Philidelphia Reform Comission Disolves Teachers Union contracts

[Khoranth]

The way the US treats their teachers in general is absolutely disgusting. I have no idea why anyone wants to become a teacher over there^^

I agree that schools need more funding, but paying underpaid teachers even less money will lead to less suitable people teaching and good teachers going somewhere else.

This is not the way the US treats its teachers, this is the way US cities treat teachers. There is a major difference. Cities like Philadelphia have large populations of people who do not work, do not pay taxes and have many children. The money is spread thin in US cities.

If the teachers don't like it, don't work in a city. US Cities are mostly trash, and if you choose to work there, you will get shit on.

[Deleted]

This is not the way the US treats its teachers, this is the way US cities treat teachers. There is a major difference. Cities like Philadelphia have large populations of people who do not work, do not pay taxes and have many children. The money is spread thin in US cities.

If the teachers don't like it, don't work in a city. US Cities are mostly trash, and if you choose to work there, you will get shit on.

Because they're choosing to stay there

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Exactly. If you truly believe in somebody else's dream you will be a millionaire, because 'Murica. Instead of those lazy stoners who get useless degrees such as childhood education and nursing and what not.

You do know to teach you need a bachelors in education (Masters in Education for my regulatory body), not early childhood studies?

[Raeph]

Raise taxes FFS. You want to improve learning without paying for it so you cut what's already there? This is what happens. Something gives and the whole system is going to get screwed.

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/42/42101.html
http://www.bls.gov/ro3/urphl.htm

What are you going to get if you raise taxes?

26.2% below poverty line
Per capital income in last 12m $21,946
Median Household income $37016
Unemployment at 7.8% in June 2014

We're talking about a poor urban school district, where the population makes about 70% the amount of money a year the rest of the state does in income. School districts can only petition for a property tax increase on people in their locality. Other funds can be made available as stated above, but the bulk of the money to fund a school district will come from the home owners who live in that school district, and even then home ownership in Philadelphia is only 54% as apposed to 70% in the rest of the state.

Besides that though they have increased taxes, cigarette taxes, however even that has been proven to be highly regressive as well.

[Mayhem]

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/42/42101.html
http://www.bls.gov/ro3/urphl.htm

What are you going to get if you raise taxes?

26.2% below poverty line
Per capital income in last 12m $21,946
Median Household income $37016
Unemployment at 7.8% in June 2014

We're talking about a poor urban school district, where the population makes about 70% the amount of money a year the rest of the state does in income. School districts can only petition for a property tax increase on people in their locality. Other funds can be made available as stated above, but the bulk of the money to fund a school district will come from the home owners who live in that school district, and even then home ownership in Philadelphia is only 54% as apposed to 70% in the rest of the state.

Besides that though they have increased taxes, cigarette taxes, however even that has been proven to be highly regressive as well.

brilliant system

get yourself out of a poor neighbourhood by going to school in a poor neighbourhood financed by your poor neighbours

that´ll work, done, next topic?

right obesity, uuuhm, become a sugar baker to treat your obesity

[Raeph]

brilliant system

get yourself out of a poor neighbourhood by going to school in a poor neighbourhood financed by your poor neighbours

that´ll work, done, next topic?

right obesity, uuuhm, become a sugar baker to treat your obesity

I've honestly wondered sometimes if it would not be better to bring back the larger regional schools, similar to early 18th, 19th and early 20th century reform schools, where students stay on campus, away from their home neighborhood, where focus is on study and extra-curricular studies in an effort to remove the distractions of home environment from the students to give them the chance to focus more on personal enrichment and improvement.

There was a recent documentary about a school that does that still, in an urban center (movie is called The Rule, and I've not seen it yet http://www.pbs.org/program/the-rule/).

Something to think about.

[Elegiac]

Besides that though they have increased taxes, cigarette taxes, however even that has been proven to be highly regressive as well.

The answer is to reduce the federalization of education. There's no reason why developing states should be allowed to slash their education budgets.

[SHT]

What I don't get is why are government bodies responsible for administering pensions seperately.

Why not just nationalise them to save the trouble - it also seems that most Local Governments that are going bust do so due to the retirement benefits they need to pay out. Overall, it seems like a giant hassle for everyone involved.

[Raeph]

What I don't get is why are government bodies responsible for administering pensions seperately.

Why not just nationalise them to save the trouble - it also seems that most Local Governments that are going bust do so due to the retirement benefits they need to pay out. Overall, it seems like a giant hassle for everyone involved.

Originally pensions were a way for employers to defer the income increases of an employee, partially due to wage caps in the mid 20th century and partially as a way to hold down tax increases on blue collar industries, so that instead of a person making $50 a hour doing their job, they only make 25-30, but they get the other 20-25 as a defined benefit plan.

You may be able to nationalize a guarantee program for all government (municipal, teacher and state) pension programs, however you can't nationalize all of them under one umbrella "policy" for everyone, for two reasons; 1) The constitution doesn't give the Federal government the powers to handle municipal, teacher and state employee benefits, 2) The employee's aren't Federal Government employees, they are either employee's of municipalities, school districts or states.

That also doesn't even consider that teachers in California or Illinois want the same benefit packages as teachers in Alabama, Mississippi or Pennsylvania. You could try to encourage all teachers to form one large nation wide teachers union, to try to organize a unified plan, but that may not help either, since an argument could be made that school districts are only required to negotiate the benefit packages of teachers in their locality, and not with a national board.

Yep, big mess.

Though I prefer a smaller government approach in most things, it might make for a better system if the/a main function of the Department of Education was to negotiate the benefit packages for all school districts, making all teachers Federal Employee's, then just levying a tax on municipalities to cover those benefits.