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Fortunately for the teachers, Californians have a very short memory. All the teachers need to do is survive for the four-to-five years it takes Californians to
by claydavisss 8y ago
Fortunately for the teachers, Californians have a very short memory.
All the teachers need to do is survive for the four-to-five years it takes Californians to forget what they have voted for. Then they can roll out a Proposition or local bond measure scolding voters for not funding education. Techies and other knowledge workers in particular respond very well to this kind of prodding which is why these measures pass reliably every four to five years but tend to fail if done too frequently. The unwise teachers in my town, Los Gatos, recently tried to shake down voters before the buildings promised by the previous bond measure were constructed.
The same is done with transit funding...I can't remember how many times a Measure or Proposition has passed that has promised to "finally" address transit funding...until four years pass and it is time to "finally" address it again.
- User23 8y agoThe cool new thing is capitalizing the interest on the bond for decades. https://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/education/where-borrowing-105-million-will-cost-1-billion-poway-schools/ https://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/education/where-borro...
- danvoell 8y agoHoly cow. I can't believe this is a thing and that municipalities would agree to this. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau should start creating laws to protect the government from making decisions like this.
- dragonwriter 8y ago> The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau should start creating laws The CFPB can’t make laws (that's Congress’ job) and neither the current administration (including the current CFPB leadership) nor the current Congress even support the general mission of the CFPB.
- davidfischer 8y agoThis was huge news in San Diego in 2012 when it was revealed. The worst of these types of deals are now outlawed as of 2013. http://articles.latimes.com/2013/oct/02/local/la-me-ln-school-bonds-20131002 http://articles.latimes.com/2013/oct/02/local/la-me-ln-schoo...
- gisely 8y agoDo you really think of teachers as a community of people who try to perpetrate scams on the general public? I'm trying to count on one hand all the teachers I know who are sitting fat the money they bilked from the voters, but I'm just not getting very far. Perhaps a more plausible explanation is that education funding measures reoccur repeatedly because public education is chronically underfunded as a standard budget item?
- bobcostas55 8y agoTeachers are certainly not underfunded as a budget item. They're 1) well paid[0], and 2) there's no evidence that paying them more results in better outcomes.[1] That's mostly because teachers have almost no effect whatsoever: even the very best only improve student outcomes by a small amount, and the effect fades after a few years.[2] On the other hand there's evidence that teacher collective bargaining wastes hundreds of billions annually.[3] Just because they're not conspicuously wealthy does not mean that they're blameless or virtuous or unsuccessful as a special interest group. [0] https://www.city-journal.org/html/no-teachers-are-not-underpaid-15867.html https://www.city-journal.org/html/no-teachers-are-not-underp... [1] http://econweb.ucsd.edu/~kamurali/papers/Working%20Papers/Double%20for%20Nothing%20(Current%20WP).pdf http://econweb.ucsd.edu/~kamurali/papers/Working%20Papers/Do... [2] http://slatestarcodex.com/2016/05/19/teachers-much-more-than-you-wanted-to-know/ http://slatestarcodex.com/2016/05/19/teachers-much-more-than... [3] https://www.nber.org/papers/w24782 https://www.nber.org/papers/w24782
- metabagel 8y agoI see your cherry-picked articles, and I raise with my own cherry-picked articles. http://time.com/money/5228237/teacher-pay-charts/ http://time.com/money/5228237/teacher-pay-charts/ http://www.nea.org/home/12661.htm http://www.nea.org/home/12661.htm https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/08/16/think-teachers-arent-paid-enough-its-worse-than-you-think/?utm_term=.7de1b3cc6ead https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/08/... Of note, teacher salary comparisons should be made to those with similar education attainment and should take into account the many hours they spend working outside of the school day.
- codemac 8y agoWhat else should they do, when the representatives in government have little to no incentive to actually fix these issues? When you're being underpaid, work a second job along with teaching, and have no savings for retirement because you are underpaid with the guise of a "pension"... you're gonna make a sign, and you're gonna try and get some funding bills passed. Teachers have to participate in the broken system today, and I think categorizing their efforts to get more funding as a "shakedown" isn't representative of their motivations.
- claydavisss 8y agoI'm not damning them - they are working the system to their advantage. Voters could put a stop to it anytime they wanted to, but choose not to.
- janitor61 8y agoIt would be wonderful to have a list of all these propositions including their initial selling points, how much money they raised and where the money actually ended up.