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• StillRelaxin

  Charter schools are nothing but a private for profit enterprise that government officials (Guess which ones?) have come up with as a solution to a public problem. The problem being poor educational achievement of today’s children. What’s Mayor LePage’s answer? Take money out of public school systems and give it to private for profit enterprises (Now there’s a surprise, right?) who have repeatedly failed or done no better in their efforts than public schools. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

  Sadly politicians and school administrators don’t keep their jobs by telling people the truth. To justify their positions they always have to provide “solutions” to our problems. The problem with their solutions is that they are usually very convoluted, expensive, and rarely successfully implemented or connected to anything close to a positive result. Don’t be fooled by hucksters who don’t give a hoot about your kids. All they want to do is spread your money for themselves or among their friends/political supporters.

  There’s only one real solution to our educational woes, PARENTS who truly care about their children’s education. Get involved in your kids lives and school studies. Pride, hard work, self-worth, and aspirations all “begin” in the home not in schools, on the streets, or through osmotic proximity with a TV, computer, smart phone, or video game. Check their homework, talk to their teachers, and hold them accountable for learning. Otherwise any school they go to will be nothing more than a babysitting service where your kids go to socialize and we will continue to receive the same poor educational results.     

• StillRelaxin

  Charter schools are nothing but a private for profit enterprise that government officials (Guess which ones?) have come up with as a solution to a public problem. The problem being poor educational achievement of today’s children. What’s Mayor LePage’s answer? Take money out of public school systems and give it to private for profit enterprises (Now there’s a surprise, right?) who have repeatedly failed or done no better in their efforts than public schools. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

  Sadly politicians and school administrators don’t keep their jobs by telling people the truth. To justify their positions they always have to provide “solutions” to our problems. The problem with their solutions is that they are usually very convoluted, expensive, and rarely successfully implemented or connected to anything close to a positive result. Don’t be fooled by hucksters who don’t give a hoot about your kids. All they want to do is spread your money for themselves or among their friends/political supporters.

  There’s only one real solution to our educational woes, PARENTS who truly care about their children’s education. Get involved in your kids lives and school studies. Pride, hard work, self-worth, and aspirations all “begin” in the home not in schools, on the streets, or through osmotic proximity with a TV, computer, smart phone, or video game. Check their homework, talk to their teachers, and hold them accountable for learning. Otherwise any school they go to will be nothing more than a babysitting service where your kids go to socialize and we will continue to receive the same poor educational results.     

• StillRelaxin

  Charter schools are nothing but a private for profit enterprise that government officials (Guess which ones?) have come up with as a solution to a public problem. The problem being poor educational achievement of today’s children. What’s Mayor LePage’s answer? Take money out of public school systems and give it to private for profit enterprises (Now there’s a surprise, right?) who have repeatedly failed or done no better in their efforts than public schools. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

  Sadly politicians and school administrators don’t keep their jobs by telling people the truth. To justify their positions they always have to provide “solutions” to our problems. The problem with their solutions is that they are usually very convoluted, expensive, and rarely successfully implemented or connected to anything close to a positive result. Don’t be fooled by hucksters who don’t give a hoot about your kids. All they want to do is spread your money for themselves or among their friends/political supporters.

  There’s only one real solution to our educational woes, PARENTS who truly care about their children’s education. Get involved in your kids lives and school studies. Pride, hard work, self-worth, and aspirations all “begin” in the home not in schools, on the streets, or through osmotic proximity with a TV, computer, smart phone, or video game. Check their homework, talk to their teachers, and hold them accountable for learning. Otherwise any school they go to will be nothing more than a babysitting service where your kids go to socialize and we will continue to receive the same poor educational results.     

• Anonymous

  Are you even paying attention? These are public charter schools. Your entire rant misses the mark because you’re complaining about something that did not happen.

• Anonymous

  To those conservatives that wanted their taxes cut, what do you think the salaries, office space, travel allowances, secretaries, office administrators, IT and advisors for this new charter school commission will cost the state?  How much of your tax money will go out of state to educational consultants, corporations and hedge funds?   

• StillRelaxin

  One word, YET.

• Anonymous

  Here’s why banks and funds are so interested in charter schools.  And you thought it was all about education.  

  Under the New Markets program, a bank or private equity firm that lends money to a nonprofit to build a charter school can receive a 39% federal tax credit over seven years.The credit can even be piggybacked on other tax breaks for historic preservation or job creation.By combining the various credits with the interest from the loan itself, a lender can almost double his investment over the seven-year period.No wonder JPMorgan Chase announced this week it was creating a new $325 million pool to invest in charter schools and take advantage of the New Markets Tax Credit.

• Anonymous

  Under the New Markets program, a bank or private equity firm that lends money to a nonprofit to build a charter school can receive a 39% federal tax credit over seven years.The credit can even be piggybacked on other tax breaks for historic preservation or job creation.By combining the various credits with the interest from the loan itself, a lender can almost double his investment over the seven-year period.No wonder JPMorgan Chase announced this week it was creating a new $325 million pool to invest in charter schools and take advantage of the New Markets Tax Credit.

• Anonymous

  Under the New Markets program, a bank or private equity firm that lends money to a nonprofit to build a charter school can receive a 39% federal tax credit over seven years.The credit can even be piggybacked on other tax breaks for historic preservation or job creation.By combining the various credits with the interest from the loan itself, a lender can almost double his investment over the seven-year period.No wonder JPMorgan Chase announced this week it was creating a new $325 million pool to invest in charter schools and take advantage of the New Markets Tax Credit.

• Anonymous

  By law, charters to run taxpayer-funded schools in Ohio are issued only to nonprofit groups, but these groups are permitted to contract with private management companies, such as Imagine, to run the schools.

   The Ohio Department of Education has so far rated six Imagine-run schools. Five of the schools have received the lowest possible rating of “Academic Emergency,” while one has gotten the slightly better rating of “Academic Watch.” These ratings are “substantially worse” than nearby neighborhood public schools, the report charges.

  The proportion of its funds spent on actual instruction is far below national standards, the report states. Teachers are paid less than in charter schools without for-profit management, and about half what union teachers in Cleveland public schools receive.

  On the other hand the proportion spent on rent and maintenance paid to Schoolhouse Finance, Imagine’s real estate subsidiary, is twice the national standard. In one case, the report cites a church building Imagine acquired in Fort Wayne, Ind., where it charged its charter $90,000 a month, eight to ten times the appraised value.

  The company also charges excessive amounts to lease equipment and pay development costs and siphons profits through complex real estate deals involving land acquisition, building construction, sales and leasing arrangements with investment funds.

  This has been the target of criticism in other states, and prompted Texas Board of Education member David Bradley to ask if the company was in the real estate or charter school business.

• Anonymous

  Oops……Sorry about the duplicate

• Anonymous

  Oops……Sorry about the duplicate

• Anonymous

  Oops……Sorry about the duplicate

• Anonymous

  Considering who is pushing charter schools it’s not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’.  And then Maine will be sending millions out of state to banks, educational corporations, hedge funds, realtors and distance education corporations all professing a compelling interest in your child’s education.  Ask yourself this:  in the past were these people interested in education or money?

• Anonymous

  Maybe we’ll find out, as soon as we can get some high school graduates who can add and subtract without a calculator.

• Anonymous

  Maybe we’ll find out, as soon as we can get some high school graduates who can add and subtract without a calculator.

• Anonymous

  Maybe we’ll find out, as soon as we can get some high school graduates who can add and subtract without a calculator.

• Anonymous

  Maybe we’ll find out, as soon as we can get some high school graduates who can add and subtract without a calculator.

• Anonymous

  Maybe we’ll find out, as soon as we can get some high school graduates who can add and subtract without a calculator.

• Anonymous

  Maybe we’ll find out, as soon as we can get some high school graduates who can add and subtract without a calculator.

• Anonymous

  Maybe we’ll find out, as soon as we can get some high school graduates who can add and subtract without a calculator.

• Anonymous

  Maybe we’ll find out, as soon as we can get some high school graduates who can add and subtract without a calculator.

• Anonymous

  Maybe we’ll find out, as soon as we can get some high school graduates who can add and subtract without a calculator.

