Another Thompson (and Weingarten) Announcement on Schools
Bill Thompson is making another education-related announcement today, unveiling a program that will “invest millions of dollars to create affordable housing for educators in New York City.”
Joining him for the roll-out will be teachers union head Randi Weingarten.
About two weeks ago, Thompson issued an audit saying the city’s education department underreported violent incidents at schools.
Lots more to come from him on the schools issue, I suspect.
I'm tired of these politicians pandering to the teachers union (especially when they are clamouring for higher office) and pretending that they are doing anything for the "education" of the children of this city. This is a joke. We need playgrounds, arts education, sports teams, smaller schools, bilingual ed, culturaly sensitve classrooms, etc. Not a god damn housing allowance for teacher on top of thier 3 month vacations.
Mr. Thompson: if you want to impress anyone about your "commitment" to education try doing something that is a little more than a handout to the teachers union. Try addressing directly one of the issues (see above) that are of essence in the education of our children
PEACE.
if you recall mr. thompson when he was head of the old board of ed fought rudy tooth and nail over imposing discipline in the schools in the form of having a police officer in each troubled school. so that tells you where thompson is at.
i feel sorry for us all if the dems come back with a vengance when bloomberg is gone. anybody of substance out there who wants to sacrifice to be mayor??? pleeeeeze!!!!!
They should give special treatment to any teachers who end up displaced from the former affordable housing buildings that were bought with city and state pension money.
http://www.observer.com/2007/new-york-pension-funds-harlem-portfolio
QueensSINGH (not verified) says: "god damn" and "culturally sensitive" in the same paragraph.
In the very same fallacious, paradoxical paragraph, Mr. Education himself (QueensSINGH) manages to pull off four (4) misspellings. Spelling and grammar are obviously not "issues of essence in the education of our children." They are obviously not problems that exist in our children's homes either.
Thank God, Baby Jesus, Allah, Moses, and Buddha for courageous, educated voices like QueensSINGH!
Looks like the Weiner brigade is getting started early. And I mean Wiener in the phallic sense, of course...
I'm not arguing that Thompson isn't sincere about education reform and improvement, what I'm trying to say (with spelling and grammatical errors galore) is that this type of handout to the teachers union has no impact on the education of public school students and couching it as such is insulting to anyone who is paying even a nominal amount of attention.
Every time we invest our resources on teachers it is usually at the expense of students. When I went to public school in this city there were playgrounds where now stand portable trailers but the teachers get housing! It’s like giving the gardener vitamins and proteins to eat and saying that the plants will grow better. Get the resources directly to the plants!
My criticism of your grammatical skills was in jest, QueensSINGH. The point was simply to show you that good ideas do not necessarily make good policies.
I make it a point not come to the defense of any politician, but in this particular case I felt there was a harsh denigration of a man who exudes practicality and demands results.
Giving each child resources directly is a fantastic idea, but so is Communism…and neither work. We entrust these teachers, all too often, to be the sole providers of education and creativity to our children. Because of that, we need to make sure that the Dept. of Education and Teacher’s Union attracts talented, dedicated, and motivated employees. If we, as a society and as parents, are too busy to serve as teacher to our children, than the least we can do is make sure that we take the utmost care of those venerable people who take the reigns.
It’s very easy to Monday morning quarterback on policies and politicians. If that energy was expended on proposed solutions, as opposed to half-though-out passionate criticisms, we would all be much better served. It astounds me that policies to benefit our children get this criticism, when the grandstanding and press-reactive legislation coming out of our leadership either cheered or ignored.
Ideas and policies like this are what we need. The move to afford our children’s teachers an affordable place to live is not an expense to our children; it’s an investment in them.
I'm not arguing that all resources should go directly to students. All I’m saying is that giving resources DIRECTLY to TEACHERS is not the smartest way to invest in the education of that generation. I am surprised to hear you make arguments that this is in some way good policy. It is not. It is not even policy; it is a political move by Mr. Thompson to get the endorsement of the UFT. Too bad the kids of this city don’t have a powerful union representing them they would all be living in condos right now