Why Exactly Does Romney Want Fewer Firefighters, Police and Teachers?

[Skull Pilot]

We've increased the teacher to student ratio and student performance has declined.

I would also like to see evidence to support this claim.

http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_qpt.asp

The ratio of students to teachers, which is sometimes used as a proxy measure for class size, declined between school years 1990–91 and 2007–08, from 17.6 to 15.8 students per teacher for all regular public schools

American Student Performance Slips Again; China Is Number One - Education - GOOD

 

[candycorn]

so all of us WORKING are suppose to fund the kind of society "others" want and take care of those who don't want to work and so on.

I don't know why I bother working anymore.

All hail the drama queen.

 

[thanatos144]

Why should we pay for more public workers then we need?

Do we have more firefighters, cops, and teachers than we need? Because that is exactly who Romney specifically targeted.

You sure about that? I would like to see proof of that

 

[thanatos144]

Romney did indeed call for cuts to firefighters, cops, and teachers. Then when he was called on it, he said the federal government doesn't pay for firefighters, cops, and teachers.

So...is he saying he was making a moot argument when he called for those cuts? He's really digging a hole for himself.

And he's wrong. The federal government provides billions of dollars a year in grant money to pay for the hiring, training, and equipping of firefighters, cops, and teachers.

So before you make a fool of yourself and plant your flag on a false premise like so many others have done these past few days, know the facts.


Debate the actual issue instead of denying it even exists.

Should we, or should we not, cut the federal funding of firefighers, cops, and teachers?

Before you answer, you should know that the great conservative hero, Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, does not believe we should. He disagrees with Romney on this point.

Carry on!

Why should we pay for more public workers then we need?

Are you thinking society is safe enough? Are you thinking that emergency response is robust enough? Are you thinking that we have enough teachers?

We should determine what type of society we want and basically fund it.

It's just a thought I've recently had but what we should do is have a map of the US and a bunch of concentric circles around cities. In the first circle, response times to 911 calls will be 0-3 minutes. In the next circle, 3-10 minutes. In the next outside circle 10-20 minutes and so on. Have another for Teacher/Student ratios although you can't do that with the concentric circle model. Tell people who live at 999 1st Avenue that this is the deal, you get 911 calls in X amount of time and your TSR will be 48-1 or whatever. If those who live at 999 1st Avenue are not happy with either of those, they can move to a better place, they can send their kids to private schools, or work within the electoral system for more funding for public servants.

But "needs" are to be determined from what I see.

I am thinking paying more for services that suck seems stupid.

 

[Stephanie]

so all of us WORKING are suppose to fund the kind of society "others" want and take care of those who don't want to work and so on.

I don't know why I bother working anymore.

All hail the drama queen.

LOL, and you live in some liberal la la land..
we should FUND the society we want...

 

[thanatos144]

If more teachers are the cure why are our students getting more stupid????I mean just look at the occupy crowd they graduated college and are retarded as hell.

 

[TruthSeeker56]

Bob Cesca: Why Exactly Does Romney Want Fewer Firefighters, Police and Teachers?

This is the Republican leadership agenda. Bleed the government to death, "drown it in the bathtub" and hand everything over to KBR, Monsanto and Walmart.

Meanwhile, Republican voters don't even really understand what their leaders are up to. While they crap on the notion of "socialism," most Republican voters like the idea of a reliable police force and firefighters -- we all simply expect these services to be free and available, even self-identified anti-government conservatives.

It's pretty obvious, isn't it, "Flaylo"?

Romney wants widespread fires to engulf cities in the United States.

Then Romney wants complete chaos, lawlessness, and anarchy to spread throughout all U.S. cities.

And Romney wants all schools to be closed, so we have a nation of illiterate morons roaming the streets, setting fires and spreading anarchy and mayhem.

It's all part of the Republican Party "master plan".

And unless the Democrats pay the Republicans $1 million (place pinky finger on lips), this plan will be carried out!

 

[Stephanie]

Good ole Hufferpost...spreading the bullshit most others won't..

 

[Polk]

so all of us WORKING are suppose to fund the kind of society "others" want and take care of those who don't want to work and so on.

I don't know why I bother working anymore.

You should take a cue from the Tea Party and collect welfare while moaning about government spending.

 

[g5000]

Why should we pay for more public workers then we need?

Do we have more firefighters, cops, and teachers than we need? Because that is exactly who Romney specifically targeted.

Not that Romney was thinking about the point this deeply when he made it, but it's not clear that we need more cops and firefighters. Crime is at historic lows and modern building technologies mean fire is much less of a risk than it used to be.

Once again. Slowly. Read the words.

Romney did not say we do not need more firefighters, cops, and teachers.

