billion), transportation and resources ($1.65 billion) and higher education (1.056 billion), but it's the cuts to K-12 education (the largest part of the proposed cuts) that really make you gasp. Those proposed cuts are $5.239 billion (or $5,239,000,000) or 38.79% (5.239/13.505) of the entire cuts package.
http://educateourstate.posterous.com/
__________________________
If you think you have the right to a vote before these doomsday cuts have to be made, call all of our local elected Sacramento Republicans and tell them that they can’t take away your right to vote.
California Assembly
Martin Garrick (R) (760)929-7998
Nathan Fletcher (R) (858) 689-6290
Diane Harkey (R) (760) 757-8084
California Senate
Mark Wyland (R) (760) 931-2455 or http://markwyland.com/?p=90
*The LAO is the Legislative Analyst Office a non partisan part arm of the state legislature that looks only at financial matters relating to the state budget.
__________________________________________________
By Beth Chagonjian
Governor Jerry Brown is lobbying to put an extension of currently existing taxes on the ballot for voter approval. If these taxes are not extended, the Doomsday Cut List will take affect (also known as "Plan B").
What's Plan B? According to the LAO (Legislative Analyst's Office), as reported by California Watch, plan B requires an additional $13.5 billion ($13,505,000,000) in cuts to the California budget.
Make no mistake, all of these cuts are devastating to whatever faction of the public will be affected, but K-12 education would clearly bearing the brunt of pain.
The LAO's* suggested cuts include cuts to the judicial/prison system ($2.612 billion), cuts to the health and social services sector ($1.15 billion), cuts to government and local government (1.796 billion), transportation and resources ($1.65 billion) and higher education (1.056 billion), but it's the cuts to K-12 education (the largest part of the proposed cuts) that really make you gasp. Those proposed cuts are $5.239 billion (or $5,239,000,000) or 38.79% (5.239/13.505) of the entire cuts package.
http://educateourstate.posterous.com/
__________________________
If you think you have the right to a vote before these doomsday cuts have to be made, call all of our local elected Sacramento Republicans and tell them that they can’t take away your right to vote.
California Assembly
Martin Garrick (R) (760)929-7998
Nathan Fletcher (R) (858) 689-6290
Diane Harkey (R) (760) 757-8084
California Senate
Mark Wyland (R) (760) 931-2455 or http://markwyland.com/?p=90
*The LAO is the Legislative Analyst Office a non partisan part arm of the state legislature that looks only at financial matters relating to the state budget.
Sacramento Repbulican talking points
Just got off the phone with Nathan Fletcher's office. Once I gave my Vista address, there was no interest in my message as I was out of his district. Then I told him my parents live in his district. So got to hear their talking points:
"Sure Republicans will allow the tax extension to be on the ballot as long as there is also another measure that will make even greater cuts to the state budget on the same ballot."
Gee how very nice of them. We have already had the greatest cuts in services to the poor the elderly, the sick and school children in state history. Now we are facing absolutely crippling cuts starting July 1st of this year, if we are not allowed to vote on the tax extension. So what do Sacramento Republicans say? "Let's cut even more, hee, hee, hee."
They will not allow a tax on oil extraction from California lands. Even Sarah Palin, signed one of those for Alaska. In fact the Palin tax funds the state of Alaska with enough left over to give every state resident thousands of dollars every year.
They do not want any new taxes on the idle rich whose investment income is taxed at much lower rates than your income that you earn by actually working for a living. These are the same filthy rich who have gained so much from Republican policies of tax breaks and opposite to Robin Hood philosophy they transfer wealth from the working class to those with the most money already.
Read more about how well CALIFORNIA super rich are doing here:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cap-pension-20110224,0,2340994,full.column
George Skelton for the Los Angeles Times writes in the above referenced piece:
The state Franchise Tax Board reports that during the two decades between 1987 and 2008:
Inflation-adjusted incomes of the top 10% of California taxpayers increased by 43%; the top 1% by 81%. Meanwhile, incomes of the lower 60% dropped by around 12%.
The income gap doubled between the top 1% and the average middle-class Californian. In 2008, the top 1% enjoyed 39 times the income of the middle class. In 1987, it was about 19 times.
None of this unfairness bothers the Sacramento Republicans. They have only one mantra that they all chant in unison: CUT! CUT CUT!
"Sure Republicans will allow the tax extension to be on the ballot as long as there is also another measure that will make even greater cuts to the state budget on the same ballot."
Gee how very nice of them. We have already had the greatest cuts in services to the poor the elderly, the sick and school children in state history. Now we are facing absolutely crippling cuts starting July 1st of this year, if we are not allowed to vote on the tax extension. So what do Sacramento Republicans say? "Let's cut even more, hee, hee, hee."
They will not allow a tax on oil extraction from California lands. Even Sarah Palin, signed one of those for Alaska. In fact the Palin tax funds the state of Alaska with enough left over to give every state resident thousands of dollars every year.
They do not want any new taxes on the idle rich whose investment income is taxed at much lower rates than your income that you earn by actually working for a living. These are the same filthy rich who have gained so much from Republican policies of tax breaks and opposite to Robin Hood philosophy they transfer wealth from the working class to those with the most money already.
Read more about how well CALIFORNIA super rich are doing here:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cap-pension-20110224,0,2340994,full.column
George Skelton for the Los Angeles Times writes in the above referenced piece:
The state Franchise Tax Board reports that during the two decades between 1987 and 2008:
Inflation-adjusted incomes of the top 10% of California taxpayers increased by 43%; the top 1% by 81%. Meanwhile, incomes of the lower 60% dropped by around 12%.
The income gap doubled between the top 1% and the average middle-class Californian. In 2008, the top 1% enjoyed 39 times the income of the middle class. In 1987, it was about 19 times.
None of this unfairness bothers the Sacramento Republicans. They have only one mantra that they all chant in unison: CUT! CUT CUT!
Sacramento Republicans Deny You the Right to Vote
Do you want public school teacher lay offs on a massive scale? Do you want to have class sizes double what you have today? If not, you need to do something right now, call all four of our local elected Sacramento Republicans listed at the bottom of this post immediately. In four days it will be too late. The deadline to put the tax extension vote on the June ballot will pass. The cuts will happen.
Governor Jerry Brown has asked the state legislature to allow the citizens of California to vote on whether they want to have their taxes extended at the same rate as today to stop the greatest cuts in California public education in state history. To put that measure on the ballot, two thirds of both houses must vote to allow its placement. So far every single Sacramento Republican is refusing to allow the voters to decide. They hold a bare one third of the votes enough to stop the election. Governor Brown has offered a host of concessions to Republicans to get the four votes needed to no avail.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-state-budget-20110112,0,221854.story
Read more about the cuts to our local schools here:
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/escondido/article_cef95370-697e-5a7b-ac7f-1e61ada4def6.html
and here:
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/escondido/article_2d0705f5-7494-5f05-b71d-6074a0400d33.html
As of right now, there will be NO tax extension instead there will the greatest cuts to K-12 education in our state’s history.
A tax extension requires the Sacramento Republicans to allow a vote of the people and the Sacramento Republicans are refusing. They do not trust you, the voters, to make the “right” decision.
www.educateourstate.org
For you to get a chance to vote at least two Republicans in the State Assembly and two more in the State Senate have to vote in favor of letting you have that vote.
So far NOT ONE Republican has agreed to let the voters decide.
Because of California's archaic two thirds majority rules, Republicans can and are stopping the voters from having their chance at the ballot box.
If you love the fact that up to one third of teachers in some districts will be laid off and class sizes will zoom to 50 or 60 kids in a classroom next year. Then do nothing. You will get your wish. Effective fact based public education for all intents and purposes will come to an end in California.
If you think otherwise, call all of our local elected Sacramento Republicans and tell them that they can’t take away your right to vote.
California Assembly
Martin Garrick (R) (760)929-7998
Nathan Fletcher (R) (858) 689-6290
Diane Harkey (R) (760) 757-8084
California Senate
Mark Wyland (R) (760) 931-2455 or http://markwyland.com/?p=90
More things you can do from the organization LET US VOTE! Sadly the information below is more than two weeks old, it's too late to write letters.
WE STILL NEED YOUR HELP:
SEND A LETTER, SPREAD THE "LET US VOTE!" MESSAGE
Greetings from the Educate Our State Team,
Over 20,000 letters have been sent to California legislators asking them to "Let Us Vote!" To join the campaign click here.
We are still working hard to spread the "Let Us Vote!" campaign message. Two days ago we were on NBC "Class Action" with Jessica Aguirre talking about the devastating effect of the budget cuts, click here to see the video clip. There is still much to be done by the critical March 10th date. This is where we need your help!
Here are three simple ways you can have an impact on saving education funding:
1) Send a letter to your legislator or letter to the editor here
2) Cut and paste the paragraph below into an email and send it to 10 people
I recently took action with the “Let Us Vote!” campaign and I hope you will, too. Public Education funding will be cut $5 billion without a tax extension set to expire July 1st. This tax extension will only appear on the ballot if 2/3rds of the legislature votes to approve it. Presently we are four votes short of sending this critical ballot measure to the citizens of California. It’s easy and fast to send a letter to your legislators. Please visit www.educateourstate.org and click on the “Let Us Vote!” campaign. California’s 6,000,000 children say “thank you!”
3) “Share” this facebook post with your community
Let Sacramento know - Stop cutting public education funding! Give us the right to vote for our children's future. Take action with "Let Us Vote!" campaign at www.educateourstate.org.
For more information about Educate Our State, a list of our partner organizations and our efforts to unite the voices of Californians in support of K-12 public education and demand real change visit the Educate Our State website at www.educateourstate.org. Follow us on facebook, twitter, purchase a car magnet or consider a donation.
Thanks!
The Educate Our State Team
www.educateourstate.org
Governor Jerry Brown has asked the state legislature to allow the citizens of California to vote on whether they want to have their taxes extended at the same rate as today to stop the greatest cuts in California public education in state history. To put that measure on the ballot, two thirds of both houses must vote to allow its placement. So far every single Sacramento Republican is refusing to allow the voters to decide. They hold a bare one third of the votes enough to stop the election. Governor Brown has offered a host of concessions to Republicans to get the four votes needed to no avail.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-state-budget-20110112,0,221854.story
Read more about the cuts to our local schools here:
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/escondido/article_cef95370-697e-5a7b-ac7f-1e61ada4def6.html
and here:
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/escondido/article_2d0705f5-7494-5f05-b71d-6074a0400d33.html
As of right now, there will be NO tax extension instead there will the greatest cuts to K-12 education in our state’s history.
A tax extension requires the Sacramento Republicans to allow a vote of the people and the Sacramento Republicans are refusing. They do not trust you, the voters, to make the “right” decision.
www.educateourstate.org
For you to get a chance to vote at least two Republicans in the State Assembly and two more in the State Senate have to vote in favor of letting you have that vote.
So far NOT ONE Republican has agreed to let the voters decide.
Because of California's archaic two thirds majority rules, Republicans can and are stopping the voters from having their chance at the ballot box.
If you love the fact that up to one third of teachers in some districts will be laid off and class sizes will zoom to 50 or 60 kids in a classroom next year. Then do nothing. You will get your wish. Effective fact based public education for all intents and purposes will come to an end in California.
If you think otherwise, call all of our local elected Sacramento Republicans and tell them that they can’t take away your right to vote.
California Assembly
Martin Garrick (R) (760)929-7998
Nathan Fletcher (R) (858) 689-6290
Diane Harkey (R) (760) 757-8084
California Senate
Mark Wyland (R) (760) 931-2455 or http://markwyland.com/?p=90
More things you can do from the organization LET US VOTE! Sadly the information below is more than two weeks old, it's too late to write letters.
WE STILL NEED YOUR HELP:
SEND A LETTER, SPREAD THE "LET US VOTE!" MESSAGE
Greetings from the Educate Our State Team,
Over 20,000 letters have been sent to California legislators asking them to "Let Us Vote!" To join the campaign click here.
We are still working hard to spread the "Let Us Vote!" campaign message. Two days ago we were on NBC "Class Action" with Jessica Aguirre talking about the devastating effect of the budget cuts, click here to see the video clip. There is still much to be done by the critical March 10th date. This is where we need your help!
Here are three simple ways you can have an impact on saving education funding:
1) Send a letter to your legislator or letter to the editor here
2) Cut and paste the paragraph below into an email and send it to 10 people
I recently took action with the “Let Us Vote!” campaign and I hope you will, too. Public Education funding will be cut $5 billion without a tax extension set to expire July 1st. This tax extension will only appear on the ballot if 2/3rds of the legislature votes to approve it. Presently we are four votes short of sending this critical ballot measure to the citizens of California. It’s easy and fast to send a letter to your legislators. Please visit www.educateourstate.org and click on the “Let Us Vote!” campaign. California’s 6,000,000 children say “thank you!”
3) “Share” this facebook post with your community
Let Sacramento know - Stop cutting public education funding! Give us the right to vote for our children's future. Take action with "Let Us Vote!" campaign at www.educateourstate.org.
For more information about Educate Our State, a list of our partner organizations and our efforts to unite the voices of Californians in support of K-12 public education and demand real change visit the Educate Our State website at www.educateourstate.org. Follow us on facebook, twitter, purchase a car magnet or consider a donation.
Thanks!
The Educate Our State Team
www.educateourstate.org
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Don Phillips--former VUSD assistant superintendent passes
Sad news. Don Phillips a truly fine man and an excellent administrator here in VUSD as well as other school districts has passed away. The staff and students of VUSD were better for having had an association with him.
