State government furloughs

[craigwatanabe]

Re: State government furloughs

Using generic drugs to qualify for the lower co-pay has been a staple of folks' insurance in the private sector a LONG time ago. Even Medicare does the same with its client base. I don't have any ill will to each individual state employee but I am left wondering what goes through the mind of the unions thinking somehow they warrant extra, special treatment?

Alerting the bank about potential hardship? Has any of these unions considered rolling back the union dues in light of the current hardships?

Hey when you're used to eating steak it's hard to drop down to Hamburger helper.

And the Unions should discount the union worker, they advocated pay cuts first!

[Amati]

Re: State government furloughs

I see the choices more like, "here is your serving of steak, but now you only get a smaller portion of it", or, "here is your serving of hamburger helper, but now you only get a smaller portion". Switching from steak to hamburger helper, if still given full portions, at least leaves you with full plate. But what is happening is that the portions are being reduced. For example, now public school children go to school for just 3.5 days a week. Smaller portions of education.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: State government furloughs

I see the choices more like, "here is your serving of steak, but now you only get a smaller portion of it", or, "here is your serving of hamburger helper, but now you only get a smaller portion". Switching from steak to hamburger helper, if still given full portions, at least leaves you with full plate. But what is happening is that the portions are being reduced. For example, now public school children go to school for just 3.5 days a week. Smaller portions of education.

Maybe....the school days can be taught more efficiently...and maybe parents can get more involved so education is easier for the teachers.

[Amati]

Re: State government furloughs

Maybe....the school days can be taught more efficiently

Are you are saying that nearly 20% of the classroom time (the equivalent of every Friday) is basically being wasted by teachers? I'd sure hope that is not the situation in classrooms!

maybe parents can get more involved so education is easier for the teachers.

Maybe many concerned parents are already hands on with their child's education. I'd say that maybe the parents expect their tax dollars to be more wisely budgeted and spent, instead of the children being the ones to suffer.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: State government furloughs

Are you are saying that nearly 20% of the classroom time (the equivalent of every Friday) is basically being wasted by teachers? I'd sure hope that is not the situation in classrooms!


Maybe many concerned parents are already hands on with their child's education. I'd say that maybe the parents expect their tax dollars to be more wisely budgeted and spent, instead of the children being the ones to suffer.

I've seen some High School classrooms in action and I've seen some disinterested teachers too.

If there were "many" concerned parents you'd see the PTSA meetings held in the cafeterias every week instead of in a classroom with lots of seating room.

It's sad when you see the small number of concerned parents attend PTSA meetings. Remember education starts in the home.

And here's something I didn't know about the latest furlough lawsuit, I was having dinner with a SPED teacher and one of the BOE members whose last name is just like mine. Apparently the arguement is when the furloughs go into effect this Friday, Special Needs children won't get the Federally Mandated support hours required. This lawsuit is all about SPED.

I asked this BOE member why "Teacher Institute" days weren't considered instead of active classroom days. He responded that it was considered but there were mitigating circumstances with regards to collective bargaining that stymied that consideration.

[Frankie's Market]

Re: State government furloughs

It's sad when you see the small number of concerned parents attend PTSA meetings.

Oh, every school is different when it comes to parent/community participation.

Apparently the arguement is when the furloughs go into effect this Friday, Special Needs children won't get the Federally Mandated support hours required. This lawsuit is all about SPED.

Correct. Attorney Eric Seitz has used the leverage from the Felix lawsuits of the 1990s to successfully extract concessions from the State in the past. No doubt, he will make use of the same tools again in this latest round of litigation.

I asked this BOE member why "Teacher Institute" days weren't considered instead of active classroom days. He responded that it was considered but there were mitigating circumstances with regards to collective bargaining that stymied that consideration.

Teacher Institute Day is one of the things that was gained by the HSTA as a result of the strike in 1973. Obviously, it is not an instructional day, but it is considered a work day for the teachers. Teacher Institute Day started off as a noble concept, with the idea that teachers could sign up for various seminars and workshops that would promote professional development, capped off by a general assembly meeting. But the problem was that Teacher Institute Day attendance was never made mandatory. As a result, you always saw a number of teachers catching up with work in their own classroom on that day instead of being at Blaisdell Center (or wherever the Institute was being held). Or worse yet, other teachers weren't doing any work at all and simply taking the day off, even though it is a work day. I think if the HSTA publicly came out with attendance statistics, it would reveal an embarrasingly low % of teacher attendance/participation.

[Amati]

Re: State government furloughs

If there were "many" concerned parents you'd see the PTSA meetings held in the cafeterias every week instead of in a classroom with lots of seating room.It's sad when you see the small number of concerned parents attend PTSA meetings. Remember education starts in the home.

You are right about that, I learned during my time with the PTSA that it was a very small group of parents that pulled it together. More pathetic was trying to get a teacher representative! We had to finally twist the arm of the librarian, because no classroom treacher would volunteer.

[Walkoff Balk]

Re: State government furloughs

Another furlough Friday have been a Munster head scratcher.

[Kimo]

Re: State government furloughs

Seen yesterday - Furlough Friday II:

Hallowe`en costume bummy looking guy w cardboard sign:

"Furloughed - will work 4 health benefits"

[Kalalau]

Re: State government furloughs

Hawai'i like California is a victim of Republican tax cuts for the wealthy. There is nothing wrong with taxing the wealthy, capitalism has a tendency to concentrate more and more wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer people, and what really is the good in that? Is a banana republic with 5 % of the population owning 95 % of the wealth really something we want to strive for? No. Taxing the wealthiest to provide good education for the general population helps to raise the earning capacity of huge numbers of people, and that increases tax receipts. Good education = good jobs = better consumers = better tax payers. Its not that hard. Somehow thanks to simple minded tax cut rhetoric the public has become convinced that cutting their ability to get a profitable education by enriching the already wealthy even more is to their own advantage, and it never has been. Countries that have been like banana republics with that highly concentrated wealth at the very top have struggled to overcome it--India, China, a lot of Latin America, but the US has eagerly voted itself into that position. Incredibly, Ronald Reagan remains hailed as our greatest president...for cutting taxes...for the wealthiest of the wealthy. If people can't understand that their own best interests do not lie with impoverishing themselves there isn't much that can be done to save the country from losing its middle class and becoming basically like Honduras 70 years ago. Its a choice the people are making every time education takes a back seat to enriching the rich.

[Bobinator]

Re: State government furloughs

Hey, don't worry. America will soon become like Communist China. Thanks to the Democrat Party...

[salmoned]

Re: State government furloughs

If you mean 8 to 12% annual increases in GNP, bring it on!

[Linkmeister]

Re: State government furloughs

I keep wondering how many layers of management are between the teachers and the administrators at DOE and how many of those people could be let go rather than the teachers.

I could be wrong, but it seems to me that state government has been top-heavy with administrators for years in most departments.

[Kalalau]

Re: State government furloughs

The model I would like for America is neither Communist China nor Honduras 70 years ago, it would be the America of 2000, just the way it was when President Bill Clinton turned it over to the crooked supreme ct.'s choice for president, Mr. Bush: budget surplusses, disappearing national debt, high employment, peace, the only change I'd make that the country would have either successfully adopted the Clintons' health plan in 1994, or would have adopted the Canadian system. By the way I finally found out why Winston Churchill lost the British elections after WW2. It was always a bit of a mystery why the English would have turned against him after his success during the war. Turns out he opposed national health care but the public wanted it.