President Trump's Cabinet

[SDHornet]

I don't know the in's and outs of the whole voucher debate other than it provides options which is what America is all about. The biggest plus is just giving a shakeup to the whole system. That alone will help. Now the lower levels of education (<12) will have more competition for teaching talent thus putting the onus on finding (and more importantly rewarding) quality teachers. The whole good school vs bad school thing will shakeout over time as the teaching profession becomes more inclined to reward teachers that excel and goes away from (hopefully) the tenure model that protects poor/lazy/out dated/checked out teachers.

Nothing is going to change over night, and the teachers union will fight this change to protect their interests with everything they got. This is a welcomed change, one that could actually be felt in the shitty inner city schools all across America.

[houndawg]

Trump likes him some fundies...

https://theintercept.com/2016/11/23/mik ... gious-war/

Islam is a problem...of that there is no doubt. Islam is about the subjugation of others, nothing else, and Christians are in their cross hairs.

As to the article...while some Muslin leaders denounced the Boston attack, that simple denouncement doesn't go far enough. The message against radical should be CONSISTENT and LOUD....and it is not.

Funny, the Left wants Trump to apologize for everything multiple times, yet they don't press the Muslin leaders to loudly and consistently denounce the violence of their Muslin brothers.

Until the Left demands that Muslins make it their focus to revise their religion, they can't be taken seriously about their fears regarding Christians.

Something it has in common with most religions.

[houndawg]

The Cabinet of the One Percenters.

Trump likes winners.

As long as they're insiders

[kalm]

I don't know the in's and outs of the whole voucher debate other than it provides options which is what America is all about. The biggest plus is just giving a shakeup to the whole system. That alone will help. Now the lower levels of education (<12) will have more competition for teaching talent thus putting the onus on finding (and more importantly rewarding) quality teachers. The whole good school vs bad school thing will shakeout over time as the teaching profession becomes more inclined to reward teachers that excel and goes away from (hopefully) the tenure model that protects poor/lazy/out dated/checked out teachers.

Nothing is going to change over night, and the teachers union will fight this change to protect their interests with everything they got. This is a welcomed change, one that could actually be felt in the shitty inner city schools all across America.

It still seems like the main problem with the current system is socio-economic. If you live in a good district you're probably getting a solid education with well-trained and caring teachers. It's the poor districts that drag the statistical outcomes down. At least that's been my experience and was the same for my mom who taught at dozens of schools across Spokane.

I also had a friend who's first job was at the elementary in Airway Heights, WA. Airway Heights is a very poor city and I remember for her first round of parent-teacher conferences, she had 3 parents show up out of 27 kids. She switched to our school a year later and it was exactly the opposite.

Why would any teacher want to stay in the poor districts/schools? Those poor bastards should get combat pay.

[houndawg]

I don't know the in's and outs of the whole voucher debate other than it provides options which is what America is all about. The biggest plus is just giving a shakeup to the whole system. That alone will help. Now the lower levels of education (<12) will have more competition for teaching talent thus putting the onus on finding (and more importantly rewarding) quality teachers. The whole good school vs bad school thing will shakeout over time as the teaching profession becomes more inclined to reward teachers that excel and goes away from (hopefully) the tenure model that protects poor/lazy/out dated/checked out teachers.

Nothing is going to change over night, and the teachers union will fight this change to protect their interests with everything they got. This is a welcomed change, one that could actually be felt in the shitty inner city schools all across America.

It still seems like the main problem with the current system is socio-economic. If you live in a good district you're probably getting a solid education with well-trained and caring teachers. It's the poor districts that drag the statistical outcomes down. At least that's been my experience and was the same for my mom who taught at dozens of schools across Spokane.

I also had a friend who's first job was at the elementary in Airway Heights, WA. Airway Heights is a very poor city and I remember for her first round of parent-teacher conferences, she had 3 parents show up out of 27 kids. She switched to our school a year later and it was exactly the opposite.

Why would any teacher want to stay in the poor districts/schools? Those poor bastards should get combat pay.

All they do is suck money that could be used for swimming pools in the wealthy schools

[SDHornet]

I don't know the in's and outs of the whole voucher debate other than it provides options which is what America is all about. The biggest plus is just giving a shakeup to the whole system. That alone will help. Now the lower levels of education (<12) will have more competition for teaching talent thus putting the onus on finding (and more importantly rewarding) quality teachers. The whole good school vs bad school thing will shakeout over time as the teaching profession becomes more inclined to reward teachers that excel and goes away from (hopefully) the tenure model that protects poor/lazy/out dated/checked out teachers.

Nothing is going to change over night, and the teachers union will fight this change to protect their interests with everything they got. This is a welcomed change, one that could actually be felt in the shitty inner city schools all across America.