Besides being extremely well organized and a genuinely nice person, he had a interest in pottery and ceramics. I imagined him throwing pots at some community college during his retirement years. What a shame that he had so little time to enjoy his retirement from Poway Unified School District where he ended his career.
It is hard to believe that someone as talented, personally nice as well as athletically trim and fit could pass away without ever making it to his 65 birthday.
Read more here:
http://www.pomeradonews.com/article/News/News/Former_PUSD_superintendent_Don_Phillips_dies/33666
Besides being extremely well organized and a genuinely nice person, he had a interest in pottery and ceramics. I imagined him throwing pots at some community college during his retirement years. What a shame that he had so little time to enjoy his retirement from Poway Unified School District where he ended his career.
It is hard to believe that someone as talented, personally nice as well as athletically trim and fit could pass away without ever making it to his 65 birthday.
Read more here:
http://www.pomeradonews.com/article/News/News/Former_PUSD_superintendent_Don_Phillips_dies/33666
Friday, December 3, 2010
District emails--Bales busy work vampires sucks all district planning time from elementary teachers
Did you ever wonder why you have to spend twenty to thirty minutes a day sorting through and answering district email every day? Or why your precious minutes of prep time should be spent on such uselessness instead of what it was meant for, preparing for teaching?
Why can't Bales get a spam filter for email? How are you expected to check your email several times a day when you are teaching class and preparing for class?
All good questions. Sadly no good answers except that Bales et. al. have no idea of how much time email takes, how inefficient it is at reaching everyone in a timely fashion and probably no concern for either as long as their backsides are covered by their multiple email missives.
Elementary teachers are supposed to have some planning time. It is good educational policy to give teachers time to get ready for their classes. Teaching is more effective when teachers have this time to prepare.
In the old days all this district and school office important notices 'crapola' came in our mail boxes. We had sheets of paper that could be gone through in two to five minutes at most. Look--throw away. Look--throw away. Look--save. Boom boom boom, it was done in at most a few minutes with only seconds needed for most notices as most of them have nothing to do with any particular teacher. It was a fast and efficient system.
The current snail slow email system only comes up one at a time. The same info that could be easily dealt with in seconds in paper form takes twenty to thirty minutes of processing when it arrives via district email. Why because we have waiting for the email message to open, dealing with it by answering or eliminating and then checking the next message, etc., etc ad nauseum. Each message taking the better part of a minute to deal with rather than a second or two like a piece of paper would. With twenty to forty email messages that is the better part of an hour lost to district email on most days. Does any one at the district office ask for what good teaching purpose are teachers being forced to waste all this time. Or questions like is this time wasting of benefit to our students? No, no one at the district office ever thinks to ask those questions.
Why does Joyce Bales keep adding more and more busy work like this "check email" requirement to district school teachers already frantically busy days?
Technology can be helpful and a boon to teaching for instance being able to project the information on a single computer screen unto a whole classroom projection screen or technology can damage teacher effectiveness. Bales several times a day "check email" time vampire is the latter.
Why can't Bales get a spam filter for email? How are you expected to check your email several times a day when you are teaching class and preparing for class?
All good questions. Sadly no good answers except that Bales et. al. have no idea of how much time email takes, how inefficient it is at reaching everyone in a timely fashion and probably no concern for either as long as their backsides are covered by their multiple email missives.
Elementary teachers are supposed to have some planning time. It is good educational policy to give teachers time to get ready for their classes. Teaching is more effective when teachers have this time to prepare.
In the old days all this district and school office important notices 'crapola' came in our mail boxes. We had sheets of paper that could be gone through in two to five minutes at most. Look--throw away. Look--throw away. Look--save. Boom boom boom, it was done in at most a few minutes with only seconds needed for most notices as most of them have nothing to do with any particular teacher. It was a fast and efficient system.
The current snail slow email system only comes up one at a time. The same info that could be easily dealt with in seconds in paper form takes twenty to thirty minutes of processing when it arrives via district email. Why because we have waiting for the email message to open, dealing with it by answering or eliminating and then checking the next message, etc., etc ad nauseum. Each message taking the better part of a minute to deal with rather than a second or two like a piece of paper would. With twenty to forty email messages that is the better part of an hour lost to district email on most days. Does any one at the district office ask for what good teaching purpose are teachers being forced to waste all this time. Or questions like is this time wasting of benefit to our students? No, no one at the district office ever thinks to ask those questions.
Why does Joyce Bales keep adding more and more busy work like this "check email" requirement to district school teachers already frantically busy days?
Technology can be helpful and a boon to teaching for instance being able to project the information on a single computer screen unto a whole classroom projection screen or technology can damage teacher effectiveness. Bales several times a day "check email" time vampire is the latter.
Martin Garrick, the man born without a heart given space to brag in the North County Times
Martin Garrick is the person most responsible for the terrible cuts in this year's California state budget for K-12 education, aid to the poor, the elderly and the infirm. He celebrated those cuts while championing massive increases in tuition at our California State colleges and universities. Millions of our most fragile fellow Californians and including neighbors on our street are in far worse financial shape today then they were two years ago largely due to his actions. Yet the editorial staff of the North County Times chose to give him space to brag about his 'accomplishments' in today's newspaper.
Read it here:
http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/article_3e4580c0-8893-5edb-9ca3-23deb5bb334a.html
Martin Garrick was able to make these massive and unfair cuts by using archaic rules in the California Constitution which required a two thirds vote to pass a state budget and tax increases. Garrick led the rogue gang of Republicans in the state assembly, under his leadership they voted to stop any reasonable fix for the state budget. See him brag about his heartlessness here:
https://www.calchannel.com/channel/viewVideo/1387
Read about the easy fixes, Garrick and his gang would not allow to be passed here:
http://caltaxreform.org/?p=211
Read other posts about the evil that is Garrick and his gang below:
May 23, 2010--http://vistaschools.blogspot.com/2010/05/martin-garricks-gang-directly-caused.html
February 24, 2010--http://vistaschools.blogspot.com/2010/02/who-is-responsible-for-california.html
Here is what I, under my nom de guerre--con no more, wrote in the comment section following the "bragfest" self congratulatory slime that the arrogant bully Garrick wrote about himself today in the North County Times:
Read it here:
http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/article_3e4580c0-8893-5edb-9ca3-23deb5bb334a.html
Martin Garrick was able to make these massive and unfair cuts by using archaic rules in the California Constitution which required a two thirds vote to pass a state budget and tax increases. Garrick led the rogue gang of Republicans in the state assembly, under his leadership they voted to stop any reasonable fix for the state budget. See him brag about his heartlessness here:
https://www.calchannel.com/channel/viewVideo/1387
Read about the easy fixes, Garrick and his gang would not allow to be passed here:
http://caltaxreform.org/?p=211
Read other posts about the evil that is Garrick and his gang below:
May 23, 2010--http://vistaschools.blogspot.com/2010/05/martin-garricks-gang-directly-caused.html
February 24, 2010--http://vistaschools.blogspot.com/2010/02/who-is-responsible-for-california.html
Here is what I, under my nom de guerre--con no more, wrote in the comment section following the "bragfest" self congratulatory slime that the arrogant bully Garrick wrote about himself today in the North County Times:
- con no more said on: December 3, 2010, 7:18 am
- Martin Garrick, and the Republican gang he led in Sacramento are directly and almost solely responsible for the fiscal mess in Sacramento.
This Republican gang of vandals in the State Assembly and State Senate caused the massive public school layoffs, cuts to aid to the poor, the infirm and the elderly by refusing any reasonable suggestions for a fix to the California budget funding crises.
If you have a strong stomach you can watch a you tube type video of Martin Garrick acting as an arrogant bully demanding across the board cuts while leading the California Republican Press Conference on May 12th. He is almost gleeful with joy at the thought of the poor getting poorer, the ill becoming sicker, the elderly losing caregivers and school children in larger classes for fewer school days. Those of you who ever supporter this heartless monster should watch the video to see who and what he is.
Here: https://www.calchannel.com/channel/viewVideo/1387
There were incredibly easy fixes to the California budget problem that would not affect a single person reading this, but Garrick and his gang would not let those fixes be considered. He used the archaic 2/3rds majority rule needed at the time for the passage of state budget time to force ever more cuts to the neediest of our neighbors--the poor, the elderly and school children.
See easy fixes to the state budget that the immoral monster, Martin Garrick would not allow to be voted on here:
See: http://caltaxreform.org/?p=211
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Thomas K. Arnold and the DeceptaCON universe of overpaid California teachers
Today in the North County Times we find yet another CON man out to deceive North County Times readers with the great misdirection con game that con men of every stripe are so famous for. Tell the truth about small unimportant item and hide the greater truth.
Go to a used car dealer and he will point out the beautiful and clean engine in the car without ever telling you that he had the engine steamed cleaned so the oil leaks would not show.
Go to a real estate broker and he will show you a beautiful home without telling you that it is in a slide zone.
Go to the North County Times and their CON men hacks give you 'real' but meaningless statistics that seem to show that unions are always bad. Today Arnold took his lying turn as a con man hack.
Read the deception of Arnold here:
http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/arnold/article_2e16b1b4-8137-5515-85f8-5acdd5ff13e2.html?mode=story
Thomas K. Arnold calls California teachers among the highest paid in the nation. What a con.
Like all good con men Arnold has perfected the misdirection lie.
The real question for any worker is not how much the salary is but how much does the salary buy? Will it cover the cost of housing, medical, and food where the person (teacher) lives? So what does a California teacher salary buy in California? The answer is not much.
Arnold knows that of course but real statistics would inconvenience the CON game he is playing on the readers of the North County Times.
Teacher salaries in California are ranked 44th lowest out of the fifty states when it comes to buying power that is salary compared to cost of living. Read more below:
http://teacherportal.com/salary/California-teacher-salary
"TeacherPortal Salary Comfort Score
44th out of 50 states."
The poor pay and terrible buying power of the average California teacher is not because we live in a poor state or an overly generous state to public schools. Forty five states spend more per person than California does on its schools. Read more below:
"California, the eighth richest state, spends 3.8 percent of per capita income on education, making it the 46th ..."
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/backgrounders/school_funding.htm
The above facts do not fit into the CON universe of deception created by the CON men like Arnold. They would rather play inside their own deceptaCON universe where they pretend without truth or facts that public school teachers, fact based public schools, unions of all kinds and the middle class that unions create are all evils that need to be crushed beneath the boot hill of billionaire bullies and their hired gun hacks.
The only question is why does the editorial staff of the North County Times continue to go along with this CON? I have no answer to that question but I do know that I do not have to support their attacks on unions and the middle class that was created by unions.
I have not bought a North County Times newspaper in over ten years. Until they change their editorial stance against unions, I will not buy another one of their papers again. I will read only on line for free without subsidizing their unfair attacks on the middle class.
Go to a used car dealer and he will point out the beautiful and clean engine in the car without ever telling you that he had the engine steamed cleaned so the oil leaks would not show.
Go to a real estate broker and he will show you a beautiful home without telling you that it is in a slide zone.
Go to the North County Times and their CON men hacks give you 'real' but meaningless statistics that seem to show that unions are always bad. Today Arnold took his lying turn as a con man hack.
Read the deception of Arnold here:
http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/arnold/article_2e16b1b4-8137-5515-85f8-5acdd5ff13e2.html?mode=story
Thomas K. Arnold calls California teachers among the highest paid in the nation. What a con.
Like all good con men Arnold has perfected the misdirection lie.
The real question for any worker is not how much the salary is but how much does the salary buy? Will it cover the cost of housing, medical, and food where the person (teacher) lives? So what does a California teacher salary buy in California? The answer is not much.
Arnold knows that of course but real statistics would inconvenience the CON game he is playing on the readers of the North County Times.
Teacher salaries in California are ranked 44th lowest out of the fifty states when it comes to buying power that is salary compared to cost of living. Read more below:
http://teacherportal.com/salary/California-teacher-salary
"TeacherPortal Salary Comfort Score
44th out of 50 states."
The poor pay and terrible buying power of the average California teacher is not because we live in a poor state or an overly generous state to public schools. Forty five states spend more per person than California does on its schools. Read more below:
"California, the eighth richest state, spends 3.8 percent of per capita income on education, making it the 46th ..."
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/backgrounders/school_funding.htm
The above facts do not fit into the CON universe of deception created by the CON men like Arnold. They would rather play inside their own deceptaCON universe where they pretend without truth or facts that public school teachers, fact based public schools, unions of all kinds and the middle class that unions create are all evils that need to be crushed beneath the boot hill of billionaire bullies and their hired gun hacks.
The only question is why does the editorial staff of the North County Times continue to go along with this CON? I have no answer to that question but I do know that I do not have to support their attacks on unions and the middle class that was created by unions.
I have not bought a North County Times newspaper in over ten years. Until they change their editorial stance against unions, I will not buy another one of their papers again. I will read only on line for free without subsidizing their unfair attacks on the middle class.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Jane Swanson, Chuck Rabel, Silvia Peters, Roxy, and Tea Party traitors
I received a comment from a person calling herself Jane Swanson regarding my post on Chuck Rabel who is running for mayor of Vista.
The real Jane Swanson seems like a very reasonable person who writes a nice blog here. Since I know of no way a tea party traitor or one of our anti-public education friends could have used her personal profile, I will assume that the person who posted is Jane Swanson.
The Jane Swanson post made two valid points. One she is correct that I am not one hundred per cent certain that the Chuck Rabel supporter who came to my door was Silvia Peters and two my description of that supporter sounded more unkind than I meant it to. But as to her other points that Silvia is not a member of the Vista Tea Party traitors* or is not the blogger Roxy, I am afraid that person posting as Jane Swanson has been mislead.
