Philadelphia School District: How Liberals Run Schools...

[insein]

Only got 9 views in the Education board so i'll try here.

My Fiance (25) and my best friend (27, male) are teachers in the Philadelphia Public School System and everything Gem said, I hear everynight when my fiance comes home. To add to what Gem said, throw in:

- The Union strictly jumping in on working only till 3:09.
- Teachers being drug from their classroom by Police without notification and taken to the precinct for questioning during school hours for students being injured during fights that werent the teachers fault. (happened to my friend)
- Administration not suspending students because of the quota of absenteeism needing to be met.
-Administration not punishing students that threaten to kill the teacher, slash the teachers tires, destroy the teachers other possessions.
- The Union being a toothless tiger when a student threatens to kill the teacher, slash the teachers tires or destroy the teachers other possessions.
- Affirmative Action

Hows this for a story. The reason my fiance got a job in philly in February was because a Black Female teacher took 6 months sebaticle leave. This teacher didnt do any teaching or discipline for the 5 months she was there. She let the kids do whatever they wanted everyday she was there. The secratary and prep teachers never wanted to deal with that room because the kids were so bad. So my fiance came into one of the worst classrooms in the school. She managed to now make it through 4 months of hell. She would come home some nights crying her eyes out because of the day she had been through. She found out that most of this 6th grade class was 13 and 14 years old and there was one 15 year old to go with the 10 or so 11-12 year olds (you know normal 6th grade age). Any time a fight occurred, the principal and disciplinarian's (both black females) solution was to tell the kids, "Don't do that again." Then they'd send them back to class. Obviously it did jackshit. With all that said, she managed to get them into a manageable status. Prep teachers said that they noticed a difference even though they are still bad. Other teachers commented on how much theyve improved behavior-wise.

So now after she suffered through these 4 months of hell, whats her reward? An offer to stay at the school? No! why? Because shes white. In fact, this school has too many white teachers. 5 other white teachers are being removed from their positions this year in what is called a "forced transfer." OF these 5 teachers only 1 was a new teacher, same as my fiance. The other 4 had at least 2 to 7 years of experience at that school. The same thing happened to my friend since he is also white at a different school. How did they notify them? A letter left in their mailbox saying "You are being reallocated for next year." The School Districts Reason? They feel that the students will learn better with a more "racially balanced" atmosphere than the current one. Oh by the way, the Black Female teacher that my fiance replaced, that only has 4 years experience (less than most of the white teachers being removed), that took 6 months sebaticle leave this year, that apparently took 6 months sick leave last year, that took 6 months family leave the year before that and everytime was retained, and has already unnoficially informed certain teachers that she intends to take 6 months more of whatever the hell else she can think up leave this coming school year, she is being allowed to retain her job making over $50,000/yr. Why? Shes black and they need to fill the quota. Even though she wont be there the whole year, she suits their purposes.

Oh yea, i have full faith in liberals running the public school system now that ive seen what goes on through my friend and my fiance.

Here's an NBC10 news report on the BS teachers face daily.

http://www.nbc10.com/news/9228680/detail.html
NBC10 News Report with footage of students doing all the nasty things you think dont happen in elementary school

http://www.nbc10.com/investigators/9363113/detail.html
http://www.nbc10.com/news/9254731/detail.html

Here's my favorite one.
http://www.nbc10.com/news/9270324/detail.html
Paul Valas' (the CEO of PSD) response when the reports of an 8 year old being beaten daily and not wanting to even sleep for fear of the kids.

"This isn't 'Mayberry RFD,'" said school district CEO Paul Vallas in an interview that aired on NBC 10 News Monday.

 

[Hobbit]

Yep, institutional racism is alive and well, and it's committed on a daily basis by the liberals in the name of 'diversity,' a euphamism for putting down whites and elevating blacks out of, yet again, a twisted sense of fairness.

 

[Avatar4321]

The Philadelphia school system is a joke. I had a friend who worked down there as a sub and she would come back with the craziest stories because things are that bad.

And to think, when Governor Rendell first ran four years ago he promised to do to all the schools in Pennsylvania what he did in Philly. That was one of the scariest campaign promises ive ever heard. and he will probably fulfill it too if he isnt voted out this year.

 

[Abbey Normal]

I have a relative who teaches in the Philly public schools. From what he tells me, the inmates are definitely running the asylum.

 

[insein]

I have a relative who teaches in the Philly public schools. From what he tells me, the inmates are definitely running the asylum.