• Anonymous

  Maybe we’ll find out, as soon as we can get some high school graduates who can add and subtract without a calculator.

• Anonymous

  Finally,we are trying to do something to  address the decline in educational quality in Maine.

  Since the 1970s student enrollment has remained about the same in Maine (although the population has shifted away from rural areas), however costs have risen 415% (adjusted for inflation)…mostly attributable to administrative costs.

• Anonymous

  Finally,we are trying to do something to  address the decline in educational quality in Maine.

  Since the 1970s student enrollment has remained about the same in Maine (although the population has shifted away from rural areas), however costs have risen 415% (adjusted for inflation)…mostly attributable to administrative costs.

• Anonymous

  Finally,we are trying to do something to  address the decline in educational quality in Maine.

  Since the 1970s student enrollment has remained about the same in Maine (although the population has shifted away from rural areas), however costs have risen 415% (adjusted for inflation)…mostly attributable to administrative costs.

• Anonymous

  Finally,we are trying to do something to  address the decline in educational quality in Maine.

  Since the 1970s student enrollment has remained about the same in Maine (although the population has shifted away from rural areas), however costs have risen 415% (adjusted for inflation)…mostly attributable to administrative costs.

• Anonymous

  Finally,we are trying to do something to  address the decline in educational quality in Maine.

  Since the 1970s student enrollment has remained about the same in Maine (although the population has shifted away from rural areas), however costs have risen 415% (adjusted for inflation)…mostly attributable to administrative costs.

• Anonymous

  Finally,we are trying to do something to  address the decline in educational quality in Maine.

  Since the 1970s student enrollment has remained about the same in Maine (although the population has shifted away from rural areas), however costs have risen 415% (adjusted for inflation)…mostly attributable to administrative costs.

• Anonymous

  We already are spending an absurd amount on education in the state. Alot of taxpayer money from teacher’s salaries goes to the NEA and MEA which is an out-of-state corporate political action committee. You are ignoring the problem that already exists and are scared of something that really isn’t likely. Nice ruse.

• Anonymous

  We already are spending an absurd amount on education in the state. Alot of taxpayer money from teacher’s salaries goes to the NEA and MEA which is an out-of-state corporate political action committee. You are ignoring the problem that already exists and are scared of something that really isn’t likely. Nice ruse.

• Anonymous

  Private schools are already doing a much better job than public schools of educating and for less money. Let’s see what charter schools can do for us.

• Anonymous

  Private schools are already doing a much better job than public schools of educating and for less money. Let’s see what charter schools can do for us.

• Anonymous

    Those ruses  as you call them already exists in most states with charter schools.  What makes you think what going on with charter schools in  New Jersey, Ohio, Arizona, New York, California, Florida, Illinois, Washington State, Washington, D.C.  Oregon, Wisconsin won’t happen in Maine.  

  Last time I looked teachers paid their own union dues out of their own pocket.  I doubt very much that the state has started paying those dues. The MEA is an in-state teachers organization with dues of about $25.oo.  That’s why it’s called the Maine Education Association.  It’s money doesn’t go out of state.  And about 60%  of the $300.00 yearly dues collected for the National Education Association stays in Maine to pay for local union representatives, office space, supplies, IT,  services to teachers,  workshops and  legal help for teachers.

• Anonymous

  Maine is in the top 10% of schools in all educational categories, nation wide.  If  the national statistics  hold true then only 20% of the charter schools in Maine will be better than average; 43% will be average and 37% will be below average.  However 100% of the charter schools will take money out of public schools.  Exactly  how  will this improve Maine’s already impressive standing?

• Anonymous

  National statistics show that 20% of charter schools produce student results that are better than average public schools, 43% do about the same and 37% do worse.  That means out of the 10 charter schools allowed in Maine 2 will do better than the average Maine school 4.5 will be no better and 3.5 will actually be worse.  So tell me again how having 8 schools no better or worse than what we have now and opening ourselves up to the enormous scams that charter schools are legally allowed to pull  is going to improve an educational system that is already in the top 10% of the US.  

  Private schools get to discriminate charter schools do not. When you can pick and choose your students high scores are a sure thing.  And you can believe this or not but the good private schools do not cost less or spend less.  It’s only when you start adding in all the little religious schools with below standard class rooms with one accredited teacher and 15 aides that you start lowering the average cost of education.  

• Anonymous

  National statistics show that 20% of charter schools produce student results that are better than average public schools, 43% do about the same and 37% do worse.  That means out of the 10 charter schools allowed in Maine 2 will do better than the average Maine school 4.5 will be no better and 3.5 will actually be worse.  So tell me again how having 8 schools no better or worse than what we have now and opening ourselves up to the enormous scams that charter schools are legally allowed to pull  is going to improve an educational system that is already in the top 10% of the US.  

  Private schools get to discriminate charter schools do not. When you can pick and choose your students high scores are a sure thing.  And you can believe this or not but the good private schools do not cost less or spend less.  It’s only when you start adding in all the little religious schools with below standard class rooms with one accredited teacher and 15 aides that you start lowering the average cost of education.  

• Anonymous

  National statistics show that 20% of charter schools produce student results that are better than average public schools, 43% do about the same and 37% do worse.  That means out of the 10 charter schools allowed in Maine 2 will do better than the average Maine school 4.5 will be no better and 3.5 will actually be worse.  So tell me again how having 8 schools no better or worse than what we have now and opening ourselves up to the enormous scams that charter schools are legally allowed to pull  is going to improve an educational system that is already in the top 10% of the US.  

  Private schools get to discriminate charter schools do not. When you can pick and choose your students high scores are a sure thing.  And you can believe this or not but the good private schools do not cost less or spend less.  It’s only when you start adding in all the little religious schools with below standard class rooms with one accredited teacher and 15 aides that you start lowering the average cost of education.  

• Anonymous

  The Archdiocese of NYC would strongly disagree with your taking on private schools. They take some of the worse of the worse students and make good students out of them. I don’t know where you get your information but it certainly doesn’t match up with mine. One thing I can tell you about private schools is that they’re not subject to all the political nonsense and regulations that public schools endure. While many public schools are teaching kids how to masturbate and have sex with each other without causing pregnancy and teaching political correctness, many public schools teach Western culture and the classics to prepare their students for a world that is growing more and more corrupt and chaotic.

• Anonymous

  The Archdiocese of NYC would strongly disagree with your taking on private schools. They take some of the worse of the worse students and make good students out of them. I don’t know where you get your information but it certainly doesn’t match up with mine. One thing I can tell you about private schools is that they’re not subject to all the political nonsense and regulations that public schools endure. While many public schools are teaching kids how to masturbate and have sex with each other without causing pregnancy and teaching political correctness, many public schools teach Western culture and the classics to prepare their students for a world that is growing more and more corrupt and chaotic.

• Anonymous

  The Archdiocese of NYC would strongly disagree with your taking on private schools. They take some of the worse of the worse students and make good students out of them. I don’t know where you get your information but it certainly doesn’t match up with mine. One thing I can tell you about private schools is that they’re not subject to all the political nonsense and regulations that public schools endure. While many public schools are teaching kids how to masturbate and have sex with each other without causing pregnancy and teaching political correctness, many public schools teach Western culture and the classics to prepare their students for a world that is growing more and more corrupt and chaotic.

• Anonymous

  Well apparently your parents failed to teach you critical thinking skills, as the drivel you slough off on a daily basis merely displays a lack of understanding the topic at hand, poor articulation of your actual point, and an atrocious tendency to espouse common place ideas as though you had just came up with them on your own. 

  The problem with the public school system that many parents have, including myself, is that the education these kids are receiving through the current public school system is a joke.  I teach my kids all sorts or lessons at home, from arithmetic and algebra, to U.S. History and science.  Unfortunately, most days they come home from school and the moronic teachers, most of which I still can’t understand how they actually graduated from college, have completely confused the kids with their “own” version of history, their “own” version of the scientific method, and their “own” version of math……some sort of “new” math that is completely a waste of time.  So I have to sit down and explain the misconceptions of their moronic teachers and how there are  a lot of people in this world who think they have a clue, but simply do not.  Then of course, there are the parent teacher meetings.  And trying to talk to these folks is a literal nightmare!  I mean good lord, talk about thick headed, arrogant, pseudo intellectuals, who sit there and just disregard everything you suggest, and continually refer back to their precious “curriculum”, which I don’t think they even understand themselves, as sad as that is.