The wild 'roxy' posts and the the rants of Silvia Peters at school board and DELAC meetings sound too similar for Silvia not to be the infamous blogger, 'roxy'. Silvia as Roxy has posted over and over about the Oceanside Tea Party traitors. She has written on a past blog post at the North County Times that she had to stop writing because she was on the way to the traitors big Oceanside meet up last summer. She found that meeting more important than writing. In numerous other North County Times posts 'roxy' has invited others to attend the tea party traitors gatherings with her. There is no question the North County Times blogger, 'roxy' is a member of the misguided Tea Party traitors.
Interestingly the posts by 'roxy' use the same phrases and wording that Silvia Peters uses. Both 'roxy' and Silvia Peters make the same wild eyed and unfounded allegations against VUSD and its teachers. Therefore I am quite confident that 'roxy' is Silvia, Silvia is 'roxy.' My confidence approaches one hundred percent on this topic. I am not surprised that Silvia wants to run away from her posts as 'roxy' any reasonable person would.
As to my description of the overweight women who came to my door who physically resembled Silvia in hips and hair, I am sorry if it seemed over the top. I was attempting to paint a word picture and was not thinking about its effect.
Obesity runs in my family. My maternal grandmother, my mother and my sister and one of her daughters have been or are morbidly obese. They have fought a terrible losing battle with weight for most of their lives.
I believe the tendency to become addicted to sugar and fats as well as the tendency for the satiety feedback to short circuited are all genetic. It is not a simple matter of will power. It is not the fault of the overweight person. I do make any moral judgment.
As to the frizzy hair on the precinct walker, it looked just like my sister's hair. In fact the precinct walker who I still believe to have been Silvia Peters looked so much like my sister did twenty years ago that was the first thing I noticed. I thought to myself, 'Hey, there is a women across the street who looks a lot like my sister used to. How weird.'
Again I am not one hundred percent sure that the women precinct walker who came to my door was Silvia, she did not identify herself. However, I still feel quite confident it was Silvia, no matter what Silvia is telling the person calling herself Jane Swanson. The women supporting Chuck Rabel for Mayor who came to my door looked like a dead ringer for Silvia to me.
As to Chuck Rabel, he is a tea party traitor. No loyal patriotic American should vote for him or support him in his efforts. He himself brags on his website that he is endorsed by the Oceanside Tea Party traitors. They are the number one endorsement he lists on his site. Number two is the infamous Jim Gibson who has cost VUSD schools tens of millions of dollars as a school board trustee when he prevented our district from building the third high school on the cheap level primary site in 2002. With endorsements like that it is obvious that no loyal Vistan, no thrifty taxpayer and no patriotic Americans should vote Chuck Rabel.
I recommend Judy Ritter for mayor of Vista based on her long and dedicated experience in city government. I have also met her once and talked on the phone with her--both more than ten years ago. She impressed me then as smart and level headed.
*Members of the Tea Party are traitors to America and the American way of life because they do not support our Constitution which is the basis of our democracy and to which all elected officials must swear allegiance. The tea party traitors would like to repeal much of the Bill of Rights and many other amendments. But worse yet they and their representatives running for national office have on numerous occasions threatened armed rebellion against our country.
We have had one civil war in this country. In four short years, we lost more Americans than in any dozen other wars. Civil wars are brutal. We do not need another. Any one advocating a civil war or armed insurrection is a traitor to the United States and should be dealt with as such. We do not need these tea party traitors elected to any office anywhere.
The real Jane Swanson seems like a very reasonable person who writes a nice blog here. Since I know of no way a tea party traitor or one of our anti-public education friends could have used her personal profile, I will assume that the person who posted is Jane Swanson.
The Jane Swanson post made two valid points. One she is correct that I am not one hundred per cent certain that the Chuck Rabel supporter who came to my door was Silvia Peters and two my description of that supporter sounded more unkind than I meant it to. But as to her other points that Silvia is not a member of the Vista Tea Party traitors* or is not the blogger Roxy, I am afraid that person posting as Jane Swanson has been mislead.
The wild 'roxy' posts and the the rants of Silvia Peters at school board and DELAC meetings sound too similar for Silvia not to be the infamous blogger, 'roxy'. Silvia as Roxy has posted over and over about the Oceanside Tea Party traitors. She has written on a past blog post at the North County Times that she had to stop writing because she was on the way to the traitors big Oceanside meet up last summer. She found that meeting more important than writing. In numerous other North County Times posts 'roxy' has invited others to attend the tea party traitors gatherings with her. There is no question the North County Times blogger, 'roxy' is a member of the misguided Tea Party traitors.
Interestingly the posts by 'roxy' use the same phrases and wording that Silvia Peters uses. Both 'roxy' and Silvia Peters make the same wild eyed and unfounded allegations against VUSD and its teachers. Therefore I am quite confident that 'roxy' is Silvia, Silvia is 'roxy.' My confidence approaches one hundred percent on this topic. I am not surprised that Silvia wants to run away from her posts as 'roxy' any reasonable person would.
As to my description of the overweight women who came to my door who physically resembled Silvia in hips and hair, I am sorry if it seemed over the top. I was attempting to paint a word picture and was not thinking about its effect.
Obesity runs in my family. My maternal grandmother, my mother and my sister and one of her daughters have been or are morbidly obese. They have fought a terrible losing battle with weight for most of their lives.
I believe the tendency to become addicted to sugar and fats as well as the tendency for the satiety feedback to short circuited are all genetic. It is not a simple matter of will power. It is not the fault of the overweight person. I do make any moral judgment.
As to the frizzy hair on the precinct walker, it looked just like my sister's hair. In fact the precinct walker who I still believe to have been Silvia Peters looked so much like my sister did twenty years ago that was the first thing I noticed. I thought to myself, 'Hey, there is a women across the street who looks a lot like my sister used to. How weird.'
Again I am not one hundred percent sure that the women precinct walker who came to my door was Silvia, she did not identify herself. However, I still feel quite confident it was Silvia, no matter what Silvia is telling the person calling herself Jane Swanson. The women supporting Chuck Rabel for Mayor who came to my door looked like a dead ringer for Silvia to me.
As to Chuck Rabel, he is a tea party traitor. No loyal patriotic American should vote for him or support him in his efforts. He himself brags on his website that he is endorsed by the Oceanside Tea Party traitors. They are the number one endorsement he lists on his site. Number two is the infamous Jim Gibson who has cost VUSD schools tens of millions of dollars as a school board trustee when he prevented our district from building the third high school on the cheap level primary site in 2002. With endorsements like that it is obvious that no loyal Vistan, no thrifty taxpayer and no patriotic Americans should vote Chuck Rabel.
I recommend Judy Ritter for mayor of Vista based on her long and dedicated experience in city government. I have also met her once and talked on the phone with her--both more than ten years ago. She impressed me then as smart and level headed.
*Members of the Tea Party are traitors to America and the American way of life because they do not support our Constitution which is the basis of our democracy and to which all elected officials must swear allegiance. The tea party traitors would like to repeal much of the Bill of Rights and many other amendments. But worse yet they and their representatives running for national office have on numerous occasions threatened armed rebellion against our country.
We have had one civil war in this country. In four short years, we lost more Americans than in any dozen other wars. Civil wars are brutal. We do not need another. Any one advocating a civil war or armed insurrection is a traitor to the United States and should be dealt with as such. We do not need these tea party traitors elected to any office anywhere.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Boycott Netflix, cancel your subscription today!
Netflix founder Reed Hastings is pouring money into the campaign of Larry Aceves for State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Aceves wants to fire more teachers, end seniority, reduce union representation of teachers targeted by admin, and cut back the scope of negotiations and bargaining.
Fact based public education Netflix nemesis, Reed Hastings, wants unlimited charter schools as well. He has poured $400,000 into the campaign of Larry Aceves that we know of.
How much more has Hastings given to Aceves through secret funding of third party "hit man" political organizations remains a mystery. Thanks to the last years Roberts Court's clearly unconstitutional and outrageous decision in Citizens United, we will never know. The Citizens United hit on our democracy allows unlimited amounts of SECRET, ANONYMOUS money to be spent in scurrilous "attack ad" campaigns to rid the rich of any politician who will not dance to the tune they are playing. Read more about the historically outrageous decision of the Robert's Court here: http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2010/10/19/citizens-united-before-after-what%E2%80%99s-next/
Aceves clearly is willing to dance to the tune of the filthy rich Reed Hasting. (Why should a single filthy rich person like Hastings have more power to determine a politician's platform in a democracy than you or I?) Aceves has recently changed his reasonable positions during the primary that teachers were hard working "good folks" to his current Netflix position that teachers are scum.
His positions all have changed since the despicable, filthy rich Reed Hastings gave him the 400K campaign contribution. It appears that Aceves is willing to be bought and likes to dance to whatever tune the selfish filthy rich like Hastings want.
Here are Aceves NEW positions since his campaign themes were 'bought' by Netflix founder Reed Hastings. All quotes from today's LATIMES article found here:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-statesupt-nov-20101026,0,206984.story
(1)"Aceves recently called for curtailing the power of teachers unions and making it easier to fire poorly performing teachers..."
(2) Aceves said, "The law and how the dismissal process is structured needs to be changed at the state level"
(3)"Aceves also criticized traditional seniority protections that result in a "last-hired, first-fired" policy when teachers must be laid off."
(4)"Aceves has been bolstered by support from the Assn. of California School Administrators, which he once headed"
(5)"Aceves has shifted his views on teacher-related matters" since the evil Netflix mogul "Hastings gave him 400K last week."
If you do not think that teachers are scum, then boycott Netflix and write them an email telling them why you are boycotting their product.
Whoops! they have no email address, but they do have a phone number. Here is Netflix customer service number: 1-866-716-0414
Fact based public education Netflix nemesis, Reed Hastings, wants unlimited charter schools as well. He has poured $400,000 into the campaign of Larry Aceves that we know of.
How much more has Hastings given to Aceves through secret funding of third party "hit man" political organizations remains a mystery. Thanks to the last years Roberts Court's clearly unconstitutional and outrageous decision in Citizens United, we will never know. The Citizens United hit on our democracy allows unlimited amounts of SECRET, ANONYMOUS money to be spent in scurrilous "attack ad" campaigns to rid the rich of any politician who will not dance to the tune they are playing. Read more about the historically outrageous decision of the Robert's Court here: http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2010/10/19/citizens-united-before-after-what%E2%80%99s-next/
Aceves clearly is willing to dance to the tune of the filthy rich Reed Hasting. (Why should a single filthy rich person like Hastings have more power to determine a politician's platform in a democracy than you or I?) Aceves has recently changed his reasonable positions during the primary that teachers were hard working "good folks" to his current Netflix position that teachers are scum.
His positions all have changed since the despicable, filthy rich Reed Hastings gave him the 400K campaign contribution. It appears that Aceves is willing to be bought and likes to dance to whatever tune the selfish filthy rich like Hastings want.
Here are Aceves NEW positions since his campaign themes were 'bought' by Netflix founder Reed Hastings. All quotes from today's LATIMES article found here:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-statesupt-nov-20101026,0,206984.story
(1)"Aceves recently called for curtailing the power of teachers unions and making it easier to fire poorly performing teachers..."
(2) Aceves said, "The law and how the dismissal process is structured needs to be changed at the state level"
(3)"Aceves also criticized traditional seniority protections that result in a "last-hired, first-fired" policy when teachers must be laid off."
(4)"Aceves has been bolstered by support from the Assn. of California School Administrators, which he once headed"
(5)"Aceves has shifted his views on teacher-related matters" since the evil Netflix mogul "Hastings gave him 400K last week."
If you do not think that teachers are scum, then boycott Netflix and write them an email telling them why you are boycotting their product.
Whoops! they have no email address, but they do have a phone number. Here is Netflix customer service number: 1-866-716-0414
Vote: Tom Torlakson for State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Are teachers scum? Are they too lazy to do their jobs? Do we need to fire more teachers and get rid of all seniority? Are teachers jobs too easy and too safe?
Those are the messages of the Republican Party, the billionaire bullies funding the Republicans and the message of AM con men radio and FOX “fooled you again” News. If you agree with those messages don’t vote for Torlakson.
If you think that these pernicious lies being promulgated by the rich in their attack on the last stronghold of rational voters, public school teachers, is a not only immoral, unwarranted and anti-American but just plain wrong, then Torlakson is your candidate.
Torlakson wants more funding for public schools, not less. He thinks you are doing a good job under very difficult circumstances. He is the only candidate in the race with these views.
Read more here: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-statesupt-nov-20101026,0,206984.story
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Don't vote for Chuck Rabel for Mayor--a potential disaster for Vista
Normally City of Vista elections are out of my purview for this blog, but I saw Peter Murnieks letter to the editor in today's North County Times and I just had to comment. Peter endorsed Chuck Rabel for Vista mayor.
Peter is wrong. I know Peter. I like Peter. But he is easily mislead and often gets his facts wrong which then leads him to get it wrong politically. But more to the point, Chuck Rabel is supported by the most infamous blogger in the history of the North County Times, Roxy! Yes, that Roxy. The one whose posts are famous for all capitalized venom and salacious lies about teachers and VUSD.
Sylvia Peters, aka Roxy, waddled to my front door last weekend with a clipboard doing precinct walking for Chuck Rabel. I did not recognize her when I first saw her out my window. I saw an incredibly obese women with a bad frizzy perm barely able to do a kind of painful looking, rolling, waddling walk towards my neighbor's house. I could tell by the clipboard that she was carrying and marking off names of those she visited that she was a precinct walker.