It still seems like the main problem with the current system is socio-economic. If you live in a good district you're probably getting a solid education with well-trained and caring teachers. It's the poor districts that drag the statistical outcomes down. At least that's been my experience and was the same for my mom who taught at dozens of schools across Spokane.

I also had a friend who's first job was at the elementary in Airway Heights, WA. Airway Heights is a very poor city and I remember for her first round of parent-teacher conferences, she had 3 parents show up out of 27 kids. She switched to our school a year later and it was exactly the opposite.

Why would any teacher want to stay in the poor districts/schools? Those poor bastards should get combat pay.

I agree to a certain extent. All the places I have lived tend to have large school districts so you have a large variance (rich to poor) depending on the area of town the school is in. However that's where tenure comes into play. The more experienced teachers within that district have a higher priority to select which school they want to teach at...care to take a guess at where they want to teach? It ain't in the hood. What incentives do tenured teachers have to work at poor and under performing schools? Until incentives can drive teaching locale, this issue will always persist.

[houndawg]

It still seems like the main problem with the current system is socio-economic. If you live in a good district you're probably getting a solid education with well-trained and caring teachers. It's the poor districts that drag the statistical outcomes down. At least that's been my experience and was the same for my mom who taught at dozens of schools across Spokane.

I also had a friend who's first job was at the elementary in Airway Heights, WA. Airway Heights is a very poor city and I remember for her first round of parent-teacher conferences, she had 3 parents show up out of 27 kids. She switched to our school a year later and it was exactly the opposite.

Why would any teacher want to stay in the poor districts/schools? Those poor bastards should get combat pay.

I agree to a certain extent. All the places I have lived tend to have large school districts so you have a large variance (rich to poor) depending on the area of town the school is in. However that's where tenure comes into play. The more experienced teachers within that district have a higher priority to select which school they want to teach at...care to take a guess at where they want to teach? It ain't in the hood. What incentives do tenured teachers have to work at poor and under performing schools? Until incentives can drive teaching locale, this issue will always persist.

Thats pretty much what funding schools through property taxes already does.

[Ivytalk]

I don't know the in's and outs of the whole voucher debate other than it provides options which is what America is all about. The biggest plus is just giving a shakeup to the whole system. That alone will help. Now the lower levels of education (<12) will have more competition for teaching talent thus putting the onus on finding (and more importantly rewarding) quality teachers. The whole good school vs bad school thing will shakeout over time as the teaching profession becomes more inclined to reward teachers that excel and goes away from (hopefully) the tenure model that protects poor/lazy/out dated/checked out teachers.

Nothing is going to change over night, and the teachers union will fight this change to protect their interests with everything they got. This is a welcomed change, one that could actually be felt in the shitty inner city schools all across America.

It still seems like the main problem with the current system is socio-economic. If you live in a good district you're probably getting a solid education with well-trained and caring teachers. It's the poor districts that drag the statistical outcomes down. At least that's been my experience and was the same for my mom who taught at dozens of schools across Spokane.

I also had a friend who's first job was at the elementary in Airway Heights, WA. Airway Heights is a very poor city and I remember for her first round of parent-teacher conferences, she had 3 parents show up out of 27 kids. She switched to our school a year later and it was exactly the opposite.

Why would any teacher want to stay in the poor districts/schools? Those poor bastards should get combat pay.

So the second year, 27 parents showed up for 3 kids?

[kalm]

It still seems like the main problem with the current system is socio-economic. If you live in a good district you're probably getting a solid education with well-trained and caring teachers. It's the poor districts that drag the statistical outcomes down. At least that's been my experience and was the same for my mom who taught at dozens of schools across Spokane.

I also had a friend who's first job was at the elementary in Airway Heights, WA. Airway Heights is a very poor city and I remember for her first round of parent-teacher conferences, she had 3 parents show up out of 27 kids. She switched to our school a year later and it was exactly the opposite.

Why would any teacher want to stay in the poor districts/schools? Those poor bastards should get combat pay.

So the second year, 27 parents showed up for 3 kids?

There are exactly 3 kinds of people in this world, IT. Those with degrees from directional schools and those without.

[Ivytalk]

So the second year, 27 parents showed up for 3 kids?

There are exactly 3 kinds of people in this world, IT. Those who with degrees from directional schools and those without.

[YoUDeeMan]

Islam is a problem...of that there is no doubt. Islam is about the subjugation of others, nothing else, and Christians are in their cross hairs.

As to the article...while some Muslin leaders denounced the Boston attack, that simple denouncement doesn't go far enough. The message against radical should be CONSISTENT and LOUD....and it is not.

Funny, the Left wants Trump to apologize for everything multiple times, yet they don't press the Muslin leaders to loudly and consistently denounce the violence of their Muslin brothers.