100%

 

[William Joyce]

I believe your story, insein. Basically what's going on here is that blacks and Hispanics are very, very different people from whites. They just do not behave in the same way, period. But I realize that if you say this out loud, you're marked as a terrorist.

Here's a story you'll enjoy/cringe at, along your fiance's lines:

http://www.city-journal.org/html/13_1_how_i_joined.html

Idealistic young man tries jumping in to teach the lil' blackies, and it's craziness all around.

 

[Mr.Conley]

I've heard they've begun opening some charter schools in Philly. However, I haven't heard anything recently. How are they coming?

 

[insein]

I've heard they've begun opening some charter schools in Philly. However, I haven't heard anything recently. How are they coming?

Somewhat. At least there if you have bad behavior they kick you out of school.

 

[BaronVonBigmeat]

Amazing. If a government official showed up at your doorstop demanding your car, you'd be well within your rights to tell him to fuck off. But demand your children for a day (and your tax dollars), and everyone's okay with it. If every penny of government spending on schools like this were abolished, no one would notice, and the kids wouldn't grow up any more ignorant than they are already.

If we insist on having this public crapola, I can tell you how to fix it though.

1) Expulsions. Send half the school home for good if need be.
2) Paddlings. Vicious, butt-blistering, cringe-inducing paddlings. In front of their peers, not out in the hallway. Think you're tough? Think you're impressing your friends? You won't think so when you've got tears streaming down your face because of that big hickory board lifting your ass off the ground.
3) Cut every single penny of free government aid--AFDC, free housing, everything. Suddenly the parents of these hooligans will understand the importance of a good education.
4) No more anti-drug laws. Smuggling/dealing will not be profitable any more, and you will have to get a real job.

Basically I see all this as interrelated symptoms of government interference. It's like we've made our inner cities into Indian reservations, only for blacks. Time to cut the umbilical cord.

 

[Hobbit]

Amazing. If a government official showed up at your doorstop demanding your car, you'd be well within your rights to tell him to fuck off. But demand your children for a day (and your tax dollars), and everyone's okay with it. If every penny of government spending on schools like this were abolished, no one would notice, and the kids wouldn't grow up any more ignorant than they are already.

If we insist on having this public crapola, I can tell you how to fix it though.

1) Expulsions. Send half the school home for good if need be.
2) Paddlings. Vicious, butt-blistering, cringe-inducing paddlings. In front of their peers, not out in the hallway. Think you're tough? Think you're impressing your friends? You won't think so when you've got tears streaming down your face because of that big hickory board lifting your ass off the ground.
3) Cut every single penny of free government aid--AFDC, free housing, everything. Suddenly the parents of these hooligans will understand the importance of a good education.
4) No more anti-drug laws. Smuggling/dealing will not be profitable any more, and you will have to get a real job.

Basically I see all this as interrelated symptoms of government interference. It's like we've made our inner cities into Indian reservations, only for blacks. Time to cut the umbilical cord.

Actually, the main problem is competition. The school gets tax money whether the kids are there or not, so there's no reason to do a good job. If we allowed parents to pick the schools and made sure that even a portion of the money went with the kids when they left, you'd see schools improve dramatically.

 

[insein]

Amazing. If a government official showed up at your doorstop demanding your car, you'd be well within your rights to tell him to fuck off. But demand your children for a day (and your tax dollars), and everyone's okay with it. If every penny of government spending on schools like this were abolished, no one would notice, and the kids wouldn't grow up any more ignorant than they are already.

If we insist on having this public crapola, I can tell you how to fix it though.

1) Expulsions. Send half the school home for good if need be.
2) Paddlings. Vicious, butt-blistering, cringe-inducing paddlings. In front of their peers, not out in the hallway. Think you're tough? Think you're impressing your friends? You won't think so when you've got tears streaming down your face because of that big hickory board lifting your ass off the ground.
3) Cut every single penny of free government aid--AFDC, free housing, everything. Suddenly the parents of these hooligans will understand the importance of a good education.
4) No more anti-drug laws. Smuggling/dealing will not be profitable any more, and you will have to get a real job.

Basically I see all this as interrelated symptoms of government interference. It's like we've made our inner cities into Indian reservations, only for blacks. Time to cut the umbilical cord.

Im all for it. The problem is you'd be fighting an avalanche with a icepick trying to get the entrenched liberal school board to give up their money as well as the brainwashed masses that think they NEED the freebies to live. If your try to take money from people who think its rightfully theres, then you will be in for the fight of your life.