I felt sorry for this immensely overweight women whose feet seemed so painful that she could hardly walk being assigned to be a door to door precinct walker. I wondered who would make a women in that condition walk a precinct? Couldn't they find a job at a desk or a phone for her?
Then she came to my door. She did not just leave her literature. She rang the bell.
I immediately recognized her. I was polite. She did not seem to know me. I took her literature but I knew whoever she was pushing I was not for. I had never heard of her candidate, Chuck Rabel. But made a mental note to let others know that he has to be a pretty bad candidate in order to motivate a women like Sylvia Peters to go out walking precincts or to walk at all.
I do not know who I will cast my vote for mayor yet, but I can assure you it will NOT be Sylvia's candidate Chuck Rabel.
Sylvia is a proud member of the Vista Tea Party group. For the last several weeks she has stopped posting at the North County Times after leaving posts last summer about her intent to work full time for tea party candidates.
Anything or anyone Sylvia Peters supports must be opposed by any and every right thinking, patriotic American.
I have copied the comments that Sylvia Peters posted after just one article last January in the North County Times. The article was about the recall publicity stunt that was pulled by the Gibson supporters last winter. They ultimately failed to turn in even one signature in favor of recall to the Registrar of Voters. That's right. They turned in zero signatures. But they sure got a whole lot of stories and editorials written for them by the friendly folks at the North County Times.
In Roxy posts below she will make a number of untrue allegations and one that is actually nearly true but out of context. I don't have time or inclination to deal with all her lies and exaggerations except for two.
Here's the nearly true statement made by Roxy: VUSD spends 85% of its general fund on salaries and benefits. Yes, that is close to the truth. The state wide average for the thousand plus school districts in California is 83.3% spent on salaries and benefits.
But why so much on salaries and benefits for teachers, you might ask? Whoa, that's salaries and benefits for ALL personnel in the district from custodian to superintendent not just teachers.
Our salary and benefits money comes from the school district's General Fund because the state legislature bundled the money that way in order to reduce school employee salaries. That's right, our California State Legislature (pushed by Republicans) set up the system so salaries had to come from the same funds as classroom supplies, in order to force a conflict that would ultimately mean lower salaries for all school employees.
In other states, these two very different funds are kept separate. There are no conflicts. Salaries and benefits for employees are a completely distinct funding category in those states from funds for students but not in California.
Roxy also falsely alleges that while the VUSD school district has lost student enrollment in the last decade, it has not lost any teacher positions. Totally bogus. There are hundreds of less teachers in VUSD now than a decade ago. Easily seen on the VUSD website.
Here is a link to the Peter Murnieks' letter in support of Chuck Rabel:
http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/letters/article_0e2db71b-23e4-5442-b319-44827428dc93.html
Here is a only a portion of Roxy's rants after a single article in the North County Times. For years she was the most frequent poster of comments after any article about VUSD. I have left in her misspellings and scatological references to our former VTA president, Jan O'Reilly so that you can get the full flavor of Sylvia Peters aka Roxy. I would never vote for anyone she endorses, I hope after reading the comments below you will understand why.
article title and date:
VISTA VUSD could face another recall
Activists start process that could remove three trustees
By STACY BRANDT - sbrandt@nctimes.com | Posted: January 15, 2010 7:20 pm |
Roxy comments:
Roxy said on: January 16, 2010, 8:41 pm
Always Right~~ so are you saying that UNION THUGS are PREDATORS? You are probably right if they bully kids the same way they bully their parents.
Congrats to Jill Parvon (sic) for having the courage to recall the three union puppets. Too bad she did not add Herrera's name to it but she is a sitting duck since she is up or reelection in November.
Where and when cam I get a petition to sign?????
------------------------------------
Roxy said on: January 16, 2010, 8:36 pm
Lisa~~ too bad we cannot recall Jan and Lucky!! (sic)
the Oceanside recall is a completely different and quite distinct from VUSD.
In Oceanside the unions were doing the recall and people showed they had enough and were disgusted with union thugs.
here Vista will have an opportunity to get rid of union thugs.
------------------------------------------------
Roxy said on: January 16, 2010, 9:48 am
Cal ~~ rage against the district? Try saying that over 85% of the budget goes to pay for their SALARIES, BENEFITS and PENSIONS.
For what? Dirty union politics and no education, kids can’t read, can’t write and cannot calculate, add the highest dropout rate in the state.
Herrera says its because of SIATech dropout recovery program, yeah OK. How and where did these students dropout from?
Before 1994 was when the KIDS COULD READ, WRITE and CALCULATE.
See this is the problem with union thugs, they don’t seam to understand kids attend school to LEAN how to READ, WRITE and CALCULATE.
21 Century education came with the village mentality and over 60% dropout rate, illiteracy and racism.
Teachers are more concerned with SOCIAL RE ENGINEERING than education. Brainwashing students, and promulgating their own social political views rather than teaching kids how to READ, WRITE and CALCULATE.
Very said you don’t even know what the term, “WHITE FLIGHT” means.
Very interesting you slam the churches yet these were the same ones who voted for Jaka and Chunka. Are you afraid these same churches have woken up?
Sounds like you have a lot of gas to pass try farting Jan's way...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roxy said on: January 15, 2010, 11:16 pm
Chunka says the school trustees are in a standoff with the VTA, how hilarious!!!
Wasn’t she the only one who voted not to submit the “RACE TO THE TOP” MEMORANDUM to the state? Or was it JACKA? It doesn’t matter because both said it would be unlikely that the VUSD would support the RACE TO THE TOP proposition.
Gut wrenching decisions? Don’t worry Chunka, Jan has already decided how you all should/will vote.
Lets not forget that in 1994 VUSD was a viable school district since then it has suffered from white flight. Loosing thousands of students. 700 this year and the year I still YOUNG!!!!
While VUSD has LOST THOUSANDS of students NOT a SINGLE TEACHER has been laid off.
Peter is wrong. I know Peter. I like Peter. But he is easily mislead and often gets his facts wrong which then leads him to get it wrong politically. But more to the point, Chuck Rabel is supported by the most infamous blogger in the history of the North County Times, Roxy! Yes, that Roxy. The one whose posts are famous for all capitalized venom and salacious lies about teachers and VUSD.
Sylvia Peters, aka Roxy, waddled to my front door last weekend with a clipboard doing precinct walking for Chuck Rabel. I did not recognize her when I first saw her out my window. I saw an incredibly obese women with a bad frizzy perm barely able to do a kind of painful looking, rolling, waddling walk towards my neighbor's house. I could tell by the clipboard that she was carrying and marking off names of those she visited that she was a precinct walker.
I felt sorry for this immensely overweight women whose feet seemed so painful that she could hardly walk being assigned to be a door to door precinct walker. I wondered who would make a women in that condition walk a precinct? Couldn't they find a job at a desk or a phone for her?
Then she came to my door. She did not just leave her literature. She rang the bell.
I immediately recognized her. I was polite. She did not seem to know me. I took her literature but I knew whoever she was pushing I was not for. I had never heard of her candidate, Chuck Rabel. But made a mental note to let others know that he has to be a pretty bad candidate in order to motivate a women like Sylvia Peters to go out walking precincts or to walk at all.
I do not know who I will cast my vote for mayor yet, but I can assure you it will NOT be Sylvia's candidate Chuck Rabel.
Sylvia is a proud member of the Vista Tea Party group. For the last several weeks she has stopped posting at the North County Times after leaving posts last summer about her intent to work full time for tea party candidates.
Anything or anyone Sylvia Peters supports must be opposed by any and every right thinking, patriotic American.
I have copied the comments that Sylvia Peters posted after just one article last January in the North County Times. The article was about the recall publicity stunt that was pulled by the Gibson supporters last winter. They ultimately failed to turn in even one signature in favor of recall to the Registrar of Voters. That's right. They turned in zero signatures. But they sure got a whole lot of stories and editorials written for them by the friendly folks at the North County Times.
In Roxy posts below she will make a number of untrue allegations and one that is actually nearly true but out of context. I don't have time or inclination to deal with all her lies and exaggerations except for two.
Here's the nearly true statement made by Roxy: VUSD spends 85% of its general fund on salaries and benefits. Yes, that is close to the truth. The state wide average for the thousand plus school districts in California is 83.3% spent on salaries and benefits.
But why so much on salaries and benefits for teachers, you might ask? Whoa, that's salaries and benefits for ALL personnel in the district from custodian to superintendent not just teachers.
Our salary and benefits money comes from the school district's General Fund because the state legislature bundled the money that way in order to reduce school employee salaries. That's right, our California State Legislature (pushed by Republicans) set up the system so salaries had to come from the same funds as classroom supplies, in order to force a conflict that would ultimately mean lower salaries for all school employees.
In other states, these two very different funds are kept separate. There are no conflicts. Salaries and benefits for employees are a completely distinct funding category in those states from funds for students but not in California.
Roxy also falsely alleges that while the VUSD school district has lost student enrollment in the last decade, it has not lost any teacher positions. Totally bogus. There are hundreds of less teachers in VUSD now than a decade ago. Easily seen on the VUSD website.
Here is a link to the Peter Murnieks' letter in support of Chuck Rabel:
http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/letters/article_0e2db71b-23e4-5442-b319-44827428dc93.html
Here is a only a portion of Roxy's rants after a single article in the North County Times. For years she was the most frequent poster of comments after any article about VUSD. I have left in her misspellings and scatological references to our former VTA president, Jan O'Reilly so that you can get the full flavor of Sylvia Peters aka Roxy. I would never vote for anyone she endorses, I hope after reading the comments below you will understand why.
article title and date:
VISTA VUSD could face another recall
Activists start process that could remove three trustees
By STACY BRANDT - sbrandt@nctimes.com | Posted: January 15, 2010 7:20 pm |
Roxy comments:
Roxy said on: January 16, 2010, 8:41 pm
Always Right~~ so are you saying that UNION THUGS are PREDATORS? You are probably right if they bully kids the same way they bully their parents.
Congrats to Jill Parvon (sic) for having the courage to recall the three union puppets. Too bad she did not add Herrera's name to it but she is a sitting duck since she is up or reelection in November.
Where and when cam I get a petition to sign?????
------------------------------------
Roxy said on: January 16, 2010, 8:36 pm
Lisa~~ too bad we cannot recall Jan and Lucky!! (sic)
the Oceanside recall is a completely different and quite distinct from VUSD.
In Oceanside the unions were doing the recall and people showed they had enough and were disgusted with union thugs.
here Vista will have an opportunity to get rid of union thugs.
------------------------------------------------
Roxy said on: January 16, 2010, 9:48 am
Cal ~~ rage against the district? Try saying that over 85% of the budget goes to pay for their SALARIES, BENEFITS and PENSIONS.
For what? Dirty union politics and no education, kids can’t read, can’t write and cannot calculate, add the highest dropout rate in the state.
Herrera says its because of SIATech dropout recovery program, yeah OK. How and where did these students dropout from?
Before 1994 was when the KIDS COULD READ, WRITE and CALCULATE.
See this is the problem with union thugs, they don’t seam to understand kids attend school to LEAN how to READ, WRITE and CALCULATE.
21 Century education came with the village mentality and over 60% dropout rate, illiteracy and racism.
Teachers are more concerned with SOCIAL RE ENGINEERING than education. Brainwashing students, and promulgating their own social political views rather than teaching kids how to READ, WRITE and CALCULATE.
Very said you don’t even know what the term, “WHITE FLIGHT” means.
Very interesting you slam the churches yet these were the same ones who voted for Jaka and Chunka. Are you afraid these same churches have woken up?
Sounds like you have a lot of gas to pass try farting Jan's way...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roxy said on: January 15, 2010, 11:16 pm
Chunka says the school trustees are in a standoff with the VTA, how hilarious!!!
Wasn’t she the only one who voted not to submit the “RACE TO THE TOP” MEMORANDUM to the state? Or was it JACKA? It doesn’t matter because both said it would be unlikely that the VUSD would support the RACE TO THE TOP proposition.
Gut wrenching decisions? Don’t worry Chunka, Jan has already decided how you all should/will vote.
Lets not forget that in 1994 VUSD was a viable school district since then it has suffered from white flight. Loosing thousands of students. 700 this year and the year I still YOUNG!!!!
While VUSD has LOST THOUSANDS of students NOT a SINGLE TEACHER has been laid off.
Monday, September 27, 2010
VTA should counter sue VUSD to recover excess payment to VUSD for release time president compensation
Will the VTA file a counter suit against VUSD?
The cost of salary and benefits for VUSD is exactly the same whether the president is in her classroom or out of it, except for one thing, the cost of her substitute. The VTA has always paid more than that cost every time the president has been out of her classroom. Since January of this year VTA has paid far more than the cost of a substitute.
The intent of the language on this matter in the state Education Code is clear no side should profit, neither the district nor the association. In our case the district has profited for years.
The Education Code says that an association is only responsible for the additional costs of a substitute for the president which may also include a small administrative charge, no more. Read section 44987.3(d)
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=edc&group=44001-45000&file=44930-44988
The VTA bargained in good faith and got stuck with paying more than the costs of a substitute plus administrative costs. Now the district via the lawsuit has reneged on the bargained agreement. VTA leadership owes no loyalty to the bargained agreement since the district school board has chosen not to honor it. Excess money above and beyond the cost of a substitute for the president should now be placed into an escrow account. Under no circumstances should this excess be given to the school district.