He said we need LESS.

Got it?

Yet?

 

[g5000]

American Student Performance Slips Again; China Is Number One - Education - GOOD

Your link explains why China is number one:

"The initiative shown by teachers, who are now better paid, better trained and keen to mold their own curricula. Poor teachers are speedily replaced. China has also expanded school access, and moved away from learning by rote."

So that does not support the argument we need to cut federal funds for teachers.

The argument is stronger for giving principals more power to get rid of lousy teachers, and to raise pay to attract better ones.

 

[rdean]

Every election the Democrats throw out about how we are going to CUT police, firefighters, teachers, blaa blaa blaaa

It's their number one fear mongering in their playbook

Have you listened to Mitt? Repeating what Republicans say IS "fear mongering". I agree.

 

[SwingVoter]

unionized teachers have not only tried to bankrupt taxpayers with pensions, but have also lowered the quality of the profession, and would rather diagnose kids with psychobabble disorders than teach them actual science....but Romney doesn't have the balls to really pursue this issue

 

[buckeye45_73]

Again if we kept criminals in jail and made teachers pay some of their benefits, we'd have more teachers and less criminals, ie would wouldnt need as many layoffs, but unions LOVE layoffs.

 

[Oldstyle]

This whole issue is the usual smoke and mirrors show that the defenders of big government put on every time someone tries to shrink government back to a sane level. Whenever the taxpayers get fed up and cut back their funds the people in charge of the public sector immediately start screaming about how if you do that they will have no choice but to cut teachers, firemen and cops. It's all bullshit.

 

[oreo]

By Michael McAuliff

Mitt Romney was only off by billions of dollars when he said Tuesday that the federal government doesn't pay for police officers, firefighters and teachers.

Trying to counter criticism from the White House, Romney argued that it was "completely absurd" to say he would cut the hiring of such civil servants because the federal government plays no part in those decisions.

"That's a very strange accusation," Romney said on "Fox & Friends." "Of course, teachers and firemen and policemen are hired at the local level and also by states. The federal government doesn't pay for teachers, firefighters or policemen. So obviously that is completely absurd."

In fact, the federal government spends huge amounts of money to support all those professions.

More: Mitt Romney's 'Absurd' Claim Misses Billions In Federal Funds For Cops, Teachers, Firefighters

Mitt Romney On Charge He'd Cut Jobs For Teachers, Firemen, Cops: 'Completely Absurd'

Romney Doesn’t Want to Argue Against Hiring Cops

The question you should be ASKING--is do we NEED more teachers--police or firefighters?--

 

[FA_Q2]

This whole issue is the usual smoke and mirrors show that the defenders of big government put on every time someone tries to shrink government back to a sane level. Whenever the taxpayers get fed up and cut back their funds the people in charge of the public sector immediately start screaming about how if you do that they will have no choice but to cut teachers, firemen and cops. It's all bullshit.

^truth - the reality is that there is a looooog list of pointless, useless dead weight bureaucracies that can be done away with, processes that can be refined and a myriad other things that can save billions upon billions before we even get to cutting personnel let alone teachers, firefighters and police. No one really wants to talk about that though because they6 can hold up the boogeyman and scare everyone away from cuts entirely.

 

[buckeye45_73]

This whole issue is the usual smoke and mirrors show that the defenders of big government put on every time someone tries to shrink government back to a sane level. Whenever the taxpayers get fed up and cut back their funds the people in charge of the public sector immediately start screaming about how if you do that they will have no choice but to cut teachers, firemen and cops. It's all bullshit.

AMEN brother, They do it in M-town (Memphis for those that dont know) ALL the time. And if they would fire the incompetant ones and hire new ones and weed them out and rinse and repeat, we'd be MUCH better off.

 

[Flaylo]

This whole issue is the usual smoke and mirrors show that the defenders of big government put on every time someone tries to shrink government back to a sane level. Whenever the taxpayers get fed up and cut back their funds the people in charge of the public sector immediately start screaming about how if you do that they will have no choice but to cut teachers, firemen and cops. It's all bullshit.

AMEN brother, They do it in M-town (Memphis for those that dont know) ALL the time. And if they would fire the incompetant ones and hire new ones and weed them out and rinse and repeat, we'd be MUCH better off.

Pushing DOMA is an example of rightwing assholes using big government, STFU, hypocrite.

 

[Flaylo]

unionized teachers have not only tried to bankrupt taxpayers with pensions, but have also lowered the quality of the profession, and would rather diagnose kids with psychobabble disorders than teach them actual science....but Romney doesn't have the balls to really pursue this issue

Most taxpayer money doesn't even go to fucking federal unions and federal workers asswipe.