Comments on: Speak Up!

By: Sylvia Woods

Sylvia Woods — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 19:00:47 +0000

Sometimes when a person opens their mouth they tell others more about what they DON’T know than what they do know. You have made it obvious that you know nothing about the education field other than what u have seen on fox news. You obviously know how to use the internet–try RESEARCHING before speaking. And if u really make less than I do (math teacher) then u likely do not have health insurance and qualify for those “pesky entitlements” like food stamps. Once again Charles, RESEARCH. It will save u from ur ignorance. Didn’t anyone teach u that?

By: Bernadette Fugaro

Bernadette Fugaro — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 02:52:34 +0000

So much money!!! I started at $12,000 when alll my friend were making $20,000! It took me 6 years to make $20,000- no on complained about teachers then!I’m still idealistic, even though I’m no longer young. I love teaching and will continue to do my best at changing lives each day. Glad I’m not bitter and unfufilled like you. If you’re worried about tax payers money- check out all the greedy politicians. Look at their salaries, staffs and benefits.
Guess what, I’m a tax payer too!

By: Greg

Greg — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 02:44:42 +0000

I am a retiree in the Wisconsin Retirement System, which incidentally IS fully funded. A past Republican governor raided this fund some years back and after a lengthy legal battle, was forced to put the money back. Hooray. I retired early and am able to still purchase the health insurance for my family. We gave up many a raise and increase to retain these benefits. Now they are already altered. According to Wis Bill 11, my increased premium could be as high as $567/mo. My earnings as a support staff worker ended with my income being less than $40,000/yr. My whopping pension is about $1,300/mo and when I hit 62, Social Security age, it will drop to $432. Tell me how I will pay this insurance premium? I can’t. If collective bargaining goes out the door too, maybe retiree insurance will be dropped altogether. With a wife with many pre-existing conditions and the new Health Reforms being up for appeal, we would not even be able to purchase insurance. There goes 40 years of budgeting and saving for our golden years. Some one else is getting the gold.

There is a joke going around: “A unionized public employee, a teabagger and a CEO are sitting at a table. In the middle of the table there is a plate with a dozen cookies on it. The CEO reaches across and takes 11 cookies, looks at the teabagger and says, “Look out for that union guy – he wants a piece of your cookie.”

This is what is happening in our great state of Wisconsin. The state that is primarily responsible for the 40 hr workweek, overtime, workmen’s comp and unemployment benefits Please, please help us …………KILL THIS BILL.

By: Thomas Fredricks

Thomas Fredricks — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 00:50:21 +0000

I been a CPA for 42 years and a teacher full and part-time for 46 years. Teaching is the hardest thing I ever did. I did high-school teaching one year and vocational and technical college for for 45 years and college and university teaching 31 years. I enjoyed every minute but it was always a challenge.

By: Mary Beth Duncan

Mary Beth Duncan — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 15:32:15 +0000

Our teacher unions and associations are at the heart of America. We have joined together for a unified voice because we know that together we persevere and divided we fail. I hear workers around the country are jealous of our health & retirement benefits, benefits that are part of our compensation, benefits that we bargained for! It is working poor jealous of what we, who are also working poor, have been able to accomplish through collective bargaining. Let us be the voice for “medicare for all’. Then all citizens of our great USA have their health care needs met. We would all need to contribute more for medicare and social security but we could all rest easier in the assurance the we will have our health and retirement basic needs met. Let’s not fight amongst ourselves, let’s lead the way to lift everyone up!

By: David Pope

David Pope — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 22:25:52 +0000

You know, when I first started subtitute teaching in education 14 years ago, my first day was at a “nice” suburban high school. When I got on this 15-year-old student’s case, he stood up in class, took a handful(and I mean a handful) of change out of his pocket and whipped it at my face. He got a one day suspension and I had to talk to his dad. Did this cause me to quit? No. Did it cause me to change my mind about teaching or children? No. But this is an example of the reality that we deal with. At this point, everyone is jealous of educators and health care workers because they work in professions that are necessary and have some amount of job stability. So, the politicians and the commercial-time selling media, bashes teachers and schools every chance they get. Is it public education’s fault so many jobs have been allowed to go overseas? No. Did we make those “free-trade” agreements during the 1990′s that outsourced our manufacturing jobs? No. Educators and schools(including our students) are scapegoats for the economic ills of the current times. Come in and sub for me for a few days and then tell me how “easy” I have it. Plus, I have gone to school 17 years of my adult life and I am 39 years old. I am still going to college to prove to the state that I am qualified to do my job. I have to do this on my own time with my own money. What do you outsiders know? When people my age think of public school, they are thinking of what they experienced as students in the early 1980′s. It isn’t like that anymore, Jack.

By: D

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 15:09:35 +0000

When the college aged students realize that public service is not valued who will teach your whining babies. I hope you are prepared and qualified to homeschool them, protect them from crime, put out a fire at your house, and treat any health condition your family has.

By: Jo

Jo — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 23:32:11 +0000

You have no idea how many educators, including myself, are heaving a heavy sigh of relief that you decided against a career in education. You talk about teachers whining? We certainly cannot lay a glove on you, now can we……LOL.

By: Fredrick Patton

Fredrick Patton — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 17:53:04 +0000

Budget deficits should not be an excuse for union busting. Those who would increase their profits by eliminating labor unions unions would like to “seize the moment” in order to push their anti-union sentiments. The rest of us should recall what U. S. society was like before labor unions existed – unrestrained exploitation of workers, shameful child labor, and economic freedom only for the wealthiest..
Unions have helped us to realize the American ideal of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” for more than just the elite. We should continue to expand these freedoms to the least privileged Americans. Taking away the bargaining power of unions is a step backwards, toward less freedom for all but the priviled few.
It is clear that the labor unions of this great country are willing pull in their belts along with all U.S.working people, The disappearance of union negotiating power would benefit only those who would increase their great wealth even further.