Here is the bargained contract language between the association and the district: “VTA Contract, Article 9.10, allows for up to a 100% release of the VTA President. The cost of this release time will be borne by the VTA based on Class C, Step 4 ($41,562) of the Teacher’s Salary Schedule.”
http://vistaschools.blogspot.com/2009/09/release-time-president-vusd-board.html
The cost of paying for a teacher at Class C, Step 4 is far more than the cost of a classroom substitute as required by law.
The governing body of the VTA, the Representative Assembly, needs to immediately file a counter suit against the district for the return of all of that excess payment plus interest. They sued us. Let's return the favor.
The Vista Teachers Association and its members are the victims in this whole release time president brouhaha. We need to be made whole. No teacher’s salary, in this already very low paying district, should be used to subsidize the running of this school district.
The cost of salary and benefits for VUSD is exactly the same whether the president is in her classroom or out of it, except for one thing, the cost of her substitute. The VTA has always paid more than that cost every time the president has been out of her classroom. Since January of this year VTA has paid far more than the cost of a substitute.
The intent of the language on this matter in the state Education Code is clear no side should profit, neither the district nor the association. In our case the district has profited for years.
The Education Code says that an association is only responsible for the additional costs of a substitute for the president which may also include a small administrative charge, no more. Read section 44987.3(d)
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=edc&group=44001-45000&file=44930-44988
The VTA bargained in good faith and got stuck with paying more than the costs of a substitute plus administrative costs. Now the district via the lawsuit has reneged on the bargained agreement. VTA leadership owes no loyalty to the bargained agreement since the district school board has chosen not to honor it. Excess money above and beyond the cost of a substitute for the president should now be placed into an escrow account. Under no circumstances should this excess be given to the school district.
Here is the bargained contract language between the association and the district: “VTA Contract, Article 9.10, allows for up to a 100% release of the VTA President. The cost of this release time will be borne by the VTA based on Class C, Step 4 ($41,562) of the Teacher’s Salary Schedule.”
http://vistaschools.blogspot.com/2009/09/release-time-president-vusd-board.html
The cost of paying for a teacher at Class C, Step 4 is far more than the cost of a classroom substitute as required by law.
The governing body of the VTA, the Representative Assembly, needs to immediately file a counter suit against the district for the return of all of that excess payment plus interest. They sued us. Let's return the favor.
The Vista Teachers Association and its members are the victims in this whole release time president brouhaha. We need to be made whole. No teacher’s salary, in this already very low paying district, should be used to subsidize the running of this school district.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Release Time President Compensation lawsuit
Today in the North County Times brings news that the Vista Unified School District has decided to sue the Vista Teachers' Association for the full costs of our release time president. Not a good move for VUSD as the California Education Code clearly says that the VTA only owes the district the costs of the substitute who sits in the classroom of the release time president.
Because the VTA has always paid more than the cost of a substitute, at the end of the day, VUSD will owe a great deal of money to the VTA, not the other way around. Suing VTA was a very foolish move for our school board.
Read the article:
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_8bc1d924-7186-5b1d-8b0b-6ddff33557f1.html
My response to the inevitable inaccurate blogs from our dwindling group of angry friends is printed below in blue. To read their howlings, foamings, and inaccurate rants go here:
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_8bc1d924-7186-5b1d-8b0b-6ddff33557f1.html?mode=comments
The Vista Teacher’s Association owes no money to the Vista Unified School District. It is just the reverse. The school district owes a great deal of money to the VTA. Each month that the VTA pays more than the cost of a substitute for its release time president that amount is growing.
The agreement between the VTA and VUSD for the VTA to pay the costs of the substitute for the VTA release time president is based on long standing practices, settled law and the California Education Code [44987.3(d)]. http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=edc&group=44001-45000&file=44930-44988
That section of the California Ed. Code says that in regards to employees on leave for non school business including union activity, “…the school district shall be reimbursed… the compensation paid to the employee's substitute…”
The Ed. Code clear intent is that no California school district shall incur any additional cost from a union leader’s absence from the classroom for union activities nor on the other hand shall the school district benefit from these necessary absences.
The cost of the substitute for the VTA president on leave from her/his classroom has always been fully covered by the VTA. Not for one minute of the history of the VTA release time president has the VTA paid less than the full cost of the substitute. In fact in most years the VTA has paid more.
The Vista school district has illegally benefited financially in the past from the release of the VTA president from his or her classroom in years when the VTA paid in excess of the costs of the substitute for the president. Any money the school district received above and beyond the cost of the substitute (other than small admin costs) will have to be returned to the VTA.
The greatest illegal benefit for the school district has been obtained since last January when the VTA ill-advisedly decided to pay 40% above the cost of the substitute directly into the general fund of the VUSD, rather than into an escrow account to be held untouched until the VTA prevails in court.
It should also be noted that the VTA/VUSD bargaining agreement is not unique to VUSD. The language and concept for a teachers’ association to reimburse a school district for the additional costs incurred by the district for substitutes and only the cost of those substitutes is currently being used in every school district in California whether for full time release president in large districts like VUSD or for part time or as needed releases in smaller districts.
I hope that the VUSD school board is putting money aside for their inevitable loss in their ill- conceived legal action. When this lawsuit is settled, VUSD will end up owing the Vista Teacher’s Associations a great deal of money. I hope they can afford the bill. The school board should have let sleeping dogs lie.
Because the VTA has always paid more than the cost of a substitute, at the end of the day, VUSD will owe a great deal of money to the VTA, not the other way around. Suing VTA was a very foolish move for our school board.
Read the article:
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_8bc1d924-7186-5b1d-8b0b-6ddff33557f1.html
My response to the inevitable inaccurate blogs from our dwindling group of angry friends is printed below in blue. To read their howlings, foamings, and inaccurate rants go here:
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_8bc1d924-7186-5b1d-8b0b-6ddff33557f1.html?mode=comments
The Vista Teacher’s Association owes no money to the Vista Unified School District. It is just the reverse. The school district owes a great deal of money to the VTA. Each month that the VTA pays more than the cost of a substitute for its release time president that amount is growing.
The agreement between the VTA and VUSD for the VTA to pay the costs of the substitute for the VTA release time president is based on long standing practices, settled law and the California Education Code [44987.3(d)]. http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=edc&group=44001-45000&file=44930-44988
That section of the California Ed. Code says that in regards to employees on leave for non school business including union activity, “…the school district shall be reimbursed… the compensation paid to the employee's substitute…”
The Ed. Code clear intent is that no California school district shall incur any additional cost from a union leader’s absence from the classroom for union activities nor on the other hand shall the school district benefit from these necessary absences.
The cost of the substitute for the VTA president on leave from her/his classroom has always been fully covered by the VTA. Not for one minute of the history of the VTA release time president has the VTA paid less than the full cost of the substitute. In fact in most years the VTA has paid more.
The Vista school district has illegally benefited financially in the past from the release of the VTA president from his or her classroom in years when the VTA paid in excess of the costs of the substitute for the president. Any money the school district received above and beyond the cost of the substitute (other than small admin costs) will have to be returned to the VTA.
The greatest illegal benefit for the school district has been obtained since last January when the VTA ill-advisedly decided to pay 40% above the cost of the substitute directly into the general fund of the VUSD, rather than into an escrow account to be held untouched until the VTA prevails in court.
It should also be noted that the VTA/VUSD bargaining agreement is not unique to VUSD. The language and concept for a teachers’ association to reimburse a school district for the additional costs incurred by the district for substitutes and only the cost of those substitutes is currently being used in every school district in California whether for full time release president in large districts like VUSD or for part time or as needed releases in smaller districts.
I hope that the VUSD school board is putting money aside for their inevitable loss in their ill- conceived legal action. When this lawsuit is settled, VUSD will end up owing the Vista Teacher’s Associations a great deal of money. I hope they can afford the bill. The school board should have let sleeping dogs lie.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Richard Kirk does no research when writing for North County Times
Richard Kirk fact challenged opinion piece referred to in the last blog post shows that he does no research before writing. Here are a couple of examples where he is just wrong, "Vista's teachers union was priming its members for a "work to the rule" withdrawal of services." "A settlement was reached that avoided the "go slow" action." Read more of Kirk's drivel here: http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/kirk/article_50f1f441-78b5-563f-b4c9-bc8276d0c58c.html?mode=story
There was no 'go slow' or work slow down in VUSD by teachers last Spring or ever. During the work action, teachers worked even faster than usual to finish what usually tacks nine or ten hours in the the seven and half hours they were paid for. This work action lasted three days. Whoopee. Why does the fact that employees stopped working when their paid hours ended merit most of Kirk's column space?--especially when the 'work action' lasted for only three days and had NOTHING TO DO WITH TEACHER PAY?
That's right the work action had NOTHING to do with pay. Nothing. Teachers were merely seeking to make the increase in class sizes for K-12 potentially TEMPORARY rather than permanent.
Teachers thought that 38 students in a class made learning a bit more problematic. What horrible thing did then did teachers do? For THREE DAYS they watched the clock and stopped working when their paid day was done. This is in contrast to the hours of unpaid free time virtually every one of them gives every other day of the year as a gift to their students, their student's parents and the community.
Below is proof that Kirk's description is wrong. Read the North County Times article about the incident. The work action was not a work slow down or go slow action. The article was written by Stacy Brandt, North County Times reporter last spring.
What is wrong with Richard Kirk that he could not even read his own newspaper's account of the job action before he wrote his fact challenged opinion piece?
VISTA: Teachers plan to stop after-hours work
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_361e98e6-d599-5d3f-a4bd-23a0bbd1c0e0.html
"Teachers in the Vista Unified School District plan to stop doing any extra work outside of contract hours..."
There was no slow down. Teachers just stopped working when their paid day was done. What other opinion columnist in what other paper would find workers going home when their paid day was done to be in the least bit controversial?
There was no 'go slow' or work slow down in VUSD by teachers last Spring or ever. During the work action, teachers worked even faster than usual to finish what usually tacks nine or ten hours in the the seven and half hours they were paid for. This work action lasted three days. Whoopee. Why does the fact that employees stopped working when their paid hours ended merit most of Kirk's column space?--especially when the 'work action' lasted for only three days and had NOTHING TO DO WITH TEACHER PAY?
That's right the work action had NOTHING to do with pay. Nothing. Teachers were merely seeking to make the increase in class sizes for K-12 potentially TEMPORARY rather than permanent.
Teachers thought that 38 students in a class made learning a bit more problematic. What horrible thing did then did teachers do? For THREE DAYS they watched the clock and stopped working when their paid day was done. This is in contrast to the hours of unpaid free time virtually every one of them gives every other day of the year as a gift to their students, their student's parents and the community.
Below is proof that Kirk's description is wrong. Read the North County Times article about the incident. The work action was not a work slow down or go slow action. The article was written by Stacy Brandt, North County Times reporter last spring.
What is wrong with Richard Kirk that he could not even read his own newspaper's account of the job action before he wrote his fact challenged opinion piece?
VISTA: Teachers plan to stop after-hours work
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_361e98e6-d599-5d3f-a4bd-23a0bbd1c0e0.html
"Teachers in the Vista Unified School District plan to stop doing any extra work outside of contract hours..."
There was no slow down. Teachers just stopped working when their paid day was done. What other opinion columnist in what other paper would find workers going home when their paid day was done to be in the least bit controversial?
Richard Kirk, a liar, a fool, or a useful tool?
The North County Times has once again allowed their greatest embarrassment, Richard Kirk, to publish a column that is not founded in fact. In it he falsely accuses the fine teachers of VUSD of using a work slow down last spring during negotiations. As every one knows who is a VUSD teacher or who reads the articles in the North County Times written last spring, there was no work slow down. The work action was what is called a 'work to rule.' Teachers in the district simply stopped working when they were no longer being paid to work.
I believe that Kirk gets his information directly from Jim Gibson. It has the mark of a Gibson tall tale. Gibson as we painfully are aware is a story teller. He loves to make up stuff that makes teachers into villains and usually makes himself look heroic. Apparently Kirk swallowed Gibson's tripe about the work action last spring without any examination or fact checking. Then he wrote this column.
Here is the URL of the Kirk column published by the North County Times:
http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/kirk/article_50f1f441-78b5-563f-b4c9-bc8276d0c58c.html?mode=story
Below are the comments that I left after Kirk's column. I put my comments here as Gibson has an ally in ACE, the person at the North County Times that deletes comments not up to their very biased "standards." I assume my fact based comments will be deleted unlike Kirk's false narrative column which will stay.
Richard Kirk is a liar, a fool or a useful tool. There can be no other explanations for this column today. When a person writes for a reputable newspaper, there is a higher duty to get your facts right. Yet time and time again Kirk, does not.
There was no work “slow down” at any school in VUSD ever, not last spring, not in my thirty year association with the district. That is correct. It never happened at any school in Vista Unified not last spring and not ever. When Kirk says that there was a work ‘slow down’, he is in error (deliberately?) as is usual for him and his columns.
Making things up, creating straw men to tear down seems to give Kirk his raison d'etre judging by the ‘columns’ he makes up for this newspaper.
The only "work action" that VUSD teachers took last spring was to decide to only work the number of hours that the teachers were actually being paid to work each day. For three days, the teachers of the district stopped working and went home when the district stopped paying them. Wow, how novel for workers to stop working when their paid day is done, NOT! Unless, of course, the worker is a public school teacher.
This spring work action by VUSD teachers that Kirk falsely called a “slow down” lasted for less than one week. That’s right less than one week. Big deal, workers for three days went home when they stopped being paid to work. Well I guess that is a big deal for Kirk. Gee I wonder how many hours Kirk works at his job for free with no compensation of any kind like the typical VUSD teacher does each and every school day?