 

[acludem]

Beating kids, taking away funding, and eliminating drug laws do absolutely nothing to solve the real problem with schools. There are several things that need to happen for public schools to improve. The first is giving control of the classroom back to the teachers. This means teachers have to be able to remove problem students who then need to be placed in an environment where they can get help. This also means teachers need to be better-paid and better-trained. Next, we need to be sure that every child comes to school ready to learn. This means they need to have eaten breakfast. It would cost very little, and the payback would be huge, to provide breakfast (and I mean cereal, oatmeal, etc. not bacon and eggs) to every kid, especially at the elementary and early secondary level. Try going to work in the morning after having had a very small dinner and not breakfast and see what your ability to concentrate is like. Having done it, it's next to none. That's what a lot of kids have to deal with. You also can't learn if you don't feel safe. This means fixing buildings that are falling apart and ensuring proper security without turning the school into a prison.

That's at least a start to improving public schools. We can't expect kids to learn when they are hungry and scared.

acludem

 

[theHawk]

Beating kids, taking away funding, and eliminating drug laws do absolutely nothing to solve the real problem with schools. There are several things that need to happen for public schools to improve. The first is giving control of the classroom back to the teachers. This means teachers have to be able to remove problem students who then need to be placed in an environment where they can get help.

What exactly is this "environment where they can get help"? Another taxpayer funded school for troublemakers? We already have those...
Elaborate please...

This also means teachers need to be better-paid and better-trained.

Why should we pay them more and pay for more training if they are moving the troublemakers into some different environment?

Next, we need to be sure that every child comes to school ready to learn. This means they need to have eaten breakfast. It would cost very little, and the payback would be huge, to provide breakfast (and I mean cereal, oatmeal, etc. not bacon and eggs) to every kid, especially at the elementary and early secondary level. Try going to work in the morning after having had a very small dinner and not breakfast and see what your ability to concentrate is like. Having done it, it's next to none. That's what a lot of kids have to deal with.

Now we as taxpayers need to pay for every kid's breakfast? How about parents take responsibility for feeding their own kids? Now its my job to?
For the record, I never eat breakfast. I do just fine :shrug:

You also can't learn if you don't feel safe. This means fixing buildings that are falling apart and ensuring proper security without turning the school into a prison.

I highly doubt that problems our kids are going through are due to buildings falling apart. Do the kids in thrid world countries that have class in shacks fail to learn anything because of the condition of building? I would like to see scientific studies to prove this opinion of yours before we jump to conclusions.

That's at least a start to improving public schools. We can't expect kids to learn when they are hungry and scared.

acludem

I doubt that the kids that are not learning (i.e. troublemakers and slackers) are that way because they didn't eat breakfast or their afraid of the ceiling fallin on them.
The problem is our society has become too PC, the schools are not allowed to discipline students anymore and the kids are allowed to run rampant. All kids have the opportunity to go to school, study their asses off and pass the tests and graduate. If they blow that opportunity, cry me a fucking river, I as a taxpayer am not going to feel guilty of anything. I'm sure if all these kids with problems had a parent at home to light a fire under their asses they would be whipped into shape. But if these people don't feel that strongly about getting their kids educated then why the hell should I, they're not my kids.

 

[insein]

Beating kids, taking away funding, and eliminating drug laws do absolutely nothing to solve the real problem with schools. There are several things that need to happen for public schools to improve. The first is giving control of the classroom back to the teachers. This means teachers have to be able to remove problem students who then need to be placed in an environment where they can get help.

Alright good start.

This also means teachers need to be better-paid and better-trained.

Here's where you lose me alittle. Teachers in my state, PA, are in the top 5 highest paid professions in the state. The average salary is right around $55,000. Thats including private and parochial school teachers.

http://www.post-gazette.com/localnews/20030708teacherpay0708p2.asp

And for every grade level a teacher wants to teach they need to go through college level courses. Then they have to pass a test saying they are certified to teach that grade level. If they want to teach middle school and are certified for only elementary ed, then they need to go back to school, take the classes and then get certified for middle school. There is plenty of training out there and almost an overtraining of the position which reinforces the first problem of teachers high salaries. The more training teachers get, needed or not, the more unions feel justified in asking for more money every contract.

Next, we need to be sure that every child comes to school ready to learn. This means they need to have eaten breakfast. It would cost very little, and the payback would be huge, to provide breakfast (and I mean cereal, oatmeal, etc. not bacon and eggs) to every kid, especially at the elementary and early secondary level. Try going to work in the morning after having had a very small dinner and not breakfast and see what your ability to concentrate is like. Having done it, it's next to none. That's what a lot of kids have to deal with.