  Charter schools are about choice within the public education system.  If I have the opportunity to send my kids elsewhere and I think it’s a better fit regarding teachers and curriculum, then I appreciate the opportunity to do so.  What I don’t appreciate is half-baked comments from folks such as yourself who simply cannot accept change, cannot accept other people having a choice, and are more in favor of stuffing everyone into one little category instead of allowing other humans to live freely and try out new methods in educating their children.

• StillRelaxin

  It’s funny how superior types tend to make every conversation into a “personal attack” on individuals.  Seems to be a common thread among conservatives, yes?  Your odd hostility and negativity lead me to believe that anyone who has any responsibility in educating your children will be more than happy that “you” may (Most likely depending on a lottery system) be taking your children elsewhere to be educated. Good luck…to your children.

• StillRelaxin

  It’s funny how superior types tend to make every conversation into a “personal attack” on individuals.  Seems to be a common thread among conservatives, yes?  Your odd hostility and negativity lead me to believe that anyone who has any responsibility in educating your children will be more than happy that “you” may (Most likely depending on a lottery system) be taking your children elsewhere to be educated. Good luck…to your children.

• StillRelaxin

  It’s funny how superior types tend to make every conversation into a “personal attack” on individuals.  Seems to be a common thread among conservatives, yes?  Your odd hostility and negativity lead me to believe that anyone who has any responsibility in educating your children will be more than happy that “you” may (Most likely depending on a lottery system) be taking your children elsewhere to be educated. Good luck…to your children.

• Anonymous

  Moronic teachers?  Think maybe you are generalizing just a little?

  Way to raise the level of discourse on this site! Nice job!

• Anonymous

  The state doesn’t have a monopoly on education – private schools exist and parents can choose to send their kids there.  Your “monopoly” is actually every child’s right to a free education, which is really something unparalleled in the history of the world.  You go and tell a kid that, since they can’t afford $8,000 a year, they can’t go to school and learn.

  I don’t know why there’s all this bickering about the Maine Department of Education.  Many other states actually dictate curriculum and textbooks.  In Maine, curriculum, textbooks, and instruction are all set by the districts, and local control rules.  Sure, Maine has the Learning Results (is that what they’re still called?), but there’s absolutely no direct assessment of these “guidelines”.  

  If you dislike what’s going on in the school in your town, take action, go to board meetings, join the school board, and effect change.  Otherwise, don’t just repeat the same drivel that’s blanketing the nation, while not pertaining to Maine.

• Anonymous

  The state doesn’t have a monopoly on education – private schools exist and parents can choose to send their kids there.  Your “monopoly” is actually every child’s right to a free education, which is really something unparalleled in the history of the world.  You go and tell a kid that, since they can’t afford $8,000 a year, they can’t go to school and learn.

  I don’t know why there’s all this bickering about the Maine Department of Education.  Many other states actually dictate curriculum and textbooks.  In Maine, curriculum, textbooks, and instruction are all set by the districts, and local control rules.  Sure, Maine has the Learning Results (is that what they’re still called?), but there’s absolutely no direct assessment of these “guidelines”.  

  If you dislike what’s going on in the school in your town, take action, go to board meetings, join the school board, and effect change.  Otherwise, don’t just repeat the same drivel that’s blanketing the nation, while not pertaining to Maine.

• Anonymous

  The state doesn’t have a monopoly on education – private schools exist and parents can choose to send their kids there.  Your “monopoly” is actually every child’s right to a free education, which is really something unparalleled in the history of the world.  You go and tell a kid that, since they can’t afford $8,000 a year, they can’t go to school and learn.

  I don’t know why there’s all this bickering about the Maine Department of Education.  Many other states actually dictate curriculum and textbooks.  In Maine, curriculum, textbooks, and instruction are all set by the districts, and local control rules.  Sure, Maine has the Learning Results (is that what they’re still called?), but there’s absolutely no direct assessment of these “guidelines”.  

  If you dislike what’s going on in the school in your town, take action, go to board meetings, join the school board, and effect change.  Otherwise, don’t just repeat the same drivel that’s blanketing the nation, while not pertaining to Maine.

• Anonymous

  The state doesn’t have a monopoly on education – private schools exist and parents can choose to send their kids there.  Your “monopoly” is actually every child’s right to a free education, which is really something unparalleled in the history of the world.  You go and tell a kid that, since they can’t afford $8,000 a year, they can’t go to school and learn.

  I don’t know why there’s all this bickering about the Maine Department of Education.  Many other states actually dictate curriculum and textbooks.  In Maine, curriculum, textbooks, and instruction are all set by the districts, and local control rules.  Sure, Maine has the Learning Results (is that what they’re still called?), but there’s absolutely no direct assessment of these “guidelines”.  

  If you dislike what’s going on in the school in your town, take action, go to board meetings, join the school board, and effect change.  Otherwise, don’t just repeat the same drivel that’s blanketing the nation, while not pertaining to Maine.

• Anonymous

  The state doesn’t have a monopoly on education – private schools exist and parents can choose to send their kids there.  Your “monopoly” is actually every child’s right to a free education, which is really something unparalleled in the history of the world.  You go and tell a kid that, since they can’t afford $8,000 a year, they can’t go to school and learn.

  I don’t know why there’s all this bickering about the Maine Department of Education.  Many other states actually dictate curriculum and textbooks.  In Maine, curriculum, textbooks, and instruction are all set by the districts, and local control rules.  Sure, Maine has the Learning Results (is that what they’re still called?), but there’s absolutely no direct assessment of these “guidelines”.  

  If you dislike what’s going on in the school in your town, take action, go to board meetings, join the school board, and effect change.  Otherwise, don’t just repeat the same drivel that’s blanketing the nation, while not pertaining to Maine.

• Anonymous

  The state doesn’t have a monopoly on education – private schools exist and parents can choose to send their kids there.  Your “monopoly” is actually every child’s right to a free education, which is really something unparalleled in the history of the world.  You go and tell a kid that, since they can’t afford $8,000 a year, they can’t go to school and learn.

  I don’t know why there’s all this bickering about the Maine Department of Education.  Many other states actually dictate curriculum and textbooks.  In Maine, curriculum, textbooks, and instruction are all set by the districts, and local control rules.  Sure, Maine has the Learning Results (is that what they’re still called?), but there’s absolutely no direct assessment of these “guidelines”.  

  If you dislike what’s going on in the school in your town, take action, go to board meetings, join the school board, and effect change.  Otherwise, don’t just repeat the same drivel that’s blanketing the nation, while not pertaining to Maine.

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_UPXVVGOQKIMVTB5CSI5MWTQ6RY Ob Server

  Tuition vouchers granting parents the freedoms they have to choose colleges for their kids would be even further along the road to a solution to poor public schools. But I’ll take the charter schools as a first step.

  Those sincerely interested in learning more about what plagues our public schools should spend an educational evening renting and viewing the film “Waiting for Superman.”

• Anonymous

  Garrett Mason still lives at home with his parents.  Come on Garrett, get a job, time to leave mommies apron.   

• Anonymous

  Garrett Mason still lives at home with his parents.  Come on Garrett, get a job, time to leave mommies apron.   

• Anonymous

  Garrett Mason still lives at home with his parents.  Come on Garrett, get a job, time to leave mommies apron.   

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_SCNJPPZDX7GEYELESV2YGQFLN4 Pat T. Riot

  No one nickel of state or local tax money goes to paying NEA or MEA dues.  Teachers receive their salaries as agreed upon with their local school boards.  If teachers chose to join a local teachers’ association, the teachers pay their dues from their own pockets.

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_SCNJPPZDX7GEYELESV2YGQFLN4 Pat T. Riot

  No one nickel of state or local tax money goes to paying NEA or MEA dues.  Teachers receive their salaries as agreed upon with their local school boards.  If teachers chose to join a local teachers’ association, the teachers pay their dues from their own pockets.