Last spring during the very brief 'work action,' VUSD teachers ran around like crazy trying desperately to cram their nine or ten hour normal working day into only the hours they were actually being paid for. This work action was no work “slow down”. If anything it was a “speed up.”
The average teacher in VUSD works more than an hour each and every day of the week for free with no pay--elementary teachers even more so. That amounts to at least six and in some case up to twenty or more hours of uncompensated time that every VUSD classroom teachers works every single week. That’s close to one extra work day done for free each week. For many teachers the hours add up to a gift to the VUSD community and its children of two or three extra work days per week. (The paid hours for a work day in VUSD are seven and a half hours per day.)
Yet another example of VUSD teachers incredible generosity with THEIR OWN TIME was recently in evidence before the start of the new school year. For the two weeks before the recent school year started, virtually every teacher in every school in the district was in their class room preparing for the new school year, all without pay of any kind. No overtime, no daily pay, no hourly pay--all this time yet another gift to their future students, the parents of those students, and the greater VUSD community.
Richard Kirk could have checked his facts. There are North County Times articles from that period correctly describing the VUSD "work action." He could have called the Vista Teachers Association office and asked for a description of the work action if he felt confused. He could even have called local teachers. But apparently to do Kirk's job at the North County Times requires no research, no checking of facts by himself or others, nothing needed but bile and the willingness to make stuff up. Pathetic.
I believe that Kirk gets his information directly from Jim Gibson. It has the mark of a Gibson tall tale. Gibson as we painfully are aware is a story teller. He loves to make up stuff that makes teachers into villains and usually makes himself look heroic. Apparently Kirk swallowed Gibson's tripe about the work action last spring without any examination or fact checking. Then he wrote this column.
Here is the URL of the Kirk column published by the North County Times:
http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/kirk/article_50f1f441-78b5-563f-b4c9-bc8276d0c58c.html?mode=story
Below are the comments that I left after Kirk's column. I put my comments here as Gibson has an ally in ACE, the person at the North County Times that deletes comments not up to their very biased "standards." I assume my fact based comments will be deleted unlike Kirk's false narrative column which will stay.
Richard Kirk is a liar, a fool or a useful tool. There can be no other explanations for this column today. When a person writes for a reputable newspaper, there is a higher duty to get your facts right. Yet time and time again Kirk, does not.
There was no work “slow down” at any school in VUSD ever, not last spring, not in my thirty year association with the district. That is correct. It never happened at any school in Vista Unified not last spring and not ever. When Kirk says that there was a work ‘slow down’, he is in error (deliberately?) as is usual for him and his columns.
Making things up, creating straw men to tear down seems to give Kirk his raison d'etre judging by the ‘columns’ he makes up for this newspaper.
The only "work action" that VUSD teachers took last spring was to decide to only work the number of hours that the teachers were actually being paid to work each day. For three days, the teachers of the district stopped working and went home when the district stopped paying them. Wow, how novel for workers to stop working when their paid day is done, NOT! Unless, of course, the worker is a public school teacher.
This spring work action by VUSD teachers that Kirk falsely called a “slow down” lasted for less than one week. That’s right less than one week. Big deal, workers for three days went home when they stopped being paid to work. Well I guess that is a big deal for Kirk. Gee I wonder how many hours Kirk works at his job for free with no compensation of any kind like the typical VUSD teacher does each and every school day?
Last spring during the very brief 'work action,' VUSD teachers ran around like crazy trying desperately to cram their nine or ten hour normal working day into only the hours they were actually being paid for. This work action was no work “slow down”. If anything it was a “speed up.”
The average teacher in VUSD works more than an hour each and every day of the week for free with no pay--elementary teachers even more so. That amounts to at least six and in some case up to twenty or more hours of uncompensated time that every VUSD classroom teachers works every single week. That’s close to one extra work day done for free each week. For many teachers the hours add up to a gift to the VUSD community and its children of two or three extra work days per week. (The paid hours for a work day in VUSD are seven and a half hours per day.)
Yet another example of VUSD teachers incredible generosity with THEIR OWN TIME was recently in evidence before the start of the new school year. For the two weeks before the recent school year started, virtually every teacher in every school in the district was in their class room preparing for the new school year, all without pay of any kind. No overtime, no daily pay, no hourly pay--all this time yet another gift to their future students, the parents of those students, and the greater VUSD community.
Richard Kirk could have checked his facts. There are North County Times articles from that period correctly describing the VUSD "work action." He could have called the Vista Teachers Association office and asked for a description of the work action if he felt confused. He could even have called local teachers. But apparently to do Kirk's job at the North County Times requires no research, no checking of facts by himself or others, nothing needed but bile and the willingness to make stuff up. Pathetic.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
The Great VUSD Wars ending?
Have the Great VUSD Wars come to an end? There are only two candidates for two openings on the VUSD school board and both are the incumbents--Carol Herrera and Jim Gibson.
What happened to Jim Gibson's fellow traveler waiting in the parking lot until the last minute to file? Why isn't the Gibson Group on the attack trying to unseat Carol Herrera? Hey I don't know. I can make some guesses, but the only thing certain is that the unrelenting war on FACT public based education in our fine Vista Unified School District will have at least a temporary cease fire.
I feel a sense of relief. Yet there remains that bad taste in my mouth that we won't have a chance to get Gibson off our school board. He has cost our district so much money in waste (nearly fifty million dollars) and five years in delays in starting our new third high school Mission Meadows. He has repeatedly done all he can to make our district a laughing stock while trying to gain political glory for himself, Carrie Prejean Day. To have such this self promoter on our board for four more years is really quite sad.
At least he is neutered by the four other board members. None of his self promoting resolutions can pass. He cannot block the acquisition of any new pieces of land or anything else as a minority of one. Only with the help of fellow traveler in educational crimes against our children, Dr. Stephen Guffanti, could he and Guffanti use their votes and obscure California law to stop progress in our district. With Guffanti safely off the board and no chance for a Gibson stoooge taking Carol's seat, we no longer have to worry about Gibson pointless obstructionism.
As to why Gibson did not run one of the stooges he regularly found and ran with in the past, perhaps it is because his support has so dwindled. There were fewer and fewer of folks blogging for him at the North County Times. When they did I was able to show that most of what Jim had told them were lies. To some like Vista Watchdog 1 and Roxy, Jim's lies did not matter; but for many others, they did. Jim also seems to have lost Republican support. As a three time loser in attempts for higher office including a scorched earth take-no-prisoners attack on the eventual winner in the State Assembly seat he ran for, I think his support was growing very thin. I cannot believe that Assembly person, Diane Harkey will soon forgive what he wrote about her, a fellow Republican, on his website of deceit during his campaign for the seat that she eventually won. Being on the Republican State Committee only gets you so far, and Gibson seems to have gone as far as position will ever take him, maybe farther.
I know the Madison Miracle last Spring had a major contribution towards bringing about this cease fire in the Great VUSD Wars. The North County Times stopped their out right support of Jim afterwards. For the first time since the North County Times was created from the wreckage of the Blade Citizen and the Times Advocate, the editorial board stopped their one sided attacks on the teachers and others in VUSD who favored FACT based public education. Again kudos to the Madison Middle School teachers who invited Jim Trageser to their site and who some how made a very positive impression on him. I still have not found out who it was who created the Madison Miracle, but our school district and all the children and parents it serves owes those Madison folk a great deal of thanks. I should acknowledge that Jim Trageser's willingness to visit the site and to listen. He is a bigger man than I thought.
I hope too that my willingness to research, disprove, and publicly correct the lies of the Gibson Group were part of the reason that they faded away. I hope this blog site helped as well.
Wow, I do not have to call a hundreds of voters. I do not have to read the paper each morning with a sense of battle readiness. I do not have to fight the daily blog wars, at least not for a while, perhaps not ever again. Suddenly I have so much free time stretching out in front of me. I have started the process of creating a garden in my back yard. I have broccoli, sugar snap peas, carrot and lettuce seeds ready to go. It's fall planting time in Vista and this year I can plant that garden I have wanted to for so long. Maybe I can get the trim on the house painted. With so much free time stretching out in front of me, the possibilities are endless. Whoopee!
Sorry about the delay in posting this denouement to the Great VUSD Wars. We had our house tented for termites a little over a week ago. If you have never had the pleasure, it takes about a week to ten days to get ready, two more days out of the house in a motel, and then a week to put everything back. Not fun, but let's hope the termites are now as dead as our agapanthus plants next to the garage (from the gas). I also had a medical procedure this week and survive the general anesthesia with no adverse events--which is a bit rare for my immune system. Consequently have had little time for posting over last three weeks.
Of course for those of you who will be back to teaching next week, I do not have to tell you how busy life can suddenly become. The start of the school year, the busiest time for our dedicated public school teachers and the most nerve racking. When will the class lists be in? Will I get enough text books? What new programs will admin spring on us? Lesson plans to prepare, seating charts, etc. Endless jobs, endless frustrations, and yet endless possibilities for new accomplishments with your students this year.
So many of you have been back in the classroom working for free for the last two weeks. It may seem like no one appreciates it, but they do. Even if your students and parents are unaware of all the time you have spent, they are fully aware of how well prepared you are. Yes, I know, no one ever seems to thank you for the time it took to get prepared. They do see that you are ready to go and that must in some deep part of their minds realize it must have taken time to get that way. Just not every one realizes it would be nice to acknowledge your work and dedication. So let me say it for them. Thank you teachers for all your hard work, all the hours and hours and hours you put in above and beyond your duty hours. You are great people, you are public school teachers. I will always be proud that I was once numbered as one among you. Good luck this year.
Here is the story in the North County Times about the 'non-election' this year in VUSD:
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_60848c31-7426-5817-b9a3-3b36b77bec30.html
What happened to Jim Gibson's fellow traveler waiting in the parking lot until the last minute to file? Why isn't the Gibson Group on the attack trying to unseat Carol Herrera? Hey I don't know. I can make some guesses, but the only thing certain is that the unrelenting war on FACT public based education in our fine Vista Unified School District will have at least a temporary cease fire.
I feel a sense of relief. Yet there remains that bad taste in my mouth that we won't have a chance to get Gibson off our school board. He has cost our district so much money in waste (nearly fifty million dollars) and five years in delays in starting our new third high school Mission Meadows. He has repeatedly done all he can to make our district a laughing stock while trying to gain political glory for himself, Carrie Prejean Day. To have such this self promoter on our board for four more years is really quite sad.
At least he is neutered by the four other board members. None of his self promoting resolutions can pass. He cannot block the acquisition of any new pieces of land or anything else as a minority of one. Only with the help of fellow traveler in educational crimes against our children, Dr. Stephen Guffanti, could he and Guffanti use their votes and obscure California law to stop progress in our district. With Guffanti safely off the board and no chance for a Gibson stoooge taking Carol's seat, we no longer have to worry about Gibson pointless obstructionism.
As to why Gibson did not run one of the stooges he regularly found and ran with in the past, perhaps it is because his support has so dwindled. There were fewer and fewer of folks blogging for him at the North County Times. When they did I was able to show that most of what Jim had told them were lies. To some like Vista Watchdog 1 and Roxy, Jim's lies did not matter; but for many others, they did. Jim also seems to have lost Republican support. As a three time loser in attempts for higher office including a scorched earth take-no-prisoners attack on the eventual winner in the State Assembly seat he ran for, I think his support was growing very thin. I cannot believe that Assembly person, Diane Harkey will soon forgive what he wrote about her, a fellow Republican, on his website of deceit during his campaign for the seat that she eventually won. Being on the Republican State Committee only gets you so far, and Gibson seems to have gone as far as position will ever take him, maybe farther.
I know the Madison Miracle last Spring had a major contribution towards bringing about this cease fire in the Great VUSD Wars. The North County Times stopped their out right support of Jim afterwards. For the first time since the North County Times was created from the wreckage of the Blade Citizen and the Times Advocate, the editorial board stopped their one sided attacks on the teachers and others in VUSD who favored FACT based public education. Again kudos to the Madison Middle School teachers who invited Jim Trageser to their site and who some how made a very positive impression on him. I still have not found out who it was who created the Madison Miracle, but our school district and all the children and parents it serves owes those Madison folk a great deal of thanks. I should acknowledge that Jim Trageser's willingness to visit the site and to listen. He is a bigger man than I thought.
I hope too that my willingness to research, disprove, and publicly correct the lies of the Gibson Group were part of the reason that they faded away. I hope this blog site helped as well.
Wow, I do not have to call a hundreds of voters. I do not have to read the paper each morning with a sense of battle readiness. I do not have to fight the daily blog wars, at least not for a while, perhaps not ever again. Suddenly I have so much free time stretching out in front of me. I have started the process of creating a garden in my back yard. I have broccoli, sugar snap peas, carrot and lettuce seeds ready to go. It's fall planting time in Vista and this year I can plant that garden I have wanted to for so long. Maybe I can get the trim on the house painted. With so much free time stretching out in front of me, the possibilities are endless. Whoopee!
Sorry about the delay in posting this denouement to the Great VUSD Wars. We had our house tented for termites a little over a week ago. If you have never had the pleasure, it takes about a week to ten days to get ready, two more days out of the house in a motel, and then a week to put everything back. Not fun, but let's hope the termites are now as dead as our agapanthus plants next to the garage (from the gas). I also had a medical procedure this week and survive the general anesthesia with no adverse events--which is a bit rare for my immune system. Consequently have had little time for posting over last three weeks.