Until the Left demands that Muslins make it their focus to revise their religion, they can't be taken seriously about their fears regarding Christians.

Something it has in common with most religions.

Christians are blowing themselves up in supermarkets in order to inflict as many casualties as possible on the unbelievers?

Oh, wait...you decided to select one small part and blow it up into something it isn't.

[YoUDeeMan]

The problem, though, is that both sides tend to use the one solution for one specific situation and then leverage that over the entire landscape. Inner city schools, generally speaking, are failing and are in drastic need of fixing. Vouchers, or charter schools (or a combination of both - they aren't the same), could and do provide a means for students who can take advantage of them to escape the dead-end situation of the current school system. Democrats resisting this in deference to established teacher unions are doing a disservice to the children that could benefit by this.

However, the same voucher and charter system setup that can work so well in the inner cities where we're literally trying to rescue good students doesn't work as well outside of inner cities or other such education cesspools. Pulling kids and money and other resources out of otherwise perfectly acceptable public schools creates strains and issues in those existing schools and the system starts to break down. Vouchers tend to be a way for people who have already eschewed the public school system for various reasons (although frequently not because of the quality of it) to pay for something that they are already paying for anyway. Rich family decides to send Junior to a fancy prep school rather than the mundane local public high school sees the vouchers as a way to reduce the soaring tuition payments they need to make to keep Junior from having to mix with the masses. Republicans advocating this are doing a disservice to the schools that do work and even more so tar the good efforts in places like inner cities where these programs would work.

For me, vouchers and charters aplenty in places identified as educational disasters, and the public school system as we know it in places where it is working comparatively better. It doesn't need to be a one size fits all for either side of the argument.

And there's the rub: there are precious few "perfectly acceptable public schools" nowadays. That whole paragraph could've been scripted by the American Federation of Teachers.

Our daughter went to Charter School of Wilmington, which gives as good an education as any private school in the area, and thrived. By then , the local public high school that she would've attended (pre-choice) was going downhill fast. No regrets.

I hope DeVos is confirmed and cleans house at DOE.

Yeah, Ganny needs to file this one into the I'm Never Wrong column if he continues down that road.

[houndawg]

Something it has in common with most religions.

Christians are blowing themselves up in supermarkets in order to inflict as many casualties as possible on the unbelievers?

Oh, wait...you decided to select one small part and blow it up into something it isn't.

Christians are walking into churches and executing nine people they just prayed with.

Oh, wait... you know the rest

[GannonFan]

And there's the rub: there are precious few "perfectly acceptable public schools" nowadays. That whole paragraph could've been scripted by the American Federation of Teachers.

Our daughter went to Charter School of Wilmington, which gives as good an education as any private school in the area, and thrived. By then , the local public high school that she would've attended (pre-choice) was going downhill fast. No regrets.

I hope DeVos is confirmed and cleans house at DOE.

Yeah, Ganny needs to file this one into the I'm Never Wrong column if he continues down that road.

Nah, Ivy's right, there are certainly examples of charter schools, especially in cities, where they work wonderfully. The Wilmington charter is a great example of one school that's doing it very well, extremely well even. Just as there are examples of people looking to get their private school tuition paid for by taxpayers because, well, just because it would mean they get to pay less or not at all. Like I said, both sides will take examples of where their argument works and then just try to extend it to everywhere else, and unfortunately there just isn't a one size fits all solution to this.

[houndawg]

Yeah, Ganny needs to file this one into the I'm Never Wrong column if he continues down that road.

Nah, Ivy's right, there are certainly examples of charter schools, especially in cities, where they work wonderfully. The Wilmington charter is a great example of one school that's doing it very well, extremely well even. Just as there are examples of people looking to get their private school tuition paid for by taxpayers because, well, just because it would mean they get to pay less or not at all. Like I said, both sides will take examples of where their argument works and then just try to extend it to everywhere else, and unfortunately there just isn't a one size fits all solution to this.

Don't be such a wet blanket...

[Ivytalk]

Yeah, Ganny needs to file this one into the I'm Never Wrong column if he continues down that road.

Nah, Ivy's right, there are certainly examples of charter schools, especially in cities, where they work wonderfully. The Wilmington charter is a great example of one school that's doing it very well, extremely well even. Just as there are examples of people looking to get their private school tuition paid for by taxpayers because, well, just because it would mean they get to pay less or not at all. Like I said, both sides will take examples of where their argument works and then just try to extend it to everywhere else, and unfortunately there just isn't a one size fits all solution to this.

There are plenty of subpar charter schools as well. Several have already failed in Wilmington/New Castle County. Just calling something a "charter school" is no magic potion: you need the resources, teachers, and community involvement to make the model work. When our daughter attended CSW, we received at least as many fundraising pitch letters as we did at the private school she left.