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_SCNJPPZDX7GEYELESV2YGQFLN4 Pat T. Riot

  No one nickel of state or local tax money goes to paying NEA or MEA dues.  Teachers receive their salaries as agreed upon with their local school boards.  If teachers chose to join a local teachers’ association, the teachers pay their dues from their own pockets.

• Anonymous

  I imagine that you have a close raport with your childrens teachers when you refer to them as moronic.

  I really don’t mind paying taxes for schools. Public schools. I don’t want my tax dollars going to private schools where I have no control over their practices.

  Perhaps if the state stopped mandating that our public schools feed children ten meals a week, we could bring back some education programs that might raise performance levels amongst the student body.

• Anonymous

  I imagine that you have a close raport with your childrens teachers when you refer to them as moronic.

  I really don’t mind paying taxes for schools. Public schools. I don’t want my tax dollars going to private schools where I have no control over their practices.

  Perhaps if the state stopped mandating that our public schools feed children ten meals a week, we could bring back some education programs that might raise performance levels amongst the student body.

• Anonymous

  Not neccessarily, the state mandates a lot of things on your local  schools. The state mandates that every school will make breakfast and lunch available for all students. I recently found out that there is 3 levels. Some pay full price, others pay reduced price, yet others pay nothing. What shocked me was that there are children whose parents have good paying jobs in a paper mill that quallify for reduced costs for meals for their children.
  What gets me is my tax dollars are now being used to not only educate, which I don’t mind, but to feed someone’s children. I do believe that those children who are getting free meals have parents. Obviously not very responsible parents but that doesn’t make it my responsibility to feed their children. If their income is so low, I would imagine that they are receiving food stamps. Wouldn’t it be considered double dipping to get food stamps to feed your family and farm your children out to schools and expect them to feed your children also?

• Anonymous

  Why not home school your children or send them to a parochial or private school.
  You have many choices but still knowingly send your poor little children to a public school day after day.
  You and your actions appear to be moronic.  

• Anonymous

  Why not home school your children or send them to a parochial or private school.
  You have many choices but still knowingly send your poor little children to a public school day after day.
  You and your actions appear to be moronic.  

• Anonymous

  Let’s see in 1973 fuel oil was about 20 cents a gallon, gasoline was under 50 cents, I could buy a brand new top of the line Chevy for under 6000, etc. Lots of things have increased in costs over the last 40 years. How about the costs of health insurance?
  If you want to address the decline in education quality you need to address the quality of the parents. Entirely too many of them could care less about their childrens performance in school. They are only upset if their children get sent home and they have to deal with them.

• Anonymous

  LMAO…Conservative?  Absolutely not.  Libertarian?  Absolutely.  The odd hostility?  What was hostile?  You are called out for the tool and pseudo intellectual that you are and you have no argument against it.  If you have one, then where is it? Typical of a liberal who really is rather brainwashed into believing the litany of anti-individual, anti-human liberty garbage that is bestowed upon their unknowing, simpleton minds, you have zero argument against any of mine because I am right and you are wrong.  YOU stand on the side of oppression and restriction of human freedom and choice, while I stand in opposition to you and the rest of your control freak comrades.       

  Once again, your comments above speak to the lack of critical thinking  skills your apparently uneducated parents instilled in you.  Negativity?  How is looking for the best possible education for my children negative? Apparently, as you outlined above, your solution to a poor educational system is to simply remove the children and the dissenting parent out of said system?   What kind of solution is that?  Sounds like the “final solution” that another sick twisted freak thought of at one time in history.  And my children certainly need no luck sir.  They are diligent, well educated, courteous and respectful members of  society who will become very successful one day in whatever path they choose…..most certainly unlike any little trolls you have produced.  Indeed,  my little ones would absolutely destroy you in argumentation and tear your feeble little mind to shreds as they have already surpassed your level of intellect before they’ve even reached high school. 

  And as far as Disqus statistics are concerned, I never even knew there were statistics, and why would I care?  Is the reason you post here simply to stroke your own ego?  Apparently so.  I do not post here to win some popularity contest with like minded individuals. What is the sense in that, and what does that prove? ….. “Gee, all these people that are brainwashed like me, think like me, I must be awesome!”…..LMAO, what a complete tool you are, and a sad one at that.  

  IMHO, when I speak the truth and tell it like it is, who cares who agrees with me?  It is only when one is lying to someone’s face that one anxiously awaits approval of their narrative and an acceptance of their misdeeds in the eyes of others.  To that end, all of your “likes” are simply an confirmation of the fact that others have accepted the same lies that you have decided to swallow…..hardly an indication of intellectual aptitude. 

• Anonymous

  I can imagine it must be pretty hard to educate a hungry child.  Of course there will always be those who abuse the system and cheat, lie and steal, but the livelihood of the child is first and foremost, and we shouldn’t punish children by depriving them of something so vital and everlasting (and so essential to the proper function of our republic) as an education, simply because their parents are idiots.

• Anonymous

  So after I pay taxes to subsidize my neighbors with more kids than I have in public schools,  and after I pay to subsidize the folks on state assistance who pump out kids to the tune of thousands per child each year, I am now supposed to fork over money to a private school to avoid the system of theft through government that folks of YOUR mindset has created?  Sure, sure, MY actions appear to be moronic.  And the fact that I don’t have a printing press in the back yard is moronic as well yeah?
   

• Anonymous

  So after I pay taxes to subsidize my neighbors with more kids than I have in public schools,  and after I pay to subsidize the folks on state assistance who pump out kids to the tune of thousands per child each year, I am now supposed to fork over money to a private school to avoid the system of theft through government that folks of YOUR mindset has created?  Sure, sure, MY actions appear to be moronic.  And the fact that I don’t have a printing press in the back yard is moronic as well yeah?
   

• Anonymous

  So after I pay taxes to subsidize my neighbors with more kids than I have in public schools,  and after I pay to subsidize the folks on state assistance who pump out kids to the tune of thousands per child each year, I am now supposed to fork over money to a private school to avoid the system of theft through government that folks of YOUR mindset has created?  Sure, sure, MY actions appear to be moronic.  And the fact that I don’t have a printing press in the back yard is moronic as well yeah?
   

• Anonymous

  So after I pay taxes to subsidize my neighbors with more kids than I have in public schools,  and after I pay to subsidize the folks on state assistance who pump out kids to the tune of thousands per child each year, I am now supposed to fork over money to a private school to avoid the system of theft through government that folks of YOUR mindset has created?  Sure, sure, MY actions appear to be moronic.  And the fact that I don’t have a printing press in the back yard is moronic as well yeah?
   

• Anonymous

  So after I pay taxes to subsidize my neighbors with more kids than I have in public schools,  and after I pay to subsidize the folks on state assistance who pump out kids to the tune of thousands per child each year, I am now supposed to fork over money to a private school to avoid the system of theft through government that folks of YOUR mindset has created?  Sure, sure, MY actions appear to be moronic.  And the fact that I don’t have a printing press in the back yard is moronic as well yeah?
   

• Anonymous

  So after I pay taxes to subsidize my neighbors with more kids than I have in public schools,  and after I pay to subsidize the folks on state assistance who pump out kids to the tune of thousands per child each year, I am now supposed to fork over money to a private school to avoid the system of theft through government that folks of YOUR mindset has created?  Sure, sure, MY actions appear to be moronic.  And the fact that I don’t have a printing press in the back yard is moronic as well yeah?
   

• Anonymous

  Okay, where do the teachers salaries that they use to pay union dues come from?

• Anonymous

  Okay, where do the teachers salaries that they use to pay union dues come from?

• Anonymous

  Okay, where do the teachers salaries that they use to pay union dues come from?

• Anonymous

  Okay, where do the teachers salaries that they use to pay union dues come from?

• Anonymous

  I have worked in both public and private schools. The public schools were light years ahead in terms of innovation and relevancy. The very idea that the new law will allow public schools to innovate is a joke. They have been innovating for years. The only thing charter schools will do is take funds from your local public schools. Our Maine public school teachers for the most part are hard working committed public employees dealing with every kind of child, many of whom are challenged by poverty
  and very difficult home environments. Societal distractions abound. Mr. Lepage and cohorts know little of the realities of trying to educate our students in 2011. Focused attention on our public schools should be a top priority. msallyjones is right on. A sad day for Maine.