Again that is already being done. It doesnt seem to help.

http://www.pde.state.pa.us/food_nut...itionNav=|3298|&food_nutritionNav=|4098|3285|

That program has been in place since 1966. Yet test scores have gone down, except in the areas where students are coached to pass the tests. Everyone who wants breakfast and lunch can get it in schools yet students still arent learning.

You also can't learn if you don't feel safe. This means fixing buildings that are falling apart and ensuring proper security without turning the school into a prison.

I agree there. Inner city schools that do have security guards often have incompetent ones. They are more interested in being buddies with the kids (at least the one at my fiances school does) and when a problem occurs, they try to ignore it and pretend it didnt happen so that they either a) don't have to fill out paper work or b) dont raise the incident rate of the school. Either way, we need effective security in elementary and middle schools and not just a rent-a-cop collecting a government check.

That's at least a start to improving public schools. We can't expect kids to learn when they are hungry and scared.

acludem

Some may be scared. Others are living it up being deviants. No one is hungry though.

 

[Annie]

Alright good start.



Here's where you lose me alittle. Teachers in my state, PA, are in the top 5 highest paid professions in the state. The average salary is right around $55,000. Thats including private and parochial school teachers.

http://www.post-gazette.com/localnews/20030708teacherpay0708p2.asp

I don't know where they got that, but didn't sound right:

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache...ies&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=firefox-a

 

[insein]

Trust me Kathi. This is teacher heaven in this state. You start at $40k at any public school you goto and most that have been there for 10+ years are making around $70-80k. The unions rule in PA. There is no accountability and thats why our property taxes are outrageous.

One school district near my parents house, Council Rock, the teachers average salary is $62,000. The taxes are ridiculous, but hey the teachers all drive beamers and benz' to work and live in their $900,000 house down the street. Beautiful area, but expensive as hell. It just happened to get progressively more expensive over the last 10 years or so. My parents bought their house for $230k 7 years ago and now its worth about $500k.

 

[Annie]

Trust me Kathi. This is teacher heaven in this state. You start at $40k at any public school you goto and most that have been there for 10+ years are making around $70-80k. The unions rule in PA. There is no accountability and thats why our property taxes are outrageous.

One school district near my parents house, Council Rock, the teachers average salary is $62,000. The taxes are ridiculous, but hey the teachers all drive beamers and benz' to work and live in their $900,000 house down the street. Beautiful area, but expensive as hell. It just happened to get progressively more expensive over the last 10 years or so. My parents bought their house for $230k 7 years ago and now its worth about $500k.

i trust you on the public schools. I think you've been misinformed on the parochial, which is why I found that link. I've posted plenty on teachers' salaries before, my high school district I would currently be making $74k with my education and experience-without student council or anything else. With a phd and 5 more years experience, I would cross $105k. So yeah, I believe ya.

I teach in parochial, same education and experience. If I didn't do lunch/recess, foregoing that time alone, I wouldn't be making 30k yet. Different ballgame altogether.

 

[theHawk]

Trust me Kathi. This is teacher heaven in this state. You start at $40k at any public school you goto and most that have been there for 10+ years are making around $70-80k. The unions rule in PA. There is no accountability and thats why our property taxes are outrageous.

One school district near my parents house, Council Rock, the teachers average salary is $62,000. The taxes are ridiculous, but hey the teachers all drive beamers and benz' to work and live in their $900,000 house down the street. Beautiful area, but expensive as hell. It just happened to get progressively more expensive over the last 10 years or so. My parents bought their house for $230k 7 years ago and now its worth about $500k.

Hmm imagine that, the liberal idea of throwing more money at the problem doesn't work!
Can't wait to hear our Dems typical response.

 

[Mr.Conley]

I remember the Edison school thing from a couple of years ago, but if I recall, they went bankrupt. Besides that I hear a few things about charter schools in Philly every once in a while. If charter schools want to really move nationwide, then success in Philly would silence any critic.

 

[acludem]

I honestly don't know the particulars of the Philadelphia School District, but many districts do not offer breakfast and many, especially poor rural districts, have underpaid teachers and thus have trouble recruiting the best possible new teachers.

As for corporal punishment, kids can't learn when they are scared.

If I'm recalling correctly, Philadelphia schools instituted uniforms recently...evidently this hasn't been the cure-all alot of conservatives seem to think it is.

My comments were about education in general and were a response to the idea of beating kids and taking away what is for some kids, the only way they eat. I support eliminating anti-drug laws, and support making it easier to remove problem students so long as there is some alternative to help them learn. Otherwise you end up with an uneducated, problem kid on the streets, Guess which path of life that kid is heading down?

acludem