[GannonFan]

Nah, Ivy's right, there are certainly examples of charter schools, especially in cities, where they work wonderfully. The Wilmington charter is a great example of one school that's doing it very well, extremely well even. Just as there are examples of people looking to get their private school tuition paid for by taxpayers because, well, just because it would mean they get to pay less or not at all. Like I said, both sides will take examples of where their argument works and then just try to extend it to everywhere else, and unfortunately there just isn't a one size fits all solution to this.

There are plenty of subpar charter schools as well. Several have already failed in Wilmington/New Castle County. Just calling something a "charter school" is no magic potion: you need the resources, teachers, and community involvement to make the model work. When our daughter attended CSW, we received at least as many fundraising pitch letters as we did at the private school she left.

I think that's true for the public schools too, some succeed incredibly and some fail spectacularly. If this was a one size fits all solution it would be much simpler than it is, but there's enough complexity here that means that politics is an ineffective way to solve things here.

[Grizalltheway]

[BDKJMU]

Trump says he'll nominate retired Marine Gen. Mattis as secretary of defense
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/12 ... in-us.html

[BDKJMU]

"The Best From ‘Mad Dog Mattis’
16 best quotes from the retiring Gen. James Mattis

Gen. James Mattis, known to his troops as “Mad Dog Mattis,” is retiring after 41 years of military service.

The Marine Corps Times is calling Mattis the “most revered Marine in a generation.”

Mattis has been commander of the United States Central Command since 2010 and led the 1st Marine Division into Iraq in 2003.

According to reports, President Barack Obama decided to force the Marine Corps legend out early because he rubbed civilian officials the wrong way, and forced them to answer tough questions regarding Iran.

Mattis was an inspirational leader of men and his powerful words will go down in history.

Here are some of the best words that the “Mad Dog” has had to offer:
1. “I don’t lose any sleep at night over the potential for failure. I cannot even spell the word.”
2. “The first time you blow someone away is not an insignificant event. That said, there are some assholes in the world that just need to be shot.”
3. “I come in peace. I didn’t bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you fuck with me, I’ll kill you all.”
4. “Find the enemy that wants to end this experiment (in American democracy) and kill every one of them until they’re so sick of the killing that they leave us and our freedoms intact.”
5. “Marines don’t know how to spell the word defeat.”
6. “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.”
7. “The most important six inches on the battlefield is between your ears.”
8. “You are part of the world’s most feared and trusted force. Engage your brain before you engage your weapon.”
9. “There are hunters and there are victims. By your discipline, cunning, obedience and alertness, you will decide if you are a hunter or a victim.”
10. “No war is over until the enemy says it’s over. We may think it over, we may declare it over, but in fact, the enemy gets a vote.”
11. “There is nothing better than getting shot at and missed. It’s really great.”
12. “You cannot allow any of your people to avoid the brutal facts. If they start living in a dream world, it’s going to be bad.”
13. “You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn’t wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain’t got no manhood left anyway. So it’s a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them. Actually it’s quite fun to fight them, you know. It’s a hell of a hoot. It’s fun to shoot some people. I’ll be right up there with you. I like brawling.”
14. “I’m going to plead with you, do not cross us. Because if you do, the survivors will write about what we do here for 10,000 years.”
15. “Demonstrate to the world there is ‘No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy’ than a U.S. Marine.”
16. “Fight with a happy heart and strong spirit”"
http://freebeacon.com/national-security ... og-mattis/

Fooking awesome..

[kalm]

[Ivytalk]

General Mattis is no General Jack D. Ripper (shameless callout to Dr. Strangelove fans). In addition to his impeccable creds as a career soldier, he has a deep understanding of military and political history that should help him as SecDef. One of the best appointments so far.

[houndawg]

General Mattis is no General Jack D. Ripper (shameless callout to Dr. Strangelove fans). In addition to his impeccable creds as a career soldier, he has a deep understanding of military and political history that should help him as SecDef. One of the best appointments so far.

Typical assclown Marine.


He'll fvck up everything he touches.

[Ivytalk]

General Mattis is no General Jack D. Ripper (shameless callout to Dr. Strangelove fans). In addition to his impeccable creds as a career soldier, he has a deep understanding of military and political history that should help him as SecDef. One of the best appointments so far.

Typical assclown Marine.


He'll fvck up everything he touches.

Whatever you say, Private Sad Sack.

[93henfan]

General Mattis is no General Jack D. Ripper (shameless callout to Dr. Strangelove fans). In addition to his impeccable creds as a career soldier, he has a deep understanding of military and political history that should help him as SecDef. One of the best appointments so far.

I never knew he served time in the Army.