• Anonymous

  I have worked in both public and private schools. The public schools were light years ahead in terms of innovation and relevancy. The very idea that the new law will allow public schools to innovate is a joke. They have been innovating for years. The only thing charter schools will do is take funds from your local public schools. Our Maine public school teachers for the most part are hard working committed public employees dealing with every kind of child, many of whom are challenged by poverty
  and very difficult home environments. Societal distractions abound. Mr. Lepage and cohorts know little of the realities of trying to educate our students in 2011. Focused attention on our public schools should be a top priority. msallyjones is right on. A sad day for Maine.

• Anonymous

  I have worked in both public and private schools. The public schools were light years ahead in terms of innovation and relevancy. The very idea that the new law will allow public schools to innovate is a joke. They have been innovating for years. The only thing charter schools will do is take funds from your local public schools. Our Maine public school teachers for the most part are hard working committed public employees dealing with every kind of child, many of whom are challenged by poverty
  and very difficult home environments. Societal distractions abound. Mr. Lepage and cohorts know little of the realities of trying to educate our students in 2011. Focused attention on our public schools should be a top priority. msallyjones is right on. A sad day for Maine.

• Anonymous

  I have worked in both public and private schools. The public schools were light years ahead in terms of innovation and relevancy. The very idea that the new law will allow public schools to innovate is a joke. They have been innovating for years. The only thing charter schools will do is take funds from your local public schools. Our Maine public school teachers for the most part are hard working committed public employees dealing with every kind of child, many of whom are challenged by poverty
  and very difficult home environments. Societal distractions abound. Mr. Lepage and cohorts know little of the realities of trying to educate our students in 2011. Focused attention on our public schools should be a top priority. msallyjones is right on. A sad day for Maine.

• Anonymous

  I have worked in both public and private schools. The public schools were light years ahead in terms of innovation and relevancy. The very idea that the new law will allow public schools to innovate is a joke. They have been innovating for years. The only thing charter schools will do is take funds from your local public schools. Our Maine public school teachers for the most part are hard working committed public employees dealing with every kind of child, many of whom are challenged by poverty
  and very difficult home environments. Societal distractions abound. Mr. Lepage and cohorts know little of the realities of trying to educate our students in 2011. Focused attention on our public schools should be a top priority. msallyjones is right on. A sad day for Maine.

• Anonymous

  I have worked in both public and private schools. The public schools were light years ahead in terms of innovation and relevancy. The very idea that the new law will allow public schools to innovate is a joke. They have been innovating for years. The only thing charter schools will do is take funds from your local public schools. Our Maine public school teachers for the most part are hard working committed public employees dealing with every kind of child, many of whom are challenged by poverty
  and very difficult home environments. Societal distractions abound. Mr. Lepage and cohorts know little of the realities of trying to educate our students in 2011. Focused attention on our public schools should be a top priority. msallyjones is right on. A sad day for Maine.

• Anonymous

  I have worked in both public and private schools. The public schools were light years ahead in terms of innovation and relevancy. The very idea that the new law will allow public schools to innovate is a joke. They have been innovating for years. The only thing charter schools will do is take funds from your local public schools. Our Maine public school teachers for the most part are hard working committed public employees dealing with every kind of child, many of whom are challenged by poverty
  and very difficult home environments. Societal distractions abound. Mr. Lepage and cohorts know little of the realities of trying to educate our students in 2011. Focused attention on our public schools should be a top priority. msallyjones is right on. A sad day for Maine.

• Anonymous

  sure, I have close report with them.  Do you seriously think I go down there and berate them as morons?  Very much to the contrary, I sit down with them, propose challenges to their curriculum.  Ask them what their rationale was to derive a certain approach or methodology to teaching a certain subject.  And the majority of the time they flat out have no answer to the questions.  Many times they can’t even explain why they are teaching one particular approach over another……”this is how we do it” is all there is for discussion……how is that an education?  Teaching kids that there is only one way to do things is a disservice to the entire society     

• Anonymous

  sure, I have close report with them.  Do you seriously think I go down there and berate them as morons?  Very much to the contrary, I sit down with them, propose challenges to their curriculum.  Ask them what their rationale was to derive a certain approach or methodology to teaching a certain subject.  And the majority of the time they flat out have no answer to the questions.  Many times they can’t even explain why they are teaching one particular approach over another……”this is how we do it” is all there is for discussion……how is that an education?  Teaching kids that there is only one way to do things is a disservice to the entire society     

• Anonymous

  sure, I have close report with them.  Do you seriously think I go down there and berate them as morons?  Very much to the contrary, I sit down with them, propose challenges to their curriculum.  Ask them what their rationale was to derive a certain approach or methodology to teaching a certain subject.  And the majority of the time they flat out have no answer to the questions.  Many times they can’t even explain why they are teaching one particular approach over another……”this is how we do it” is all there is for discussion……how is that an education?  Teaching kids that there is only one way to do things is a disservice to the entire society     

• Anonymous

  sure, I have close report with them.  Do you seriously think I go down there and berate them as morons?  Very much to the contrary, I sit down with them, propose challenges to their curriculum.  Ask them what their rationale was to derive a certain approach or methodology to teaching a certain subject.  And the majority of the time they flat out have no answer to the questions.  Many times they can’t even explain why they are teaching one particular approach over another……”this is how we do it” is all there is for discussion……how is that an education?  Teaching kids that there is only one way to do things is a disservice to the entire society     

• Anonymous

  sure, I have close report with them.  Do you seriously think I go down there and berate them as morons?  Very much to the contrary, I sit down with them, propose challenges to their curriculum.  Ask them what their rationale was to derive a certain approach or methodology to teaching a certain subject.  And the majority of the time they flat out have no answer to the questions.  Many times they can’t even explain why they are teaching one particular approach over another……”this is how we do it” is all there is for discussion……how is that an education?  Teaching kids that there is only one way to do things is a disservice to the entire society     

• Anonymous

  sure, I have close report with them.  Do you seriously think I go down there and berate them as morons?  Very much to the contrary, I sit down with them, propose challenges to their curriculum.  Ask them what their rationale was to derive a certain approach or methodology to teaching a certain subject.  And the majority of the time they flat out have no answer to the questions.  Many times they can’t even explain why they are teaching one particular approach over another……”this is how we do it” is all there is for discussion……how is that an education?  Teaching kids that there is only one way to do things is a disservice to the entire society     

• Anonymous

  sure, I have close report with them.  Do you seriously think I go down there and berate them as morons?  Very much to the contrary, I sit down with them, propose challenges to their curriculum.  Ask them what their rationale was to derive a certain approach or methodology to teaching a certain subject.  And the majority of the time they flat out have no answer to the questions.  Many times they can’t even explain why they are teaching one particular approach over another……”this is how we do it” is all there is for discussion……how is that an education?  Teaching kids that there is only one way to do things is a disservice to the entire society     

• Anonymous

  sure, I have close report with them.  Do you seriously think I go down there and berate them as morons?  Very much to the contrary, I sit down with them, propose challenges to their curriculum.  Ask them what their rationale was to derive a certain approach or methodology to teaching a certain subject.  And the majority of the time they flat out have no answer to the questions.  Many times they can’t even explain why they are teaching one particular approach over another……”this is how we do it” is all there is for discussion……how is that an education?  Teaching kids that there is only one way to do things is a disservice to the entire society     

• Anonymous

  sure, I have close report with them.  Do you seriously think I go down there and berate them as morons?  Very much to the contrary, I sit down with them, propose challenges to their curriculum.  Ask them what their rationale was to derive a certain approach or methodology to teaching a certain subject.  And the majority of the time they flat out have no answer to the questions.  Many times they can’t even explain why they are teaching one particular approach over another……”this is how we do it” is all there is for discussion……how is that an education?  Teaching kids that there is only one way to do things is a disservice to the entire society     

• Anonymous

  sure, I have close report with them.  Do you seriously think I go down there and berate them as morons?  Very much to the contrary, I sit down with them, propose challenges to their curriculum.  Ask them what their rationale was to derive a certain approach or methodology to teaching a certain subject.  And the majority of the time they flat out have no answer to the questions.  Many times they can’t even explain why they are teaching one particular approach over another……”this is how we do it” is all there is for discussion……how is that an education?  Teaching kids that there is only one way to do things is a disservice to the entire society     