Of course for those of you who will be back to teaching next week, I do not have to tell you how busy life can suddenly become. The start of the school year, the busiest time for our dedicated public school teachers and the most nerve racking. When will the class lists be in? Will I get enough text books? What new programs will admin spring on us? Lesson plans to prepare, seating charts, etc. Endless jobs, endless frustrations, and yet endless possibilities for new accomplishments with your students this year.
So many of you have been back in the classroom working for free for the last two weeks. It may seem like no one appreciates it, but they do. Even if your students and parents are unaware of all the time you have spent, they are fully aware of how well prepared you are. Yes, I know, no one ever seems to thank you for the time it took to get prepared. They do see that you are ready to go and that must in some deep part of their minds realize it must have taken time to get that way. Just not every one realizes it would be nice to acknowledge your work and dedication. So let me say it for them. Thank you teachers for all your hard work, all the hours and hours and hours you put in above and beyond your duty hours. You are great people, you are public school teachers. I will always be proud that I was once numbered as one among you. Good luck this year.
Here is the story in the North County Times about the 'non-election' this year in VUSD:
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_60848c31-7426-5817-b9a3-3b36b77bec30.html
Friday, August 6, 2010
Steele Canyon Charter High School--cherry picking students
Today we had a front man for a termite inspection company come to our house to tell us about tenting the house to get rid of our termites. He was a very nice fellow and did his job well. We will be tenting the house next week.
Just before he left we discussed schools as my wife mentioned she was a school teacher and I a former school teacher. He was so proud of his daughter's high school, Steele Canyon Charter High School formerly part of the Grossmont school district. *
The front guy bragged that at his daughter's high school, students were not allowed to get C's. If a student did receive a C, the student must get into a tutoring class and bring that grade up within a few months. The student had no choice. There was a long waiting list and if the student could not bring up his or her grade, he was booted out for getting one C in one class. The termite company front guy then said for students getting a "D" or "F", the consequences were even more grave. I do not remember what he said happened to the "D" student, but the student who got an 'F" was given only one month or booted out.
Then this proud parent told us that Steele Canyon was ranked as the second best charter in the county as far as test scores go and that its percentage of graduating seniors going to nationally ranked college was really high. He went on and on. He could not say enough fine things about Steele Canyon Charter High School.
My poor wife was steaming. Imagine if we in public schools could cherry pick our students. Gee if we could just rid our classes of the dumb, the inept, the language learners, the 'energy consumers' and unmotivated, I bet our schools would have the better test scores than Steele Canyon. After all we have better teachers. Poway teachers have never had to deal with the kind of barriers to learning that we face daily in VUSD. We have to be better than Steele Canyon just to survive.
We know we lose teachers every year who just cannot hack the low pay, lack of support, and public attacks on education that Vista Unified teachers face. Imagine a poor Steele Canyon teacher, coming to one our schools and not being able to get rid of any student he/she wanted too. Actually be forced to not only teach the difficult child but to be held accountable for that child's learning.
Steele Canyon teaching experience must be what it would be like at an elite private academy, except at a private academy the parents PAY. At Steele Canyon, we the public are forced to pay for an elitist high school run like a private school for children of snobs.
Yet, Steele Canyon is a ANTI icon is used as an positive example by newspaper editors that hate unions and the middle class jobs that unions provide. Steele Canyon and other elitist charters like it are used "to prove" that all public schools should be ended because charters do a 'better' job.
The sub text of this charter push is to end teachers unions and their union power that enables them to get middle class wages for their members. You see few charters have unions. If a charter teacher tries to organize one, he/she may suddenly need to find another job. Even if one is organized, there are too few charter teachers in a single school to get the economies of scale for the cheapest and best health insurance coverage, so their coverage is shoddy. It is also much harder for a single school union to bargain for reasonable middle class pay. Charters provide a race to the bottom for teachers pay and benefits and anti-union editors and the super rich who hire them know it.
Read what the ANTI union ironically named "Union"-Tribune editor wrote about Steele Canyon eight months ago here.
As some old timer in the area may recall, the U-T broke its own newspaper union twenty years ago. Many if not all union members lost their jobs. Since then the U-T has been lead by editors who write rabidly anti union editorials against the activities of any union. Sound familiar? Yes the UT editor writes editorials very much like the North County Times editorials. I wonder who picks these editors? Who hires them? Oh yes, the filthy rich owners hire them. The same filthy rich who do not believe in sharing or in the community good only in their own personal good. The thing the filthy rich hate most is paying their servants or anyone else middle class wages or providing middle class health benefits. What a coincidence that the editors the filthy rich select always manage to reflect distaste on the editorial pages for middle class wages and benefits, no matter which union is trying to get achieve those wages and benefits.
Below is some of the slobbering praise that the UT editor heaped on Steele Canyon in the December 2009 editorial by the hired gun editor who was hired to write that way by his filthy rich boss and owner:
"The school has registered 20-point gains two years in a row on state tests, after it had slipped the prior two years (as a district school). Steele Canyon now would rank fourth in test scores of the 11 schools in the district it left behind. Enrollment is capped and there is a long waiting list. Eighty percent of students go on to two- or four-year colleges. The dance and choir groups have auditioned and performed eight years running at a Disneyland competition.
“We’re a charter school,” said Principal Craig Rocha, “still on a journey to discover who we are. We are still defining our own DNA.”
The significance of Steele Canyon’s independent status is that it is free to innovate, to lower costs, to provide smaller class sizes and reward an enthusiastic staff. Free even to keep a quarter system a mega-district never could appreciate.
The significance of Steele Canyon and its 86 area companions is that schools no longer are bound to one-size-fits-all or “we’ve always done it this way ... ”
The charter movement is growing – and with good reason."
The only thing true that the UT editor said is the in the last line. But he does not say what the 'good reason' is. We all know. It is called "cherry picking' students, so only the best and brightest and most motivated can attend. Students with learning difficulties, language issues, or family distractions need not apply, certainly if they do and get accepted, they aren't kept long.
Gibson and his angry friends constantly praise charter and voucher schools. They would love to "voucherize" or "charterize" our entire district. Either method would be the end of the power of a unified teachers union covering all our schools. No union, no teacher empowerment. Teachers without power are teachers who can be rigidly controlled. Salaries can be lowered. Benefits cut. Even better for member of the "little god cult" of science deniers that Jim belongs to is that teachers without power would be afraid to teach FACT based science, history, and sex education. Facts are what Jim and his friends fear most.
Let's not allow it to happen here. Fight back against the dawning of the new dark ages of charters schools that Jim envisions. Lets send him packing in November.
*Grossmont is the other district in San Diego County that was taken over by ANTI public education crowd at the same time our district was in the early 1990s.
Just before he left we discussed schools as my wife mentioned she was a school teacher and I a former school teacher. He was so proud of his daughter's high school, Steele Canyon Charter High School formerly part of the Grossmont school district. *
The front guy bragged that at his daughter's high school, students were not allowed to get C's. If a student did receive a C, the student must get into a tutoring class and bring that grade up within a few months. The student had no choice. There was a long waiting list and if the student could not bring up his or her grade, he was booted out for getting one C in one class. The termite company front guy then said for students getting a "D" or "F", the consequences were even more grave. I do not remember what he said happened to the "D" student, but the student who got an 'F" was given only one month or booted out.
Then this proud parent told us that Steele Canyon was ranked as the second best charter in the county as far as test scores go and that its percentage of graduating seniors going to nationally ranked college was really high. He went on and on. He could not say enough fine things about Steele Canyon Charter High School.
My poor wife was steaming. Imagine if we in public schools could cherry pick our students. Gee if we could just rid our classes of the dumb, the inept, the language learners, the 'energy consumers' and unmotivated, I bet our schools would have the better test scores than Steele Canyon. After all we have better teachers. Poway teachers have never had to deal with the kind of barriers to learning that we face daily in VUSD. We have to be better than Steele Canyon just to survive.
We know we lose teachers every year who just cannot hack the low pay, lack of support, and public attacks on education that Vista Unified teachers face. Imagine a poor Steele Canyon teacher, coming to one our schools and not being able to get rid of any student he/she wanted too. Actually be forced to not only teach the difficult child but to be held accountable for that child's learning.
Steele Canyon teaching experience must be what it would be like at an elite private academy, except at a private academy the parents PAY. At Steele Canyon, we the public are forced to pay for an elitist high school run like a private school for children of snobs.
Yet, Steele Canyon is a ANTI icon is used as an positive example by newspaper editors that hate unions and the middle class jobs that unions provide. Steele Canyon and other elitist charters like it are used "to prove" that all public schools should be ended because charters do a 'better' job.
The sub text of this charter push is to end teachers unions and their union power that enables them to get middle class wages for their members. You see few charters have unions. If a charter teacher tries to organize one, he/she may suddenly need to find another job. Even if one is organized, there are too few charter teachers in a single school to get the economies of scale for the cheapest and best health insurance coverage, so their coverage is shoddy. It is also much harder for a single school union to bargain for reasonable middle class pay. Charters provide a race to the bottom for teachers pay and benefits and anti-union editors and the super rich who hire them know it.
Read what the ANTI union ironically named "Union"-Tribune editor wrote about Steele Canyon eight months ago here.
As some old timer in the area may recall, the U-T broke its own newspaper union twenty years ago. Many if not all union members lost their jobs. Since then the U-T has been lead by editors who write rabidly anti union editorials against the activities of any union. Sound familiar? Yes the UT editor writes editorials very much like the North County Times editorials. I wonder who picks these editors? Who hires them? Oh yes, the filthy rich owners hire them. The same filthy rich who do not believe in sharing or in the community good only in their own personal good. The thing the filthy rich hate most is paying their servants or anyone else middle class wages or providing middle class health benefits. What a coincidence that the editors the filthy rich select always manage to reflect distaste on the editorial pages for middle class wages and benefits, no matter which union is trying to get achieve those wages and benefits.
Below is some of the slobbering praise that the UT editor heaped on Steele Canyon in the December 2009 editorial by the hired gun editor who was hired to write that way by his filthy rich boss and owner:
"The school has registered 20-point gains two years in a row on state tests, after it had slipped the prior two years (as a district school). Steele Canyon now would rank fourth in test scores of the 11 schools in the district it left behind. Enrollment is capped and there is a long waiting list. Eighty percent of students go on to two- or four-year colleges. The dance and choir groups have auditioned and performed eight years running at a Disneyland competition.
“We’re a charter school,” said Principal Craig Rocha, “still on a journey to discover who we are. We are still defining our own DNA.”
The significance of Steele Canyon’s independent status is that it is free to innovate, to lower costs, to provide smaller class sizes and reward an enthusiastic staff. Free even to keep a quarter system a mega-district never could appreciate.
The significance of Steele Canyon and its 86 area companions is that schools no longer are bound to one-size-fits-all or “we’ve always done it this way ... ”
The charter movement is growing – and with good reason."
The only thing true that the UT editor said is the in the last line. But he does not say what the 'good reason' is. We all know. It is called "cherry picking' students, so only the best and brightest and most motivated can attend. Students with learning difficulties, language issues, or family distractions need not apply, certainly if they do and get accepted, they aren't kept long.
Gibson and his angry friends constantly praise charter and voucher schools. They would love to "voucherize" or "charterize" our entire district. Either method would be the end of the power of a unified teachers union covering all our schools. No union, no teacher empowerment. Teachers without power are teachers who can be rigidly controlled. Salaries can be lowered. Benefits cut. Even better for member of the "little god cult" of science deniers that Jim belongs to is that teachers without power would be afraid to teach FACT based science, history, and sex education. Facts are what Jim and his friends fear most.
Let's not allow it to happen here. Fight back against the dawning of the new dark ages of charters schools that Jim envisions. Lets send him packing in November.
*Grossmont is the other district in San Diego County that was taken over by ANTI public education crowd at the same time our district was in the early 1990s.
School Board Election update
As of today there is only one candidate who has filed papers to run for our Vista Unified School Board race this November, Carol Herrera. Congratulations Carol. Thank you for your courage.
Jim Gibson has pulled papers but is not listed as filing them. This does not mean he is out of the race. It could mean he filed them today but too late for the Registrar's office to change the website information. It could also mean that he deliberately is waiting to file to lengthen the filing deadline.
As you may recall from earlier posts, if both incumbents do not file on or before August 6th, then the deadline is extended one week to August 13th.
Jim may be playing the game of delaying as long as possible in order to keep the name of the dupe he has talked into running on the ANTI slate with him kept secret from the public for another week. Filing as late as possible is all part of the 'stealth' strategy that his group has used in the past.
Hey its only a public office, why should the public know who is running? At least that has been the thinking of our angry friends and their anti- FACT based public education agenda.
I can hardly wait until Monday afternoon to find our whether Jim filed late today or didn't file so he could delay the announcement of his 'running mate'.
Jim Gibson has pulled papers but is not listed as filing them. This does not mean he is out of the race. It could mean he filed them today but too late for the Registrar's office to change the website information. It could also mean that he deliberately is waiting to file to lengthen the filing deadline.
As you may recall from earlier posts, if both incumbents do not file on or before August 6th, then the deadline is extended one week to August 13th.
Jim may be playing the game of delaying as long as possible in order to keep the name of the dupe he has talked into running on the ANTI slate with him kept secret from the public for another week. Filing as late as possible is all part of the 'stealth' strategy that his group has used in the past.
Hey its only a public office, why should the public know who is running? At least that has been the thinking of our angry friends and their anti- FACT based public education agenda.
I can hardly wait until Monday afternoon to find our whether Jim filed late today or didn't file so he could delay the announcement of his 'running mate'.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Ancient news about the 1994 recall, Representative Assembly minutes prove our angry friends have lied about the VTA's part in it.