• Anonymous

  sure, I have close report with them.  Do you seriously think I go down there and berate them as morons?  Very much to the contrary, I sit down with them, propose challenges to their curriculum.  Ask them what their rationale was to derive a certain approach or methodology to teaching a certain subject.  And the majority of the time they flat out have no answer to the questions.  Many times they can’t even explain why they are teaching one particular approach over another……”this is how we do it” is all there is for discussion……how is that an education?  Teaching kids that there is only one way to do things is a disservice to the entire society     

• Anonymous

  sure, I have close report with them.  Do you seriously think I go down there and berate them as morons?  Very much to the contrary, I sit down with them, propose challenges to their curriculum.  Ask them what their rationale was to derive a certain approach or methodology to teaching a certain subject.  And the majority of the time they flat out have no answer to the questions.  Many times they can’t even explain why they are teaching one particular approach over another……”this is how we do it” is all there is for discussion……how is that an education?  Teaching kids that there is only one way to do things is a disservice to the entire society     

• Anonymous

  That’s a pretty specious argument even by your standards.  That’s like me saying I should determine how Bill Gates spends his money because I bought Microsoft products.  They are paid to do a job, as long as they do it, and pay their taxes, how they spend the rest is up to them. 

• Anonymous

  You must be new to Maine. 

  We’ve been funding private schools with school vouchers since 1849 under a system designed by Thomas Jefferson for the first board of education.

  The original schools were run by religious orders and the teachers were ministers. The present private academies have their origins in this system and remain today as examples of excellence in education at a modest cost…Foxcroft, Blue Hill,N.Yarmouth, Thorton Academies have deep roots in Maine.

  I suggest before you start bad mouthing our State’s system of education, you learn more about it. 

• Anonymous

  You must be new to Maine. 

  We’ve been funding private schools with school vouchers since 1849 under a system designed by Thomas Jefferson for the first board of education.

  The original schools were run by religious orders and the teachers were ministers. The present private academies have their origins in this system and remain today as examples of excellence in education at a modest cost…Foxcroft, Blue Hill,N.Yarmouth, Thorton Academies have deep roots in Maine.

  I suggest before you start bad mouthing our State’s system of education, you learn more about it. 

• Anonymous

  All schools, even home schools, are operated with the approval of the Dept. of Education. In effect, they meet public standards and are indeed ‘public’ schools. 

• Anonymous

  There are over 5,000 charter schools and most studies only reflect what a handful are doing. The most recent major evaluation was of New York City’s charter schools. It found they outperformed comparable public schools.

  Discriminate?

  The best public school systems have ‘discriminated’, esp. if you consider a meritocracy where students take tests to determine entrance into a specialized secondary school. You would say that a Performing Arts school is discriminating against someone who can’t dance or sing, wouldn’t you? 

  But this is the essence of Maine’s system set up by Thomas Jefferson and many of the outstanding urban schools like Boston’s, New York’s and Chicago’s. New York has many specialized high schools covering a broad range of career oriented areas…business, aeronautics, art, science, etc. They are public schools and copied all over the world. 

  Only a socialist would want a school to be everything to every kind of student. Are you one?

• Anonymous

  One of the Catholic schools run by Jesuits in NYC was nearly all Jewish…they know a good school and enrolled their kids in it. There is a similar school in Chicago.

• Anonymous

  Charters were designed to be funded on slightly less than the state’s avg. per pupil cost. Little thought was given to capital costs; so these ‘inventions’ were created to build and renovate charter schools.  tne NEW MARKET PROGRAM was set up in 2,000 and it’s biggest backer was V.P. Al Gore(D).    

• Anonymous

  Actually, you’re totally wrong! The SAT scores for Maine for 2010 reveal how far below the national and New England Mean they are:

  CRITICAL READING…MAINE – 468;  National -501 

  MATHEMATICS………..MAINE–467; National–516

  WRITING…………………MAINE — 454; National- 492.

  http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/ME_10_03_03_01.pdf

  Historically, the scores have gone downhill and are reflected in an ever increasing amount of remediation required of high school graduates attending the U. of Maine colleges.

  I think if you compared Maine’s nearly all white student body, with national scores for Whites; you’d find Maine’s students in the bottom ten percent!…certainly, not the top. 

• Anonymous

  well you actually didn’t answer the question….pretty typical when one realizes the argument is lost.  The problem with your approach is that Mr. Gates generates his earnings via a private corporation while teachers derive their earnings from local taxes (a portion of the pooled earnings of citizens).  This is a HUGE difference and one that you are apparently unable to address.  Sure they do the job that WE pay them to do, and sure they pay taxes (ironically they pay taxes on money that is derived from taxes in the first place), but to make the claim that the “rest is up to them” when “up to them” entails payments of union dues is frankly an absurd position. Undoubtedly through your own admission, there IS indeed public money flowing into the coffers of the unions and to claim otherwise is simply an exercise in intellectual dishonesty.

• Anonymous

  well you actually didn’t answer the question….pretty typical when one realizes the argument is lost.  The problem with your approach is that Mr. Gates generates his earnings via a private corporation while teachers derive their earnings from local taxes (a portion of the pooled earnings of citizens).  This is a HUGE difference and one that you are apparently unable to address.  Sure they do the job that WE pay them to do, and sure they pay taxes (ironically they pay taxes on money that is derived from taxes in the first place), but to make the claim that the “rest is up to them” when “up to them” entails payments of union dues is frankly an absurd position. Undoubtedly through your own admission, there IS indeed public money flowing into the coffers of the unions and to claim otherwise is simply an exercise in intellectual dishonesty.

• Anonymous

  well you actually didn’t answer the question….pretty typical when one realizes the argument is lost.  The problem with your approach is that Mr. Gates generates his earnings via a private corporation while teachers derive their earnings from local taxes (a portion of the pooled earnings of citizens).  This is a HUGE difference and one that you are apparently unable to address.  Sure they do the job that WE pay them to do, and sure they pay taxes (ironically they pay taxes on money that is derived from taxes in the first place), but to make the claim that the “rest is up to them” when “up to them” entails payments of union dues is frankly an absurd position. Undoubtedly through your own admission, there IS indeed public money flowing into the coffers of the unions and to claim otherwise is simply an exercise in intellectual dishonesty.

• Anonymous

  well you actually didn’t answer the question….pretty typical when one realizes the argument is lost.  The problem with your approach is that Mr. Gates generates his earnings via a private corporation while teachers derive their earnings from local taxes (a portion of the pooled earnings of citizens).  This is a HUGE difference and one that you are apparently unable to address.  Sure they do the job that WE pay them to do, and sure they pay taxes (ironically they pay taxes on money that is derived from taxes in the first place), but to make the claim that the “rest is up to them” when “up to them” entails payments of union dues is frankly an absurd position. Undoubtedly through your own admission, there IS indeed public money flowing into the coffers of the unions and to claim otherwise is simply an exercise in intellectual dishonesty.

• Anonymous

  well you actually didn’t answer the question….pretty typical when one realizes the argument is lost.  The problem with your approach is that Mr. Gates generates his earnings via a private corporation while teachers derive their earnings from local taxes (a portion of the pooled earnings of citizens).  This is a HUGE difference and one that you are apparently unable to address.  Sure they do the job that WE pay them to do, and sure they pay taxes (ironically they pay taxes on money that is derived from taxes in the first place), but to make the claim that the “rest is up to them” when “up to them” entails payments of union dues is frankly an absurd position. Undoubtedly through your own admission, there IS indeed public money flowing into the coffers of the unions and to claim otherwise is simply an exercise in intellectual dishonesty.

• Anonymous

  Using your own logic and statistical wizardry displayed above, please explain how the creation of 2 new public charter schools that perform better than their public counterparts is a bad thing for education in this state.  If we stay with your preferred system, we would have zero improvement in the current school system.  The last I checked, 2 schools that are an improvement is more than zero improvements, but perhaps I’ve been out of school too long…

• Anonymous

  Actually, you enter into a private voluntary arrangement with Bill Gates when you buy Microsoft products. If you were taxed by the state at a rate you felt was too high and forced to take delivery of Microsoft products you might or might not have an interest in using or even be able to use, then it might be a fair comparison.