Now for some ancient news, our angry friend have repeatedly falsely accused the VTA of organizing the 1994 recall on the same November night in 1992 when the three member extremist board was elected. We all knew that to be false. Just one more made up story from the camp of our angry friends.
It was one thing to know that they were lying yet again and re-writing history yet again. It is another to have proof of their lies in hand.
I now have copies of VTA Executive Board and Representative Assembly minutes from 1993-94. The orininals are on file at the Vista Teachers Association office. The minutes of those meetings show that the first mention of the recall by anyone at the VTA happened a full one year and two months after the election.
The record of this very first mention of the already on-going community based recall was in the January 24, 1994, Representative Assembly minutes. This FIRST mention of the community recall was the last item in those minutes. It was mentioned in item VII Information and future action.
The items says:
Recall in Vista. Discussion. Recall drive has started to recall Joyce Lee, John Tyndall, and Diedre Holliday.* What role should teachers play? It's up to individual conscience. Politial activity cannot affect your job.** You are protected by state law.
Of the 1025 certificated employees of this district,only about 450 live inside the district. Some VTA members will work for recall. Some will work against. No money has been spent by the VTA or VTA/PAC for or against.
Recall petitions can be present at schools. They may be signed during duty free lunch or before or after school duty hours. Anyone can wear a button for or against the recall during duty hours.***
School board members phone numbers can be found at the front of the VTA directory if you wish to oppose the recall. Letha McWey's, leader of the recall, phone number is XXX-XXXX , if you wish to support the recall.
This first VTA mention of the existing COMMUNITY inspired recall took no position on the recall, the mention was merely to warn any VTA members who might have gotten involved with the recall to make sure all their personal activities involving recall happened at times that they were not on duty. It is clear from the notes that during the discussion, there were VTA members at the Representative Assembly who OPPOSED the recall. At that time, I was one of those members who opposed the recall.
This first mention of the community recall shows conclusively that in January of 1994 more than a year after the election that the official position of the Representative Assembly, the governing body of the VTA, was studied neutrality. For our angry friends to say anything else is a lie. But it is a lie that some have come to believe.
Here is what Jim Trageser who writes editorials for the North County Times as written about that meeting that he did not attend and the official VTA notes that he clearly did not ask to read. He wrote in the North County Time on August 10, 2008: "In the early 1990s, the VTA was one of the main organizers of a recall drive against two Vista Unified School District board members." On January 24, 2010, he wrote in the North County Times, "Clearly, Tyndall and Lee had had no time to do anything when recall organizers began planning, seeing as they hadn't even been sworn in yet."
Jim Trageser has toned down since he wrote those two editorials, largely thanks to "The Madision Middle School Miracle" that occurred this spring. "The Miracle" happened when Madison teachers invited Jim to their school and to his credit he went. He listened to what they had to say. I do not know what they said to him but ever since he has stopped his baseless, unjustified attacks on the Vista Teachers Association. His change in tone is not quite a Paul on the Road To Damascus epiphany, but it is close. MadisonMiddle School, we are in your debt. We also salute Jim Trageser for being willing to listen and willing to change his mind when counter facts are presented.
However, the point is that people still do care about the 1994 Recall and the factually incorrect stories our angry friends tell do influence uniformed people. We must be ready to counter incorrect information when ever we hear it. Otherwise the story of the those who hate fact based public education will prevail.
As I remember that January 1994 Representative Assembly meeting, the agenda item was discussed because some teacher at some site who did not like the extremists had done something with the recall at his school and gotten in trouble. VTA leadership put the item on the agenda of the meeting to warn anyone else to be careful to only engage in political activity during non-duty hours.
Everything changed two months later. In March of 1994 the extremists majority on the VUSD school board voted to replace a FACT based, state approved, VUSD sex education curriculum with one that was not state approved called Sex Respect. Sex Respect was an abstinence only curriculum with all mention of birth control and other life saving materials taken out. It contains racist diagrams of a black boy trying to talk a white girl into sex. It had silly slogans that the children would have howled at. One I remember was "Pet your dog, not your date."
The ACLU had notified the board that they would be sued if they adopted Sex Respect, the extremist did anyway. According to a Logan Jenkins March 24, 1994 editorial in the Escondido Times Advocate, "Maybe (Deidre) Holliday is correct and the cost of defending Sex Respect will not be huge. But we don't think so." Jenkins adds, "After all the tantrums are over and everyone has gone to sleep, Vista is left with a corrusive residue of unadulterated hate. One wonders how far things must go before Holliday and her supporters pack up and go to private Christian Schools. If the political agenda is to Balkanize the education system, it's working."****
The adoption of Sex Respect which took fact based life saving information out of our classrooms was the action that galvanized the Vista Teacher's Association into joining the community recall effort. At a Special Representative Assembly Meeting convened at 4:13pm on April 4, 1994 the Vista Teachers Association governing body, the Representative Assembly voted to join the recall. This action happened with only a little over two months left to finish gathering enough signatures to qualify the recall for the November 1994 ballot. Barbara Mitchell made the motion. Paul Metivier seconded the motion. There were Representatives from both high schools, all three middle schools, eleven elementary schools, Sierra Vista, and Vista Academy. Two of the Representatives voted no, one abstained; everyone else, including me, voted in favor of the motion.
I changed my mind about supporting the recall because the extremists were reaching into our classroom and taking potentially life saving and life changing, vitally needed information away from our children. Teachers are in the information business, especially when that information can save a life. I would not be a part of information denial.
As a side note, one of our angry friends who was running for VUSD school board in 1996 (Rob Walter) told me regarding sex education that "information once given can never be taken back." (He lost.) Clearly our angry friends have a very different relationship with information and facts than fact based public school teachers do.
I know, I know who cares now. Except that our angry friends are such liars on the North County Times blogs about this issue and so many others. It is nice to have factual information in hand to refute them.
-----------------------------------------
*At that time in January VTA membership were so unaware of the recall and uniformed that the secretary of the Representative Assembly and the rest of us thought that all three extremists were being recalled when actually only two were. The third Deidre Holliday's term was set to expire in November, so there was no need to recall her in November.
**This referred to political activity conducted during non duty hours. At the time as far as most of us knew, we could be fired for being involved in a recall. There had never been one here. We had no idea of the consequences for teachers 'foolish' enough to join in.
***The law allowing buttons during duty hours has since been changed by 'union haters'. It is no longer legal to wear a political button in class. At the time we also could use district mail and district mail boxes to send union materials. A George W. Bush Labor Relations Board ruling took that right away from unions as well. All part of the massive effort to transfer middle class wealth to the super rich by revoking all the rights of the unions to mobilize and defend the middle class.
****Our angry friends and their allies often accuse the Vista Teachers Association's recall of splitting the district. As anyone can read and as Logan Jenkins noted at the time, it was the agenda of the extremists that had already split the district. VUSD was attacked by extremists with an extremist agenda. That attack lead to any and all divisions that may still be present in our fine district.
It was one thing to know that they were lying yet again and re-writing history yet again. It is another to have proof of their lies in hand.
I now have copies of VTA Executive Board and Representative Assembly minutes from 1993-94. The orininals are on file at the Vista Teachers Association office. The minutes of those meetings show that the first mention of the recall by anyone at the VTA happened a full one year and two months after the election.
The record of this very first mention of the already on-going community based recall was in the January 24, 1994, Representative Assembly minutes. This FIRST mention of the community recall was the last item in those minutes. It was mentioned in item VII Information and future action.
The items says:
Recall in Vista. Discussion. Recall drive has started to recall Joyce Lee, John Tyndall, and Diedre Holliday.* What role should teachers play? It's up to individual conscience. Politial activity cannot affect your job.** You are protected by state law.
Of the 1025 certificated employees of this district,only about 450 live inside the district. Some VTA members will work for recall. Some will work against. No money has been spent by the VTA or VTA/PAC for or against.
Recall petitions can be present at schools. They may be signed during duty free lunch or before or after school duty hours. Anyone can wear a button for or against the recall during duty hours.***
School board members phone numbers can be found at the front of the VTA directory if you wish to oppose the recall. Letha McWey's, leader of the recall, phone number is XXX-XXXX , if you wish to support the recall.
This first VTA mention of the existing COMMUNITY inspired recall took no position on the recall, the mention was merely to warn any VTA members who might have gotten involved with the recall to make sure all their personal activities involving recall happened at times that they were not on duty. It is clear from the notes that during the discussion, there were VTA members at the Representative Assembly who OPPOSED the recall. At that time, I was one of those members who opposed the recall.
This first mention of the community recall shows conclusively that in January of 1994 more than a year after the election that the official position of the Representative Assembly, the governing body of the VTA, was studied neutrality. For our angry friends to say anything else is a lie. But it is a lie that some have come to believe.
Here is what Jim Trageser who writes editorials for the North County Times as written about that meeting that he did not attend and the official VTA notes that he clearly did not ask to read. He wrote in the North County Time on August 10, 2008: "In the early 1990s, the VTA was one of the main organizers of a recall drive against two Vista Unified School District board members." On January 24, 2010, he wrote in the North County Times, "Clearly, Tyndall and Lee had had no time to do anything when recall organizers began planning, seeing as they hadn't even been sworn in yet."
Jim Trageser has toned down since he wrote those two editorials, largely thanks to "The Madision Middle School Miracle" that occurred this spring. "The Miracle" happened when Madison teachers invited Jim to their school and to his credit he went. He listened to what they had to say. I do not know what they said to him but ever since he has stopped his baseless, unjustified attacks on the Vista Teachers Association. His change in tone is not quite a Paul on the Road To Damascus epiphany, but it is close. MadisonMiddle School, we are in your debt. We also salute Jim Trageser for being willing to listen and willing to change his mind when counter facts are presented.
However, the point is that people still do care about the 1994 Recall and the factually incorrect stories our angry friends tell do influence uniformed people. We must be ready to counter incorrect information when ever we hear it. Otherwise the story of the those who hate fact based public education will prevail.
As I remember that January 1994 Representative Assembly meeting, the agenda item was discussed because some teacher at some site who did not like the extremists had done something with the recall at his school and gotten in trouble. VTA leadership put the item on the agenda of the meeting to warn anyone else to be careful to only engage in political activity during non-duty hours.
Everything changed two months later. In March of 1994 the extremists majority on the VUSD school board voted to replace a FACT based, state approved, VUSD sex education curriculum with one that was not state approved called Sex Respect. Sex Respect was an abstinence only curriculum with all mention of birth control and other life saving materials taken out. It contains racist diagrams of a black boy trying to talk a white girl into sex. It had silly slogans that the children would have howled at. One I remember was "Pet your dog, not your date."
The ACLU had notified the board that they would be sued if they adopted Sex Respect, the extremist did anyway. According to a Logan Jenkins March 24, 1994 editorial in the Escondido Times Advocate, "Maybe (Deidre) Holliday is correct and the cost of defending Sex Respect will not be huge. But we don't think so." Jenkins adds, "After all the tantrums are over and everyone has gone to sleep, Vista is left with a corrusive residue of unadulterated hate. One wonders how far things must go before Holliday and her supporters pack up and go to private Christian Schools. If the political agenda is to Balkanize the education system, it's working."****
The adoption of Sex Respect which took fact based life saving information out of our classrooms was the action that galvanized the Vista Teacher's Association into joining the community recall effort. At a Special Representative Assembly Meeting convened at 4:13pm on April 4, 1994 the Vista Teachers Association governing body, the Representative Assembly voted to join the recall. This action happened with only a little over two months left to finish gathering enough signatures to qualify the recall for the November 1994 ballot. Barbara Mitchell made the motion. Paul Metivier seconded the motion. There were Representatives from both high schools, all three middle schools, eleven elementary schools, Sierra Vista, and Vista Academy. Two of the Representatives voted no, one abstained; everyone else, including me, voted in favor of the motion.
I changed my mind about supporting the recall because the extremists were reaching into our classroom and taking potentially life saving and life changing, vitally needed information away from our children. Teachers are in the information business, especially when that information can save a life. I would not be a part of information denial.
As a side note, one of our angry friends who was running for VUSD school board in 1996 (Rob Walter) told me regarding sex education that "information once given can never be taken back." (He lost.) Clearly our angry friends have a very different relationship with information and facts than fact based public school teachers do.
I know, I know who cares now. Except that our angry friends are such liars on the North County Times blogs about this issue and so many others. It is nice to have factual information in hand to refute them.
-----------------------------------------
*At that time in January VTA membership were so unaware of the recall and uniformed that the secretary of the Representative Assembly and the rest of us thought that all three extremists were being recalled when actually only two were. The third Deidre Holliday's term was set to expire in November, so there was no need to recall her in November.
**This referred to political activity conducted during non duty hours. At the time as far as most of us knew, we could be fired for being involved in a recall. There had never been one here. We had no idea of the consequences for teachers 'foolish' enough to join in.
***The law allowing buttons during duty hours has since been changed by 'union haters'. It is no longer legal to wear a political button in class. At the time we also could use district mail and district mail boxes to send union materials. A George W. Bush Labor Relations Board ruling took that right away from unions as well. All part of the massive effort to transfer middle class wealth to the super rich by revoking all the rights of the unions to mobilize and defend the middle class.
****Our angry friends and their allies often accuse the Vista Teachers Association's recall of splitting the district. As anyone can read and as Logan Jenkins noted at the time, it was the agenda of the extremists that had already split the district. VUSD was attacked by extremists with an extremist agenda. That attack lead to any and all divisions that may still be present in our fine district.
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