  I do find it interesting that you are arguing against ‘fair share’ or forced unionism without realizing it in your post as well. You say, “They are paid to do a job, as long as they do it, and pay their taxes, how they spend the rest is up to them. ” when in fact, they are paid to do a job, and they do pay their taxes, fine. But your statement falls on its face when you say “how they spend the rest is up to them.” Right now, it’s not, they are forced to pay union dues or fair-share fees with their money after doing their job and paying their taxes. This is a direct affront to the freedoms of those workers – and your statement is in agreement with that.

  You still haven’t answered my very simple question; where do the teachers salaries that they use to pay union dues come from?

• Anonymous

  Actually, you enter into a private voluntary arrangement with Bill Gates when you buy Microsoft products. If you were taxed by the state at a rate you felt was too high and forced to take delivery of Microsoft products you might or might not have an interest in using or even be able to use, then it might be a fair comparison.

  I do find it interesting that you are arguing against ‘fair share’ or forced unionism without realizing it in your post as well. You say, “They are paid to do a job, as long as they do it, and pay their taxes, how they spend the rest is up to them. ” when in fact, they are paid to do a job, and they do pay their taxes, fine. But your statement falls on its face when you say “how they spend the rest is up to them.” Right now, it’s not, they are forced to pay union dues or fair-share fees with their money after doing their job and paying their taxes. This is a direct affront to the freedoms of those workers – and your statement is in agreement with that.

  You still haven’t answered my very simple question; where do the teachers salaries that they use to pay union dues come from?

• Anonymous

  Actually, you enter into a private voluntary arrangement with Bill Gates when you buy Microsoft products. If you were taxed by the state at a rate you felt was too high and forced to take delivery of Microsoft products you might or might not have an interest in using or even be able to use, then it might be a fair comparison.

  I do find it interesting that you are arguing against ‘fair share’ or forced unionism without realizing it in your post as well. You say, “They are paid to do a job, as long as they do it, and pay their taxes, how they spend the rest is up to them. ” when in fact, they are paid to do a job, and they do pay their taxes, fine. But your statement falls on its face when you say “how they spend the rest is up to them.” Right now, it’s not, they are forced to pay union dues or fair-share fees with their money after doing their job and paying their taxes. This is a direct affront to the freedoms of those workers – and your statement is in agreement with that.

  You still haven’t answered my very simple question; where do the teachers salaries that they use to pay union dues come from?

• Anonymous

  Actually, you enter into a private voluntary arrangement with Bill Gates when you buy Microsoft products. If you were taxed by the state at a rate you felt was too high and forced to take delivery of Microsoft products you might or might not have an interest in using or even be able to use, then it might be a fair comparison.

  I do find it interesting that you are arguing against ‘fair share’ or forced unionism without realizing it in your post as well. You say, “They are paid to do a job, as long as they do it, and pay their taxes, how they spend the rest is up to them. ” when in fact, they are paid to do a job, and they do pay their taxes, fine. But your statement falls on its face when you say “how they spend the rest is up to them.” Right now, it’s not, they are forced to pay union dues or fair-share fees with their money after doing their job and paying their taxes. This is a direct affront to the freedoms of those workers – and your statement is in agreement with that.

  You still haven’t answered my very simple question; where do the teachers salaries that they use to pay union dues come from?

• Anonymous

  Actually, you enter into a private voluntary arrangement with Bill Gates when you buy Microsoft products. If you were taxed by the state at a rate you felt was too high and forced to take delivery of Microsoft products you might or might not have an interest in using or even be able to use, then it might be a fair comparison.

  I do find it interesting that you are arguing against ‘fair share’ or forced unionism without realizing it in your post as well. You say, “They are paid to do a job, as long as they do it, and pay their taxes, how they spend the rest is up to them. ” when in fact, they are paid to do a job, and they do pay their taxes, fine. But your statement falls on its face when you say “how they spend the rest is up to them.” Right now, it’s not, they are forced to pay union dues or fair-share fees with their money after doing their job and paying their taxes. This is a direct affront to the freedoms of those workers – and your statement is in agreement with that.

  You still haven’t answered my very simple question; where do the teachers salaries that they use to pay union dues come from?

• Anonymous

   You can call my argument specious if you would like, but I have found when dealing with people who lack a good grasp of a topic, better to break it down, make it simple and hope to get people to put a little bit of thought into the topic. I’m sorry you reject that approach….

• Anonymous

  Charter Schools are a plan of more corporate  control of America!

  Laws are being written state-by-state creating charter schools as an ‘alternative legal framework,’ which are exempt from most state laws. Charter schools are independent and autonomous public schools that are exempt from virtually all State and local laws, rules, and regulations except for those governing health, safety, civil rights and student assessment (i.e., the GOALS 2000 assessments). These legislative maneuvers will result, as planned, in the corporate control of charter schools, despite the fact that charter schools are considered public schools and are funded by taxpayer dollars.
   Charter schools are public/private partnerships, using the public’s money, but removing local control and removing accountability to the taxpayer.
  Charter schools will be set up as for-profit or not-for-profit corporations. (The Edison Project, one example of a for-profit charter school operation, relating closely to the GOALS  2000 design teams, includes partners: Chester Finn of Manhattan Institute and Hudson Institute, John Chubb of the Brookings Institution, Benno C. Schmidt of the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies, and billionaire Paul Allen, formerly of Microsoft.
  Charter school laws permit businesses to apply for non-profit status and thus become eligible to establish charter schools. This would allow these charter schools to focus on meeting business’ needs for job training rather than providing for a traditional academic education.
  Charter school laws may result in funding apprenticeships for a business, the construction of a business’ building and the purchase of equipment used for work-based learning, thus transforming our schools into mere training centers for corporate America.
  Charter schools provide for “taxation without representation” by allowing the charter school’s board of directors to be established without a vote by the citizens of the school district, and by removing accountability to all the taxpayers in that district. These schools become private corporations, with unelected boards of directors.

• Anonymous

  Charter schools are publicly funded but most often privately run. They often focus on a specific topic such as fine arts or natural sciences and must meet state and federal academic standards. They do, however, have more flexibility in curriculum, budgeting and other issues

  I can see at least 7 0f the Ten Schools Curriculum Now,

   1. Wal-mart school — Specialising in Greeting skills

  2. Mcdonalds school– High Spead Burger flipping

  3. Republican school of Politics—- Distortion of Facts (teachers rush and glenn)

  4.Sarbucks— Multy cultural coffees

  5. VIP —- Tire changing

  6, Civics Group—    How to steal an election

  7. The GOP History group—–  A study of  Irag, and the American Indian–Fairy Tales of the aggreseors.

• Anonymous

  Charter schools are publicly funded but most often privately run. They often focus on a specific topic such as fine arts or natural sciences and must meet state and federal academic standards. They do, however, have more flexibility in curriculum, budgeting and other issues
  I can see at least 7 0f the Ten Schools Curriculum Now,
   1. Wal-mart school — Specialising in Greeting skills
  2. Mcdonalds school– High Spead Burger flipping
  3. Republican school of Politics—- Distortion of Facts (teachers rush and glenn)
  4.Sarbucks— Multy cultural coffees
  5. VIP —- Tire changing
  6, Civics Group—    How to steal an election
  7. The GOP History group—–  A study of  Irag, and the American Indian–Fairy Tales of the aggreseors.

• Anonymous

  So how did these starving children make it ot school age? Did their parents freeze them so they would be all fresh and ready to go to school?
  There is a program afoot in the Dover-Foxcroft area to give these starving children backpacks filled with food to take home on the weekends. In the meantime it’s reported that obeseity among school children is reaching record highs.

  IMO schools function is to feed their MINDS not their bodies. It is the parents responsibility to house, clothe and feed their children.

• Anonymous

  The one large advantage of the Parochial (Catholic) schools in the major metropolitan areas is that the parents still have to pay their property taxes along with tuition to the Parochial schools.
  The Prochial schools have the right to send problem children back to the Public schools. They don’t put up with children who think that they can tell the teachers to go #### themselves. They also don’t promote children to the next grade until they show proficiency in the current grade level. Therefore they reach HS with the ability to read, write, comrehend what the read, have a good foundation in math skills, etc.

• Anonymous

  Once the money is allocated (via the salary) it is no longer public money.  It is private money.  It is their money to do with as they see fit.

• Anonymous

  They are not forced to pay union dues.  They are forced to pay the cost of negotiating their contract.  Now I realize that conservatives do not want to actually pay their fair share (we see this mentality constantly in their desire to pay no taxes) but those of us who like a functioning society believe they are just.  It would be nice if we could take all you live free or die’ers and set you up in your own little fiefdom, maybe give you a nice iceberg to live on and let you fend for yourselves, live out your libertarian dreams, but unfortunately there are fewer and fewer of those available.

• Anonymous

  You’ve got some great logic there.  Hungry is not “starving”, and malnutrition is a serious issue for all of humanity.  And yes, you can still live while malnourished, but your mind and body doesn’t work as well, so education in a malnourished person isn’t very effective.  And yes, we currently have children in Maine who are malnourished and whose only regular meals come at school, not through any fault of their own, and sometimes (not always) not through any fault of their parents.  

  How can a school feed a mind which is only thinking of food, and that only at half ability?  Since each student costs about $40 a day, that’s more a waste of your money than your $3 free or reduced lunch each day.

  I fully agree with you about personal responsibility, but never when it’s adults’ lack of responsibility impacting children.  Give the kids a break.

• Anonymous

  So what are we teaching our children? Are we teaching them responsibility to their children when they have them? Or are we teaching them that they can continue the legacy of their parents lack of responsibility. If the parents are seemingly incapable of insuring their children go to school with a full stomach, then IMO the children should be taken from them and put into the care of people who have no such problem. If the parents are incapable of packing a lunch or at least giving their children lunch money to buy what the school offers, the children should be taken away from these parents. These children are partially my responsibility to help pay for their education. NOT my responsibility to feed them again when the parents are already receiving food stamps that are supposed to go toward the nurturing of their children.

  It’s high time that schools be brought back to their primary purpose of educating children. Not being unpaid babysitters whose responsibilty is to feed and run after school programs whose sole purpose seems to extend the baby sitting hours for parents who are incapable of taking care of their own children.

• Anonymous

  So what are we teaching our children? Are we teaching them responsibility to their children when they have them? Or are we teaching them that they can continue the legacy of their parents lack of responsibility. If the parents are seemingly incapable of insuring their children go to school with a full stomach, then IMO the children should be taken from them and put into the care of people who have no such problem. If the parents are incapable of packing a lunch or at least giving their children lunch money to buy what the school offers, the children should be taken away from these parents. These children are partially my responsibility to help pay for their education. NOT my responsibility to feed them again when the parents are already receiving food stamps that are supposed to go toward the nurturing of their children.

  It’s high time that schools be brought back to their primary purpose of educating children. Not being unpaid babysitters whose responsibilty is to feed and run after school programs whose sole purpose seems to extend the baby sitting hours for parents who are incapable of taking care of their own children.

• Anonymous

  You have no idea what goes on in schools, so there’s no point in continuing to discuss this with you.

• Anonymous

  You have no idea what goes on in schools, so there’s no point in continuing to discuss this with you.

• Anonymous

  You have no idea what goes on in schools, so there’s no point in continuing to discuss this with you.

• Anonymous

  You have no idea what goes on in schools, so there’s no point in continuing to discuss this with you.

• Anonymous

  If we set up our own little fiefdom it would take about 6 months for all the liberals to come begging to be let in. We’d have the military, the entrepeneurs, the small business people, the manufacturers, the accountants, the farmers, etc.

  You would have disability recipients, environmental lawyers, social justice advocates and a pack of union bosses who had no corporations or taxpayers to extort in the interest of fairness.

  Sure, let’s split it up, you liberals can have California, New York & Michigan, we’ll take Texas, Florida & Alaska and we’ll see how it works out.

• Anonymous

  The question of whether a child educated in a k-8 Parochial school would succeed in a public high school has long been answered in the Maine town I live in.

  Despite having an almost poverty of materials; the children that leave the Parochial school do very well in the local high school.

  ‘Problem children’ are rarely ‘sent back to the public school’.  Some of the roughest people in the world were educated and ‘civilized’ in Parochial schools.  An All Black Catholic high school was just closed in Harlem….among its graduates were youth who had violent backgrounds and are now going to college….this high school sent nearly all of its graduates to college.

  Jesuit run schools are among, and may be the best in the world; and often educated the rejects from public schools into outstanding citizens.

• Anonymous

  Charter schools were the lesser of two evils for the unions…the major threat was school vouchers and many states passed charter school laws as a way of fending off school vouchers.

  In some charters, there is an elitist tinge, shutting out parental involvement. It is thought that providing parents with vouchers would shift control and responsibility to parents and keep the charter school more accountable…..nothing like the threat of losing the money to keep the parents satisfied. 

• Anonymous

  My private school illustration only shows public schools are failing the educational system. There’s nothing like competition in society. But it doesn’t exist within the school systems. Public schools are fully funded by tax payers like you and me. Private schools aren’t, not even partially. For that reason not everyone can have quality education, like the kid you referred to whose parents can’t afford eight grand to give away. But they might be able to afford four grand if only the state would provide the funding through a voucher program.  

• Anonymous

  My private school illustration only shows public schools are failing the educational system. There’s nothing like competition in society. But it doesn’t exist within the school systems. Public schools are fully funded by tax payers like you and me. Private schools aren’t, not even partially. For that reason not everyone can have quality education, like the kid you referred to whose parents can’t afford eight grand to give away. But they might be able to afford four grand if only the state would provide the funding through a voucher program.  

• Anonymous

  My private school illustration only shows public schools are failing the educational system. There’s nothing like competition in society. But it doesn’t exist within the school systems. Public schools are fully funded by tax payers like you and me. Private schools aren’t, not even partially. For that reason not everyone can have quality education, like the kid you referred to whose parents can’t afford eight grand to give away. But they might be able to afford four grand if only the state would provide the funding through a voucher program.  

• Anonymous

  Since it seems that your priority is to feed children and with the advent of charter schools, are we the tax payers going to be charged to feed these children in the charter schools also? Who’s going to monitor these charter schools food programs?

• http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1473642850 Andrew Perkins

  the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, maybe paul could attend a few classes and learn something about public speaking and political science!!! 

• http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1473642850 Andrew Perkins

  the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, maybe paul could attend a few classes and learn something about public speaking and political science!!! 

• Anonymous

  Can we trust the Church with young boys, yet, really ?

  The Bishops said they, at least, were pretty well satisfied with the way that they, the Bishops, have dealt with pedophile priests, in the past eight years, recently, didn’t they ?

  June 15,
  2002: Bishops’ Sexual Abuse Policy Meets with CriticismCatholic
  bishops adopt a plan to bar sexually abusive priests from direct contact with
  parishioners. The policy fails to satisfy many victims of abuse. Weekend Edition Saturday.

• Anonymous

  Can we trust the Church with young boys, yet, really ?

  The Bishops said they, at least, were pretty well satisfied with the way that they, the Bishops, have dealt with pedophile priests, in the past eight years, recently, didn’t they ?

  June 15,
  2002: Bishops’ Sexual Abuse Policy Meets with CriticismCatholic
  bishops adopt a plan to bar sexually abusive priests from direct contact with
  parishioners. The policy fails to satisfy many victims of abuse. Weekend Edition Saturday.

• Anonymous

  Charter schools allow the State to cut funding to the public schools, so raise your property taxes, while claiming they have not cut education funding,  giving State same funds to more schools,
  ones  that currently finance themselfs, as private schools should. 

  All the talk here of Catholic Schools, but are the “christian” Hertigage Acadamies to be compared relative to academics, too, [please  ?

  The conservative “christian” Hertigage Acadamies and the political clergy who run them, are who benefit by this bill.

• Anonymous

  ….. while you still fund the public schools, too,
   because the law says all kids must go to schoools,
  and the public one will have to educate all those kicked out of,
  or not accepted by, the private chartrer schools recieving State funds.