Anchor Rising: "The fight is about who is going to run public education"

June 8, 2010

"The fight is about who is going to run public education"

Donald B. Hawthorne

The fight is about who is going to run public education in New Jersey. The parents and the people they elect or the mindless, faceless union leaders who decide that they're going to be the ones who run it because they have the money and the authority to bully around school boards and local councils. So, listen, I know I don't make myself the most popular guy in the world by having this fight, but [if] we don't win this fight, there's no other fights left. This is the fight we have to fight, this is the fight we have to win for the kids.

Watch the video.

ADDENDUM

Remember 2007 in East Greenwich, RI? Anchor Rising was the first to break the news about a teachers' strike in East Greenwich, beating both the newspapers and TV stations. The NEA was arguing that the teachers were being asked to take a pay cut, using that as a public relations hammer to mislead and manipulate town voters in order to maintain their extreme contract terms. So, I sat down with the school administration's Finance Director to get actual and publicly available information as well as reviewed the contracts, did the analysis, showed the NEA claim was a lie, and visibly posted it all on AR. And then dared the NEA to quit whining about pay cuts and actually prove their claim. Which, of course, they could not do and never did.

Here is a sampling of blog posts from that time -

Excuse me, but this is NOT how to win friends & influence people in East Greenwich

There are more earlier blog post links at the bottom of that post.

Several subsequent ones -

"Pay Cut" Analysis Hostage Day Count: Day 2

NEA "Pay Cut" Analysis Hostage Day Count: Day 9

9:21 AM | TrackBack (0)

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>this is the fight we have to win for the kids.

I have often noticed that when a politician or even a parent says "for the kids", it is an act of selfishness and cowardice.

It really means "for me or my interests".

Doesn't matter who or where - I have found that to be true. I'm sure Justin heard "for the kids" hundreds of times in reference to the tax hikes in Tiverton. I have heard them constantly from parents and pols who want to spend millions on sports facilities. What they really mean to say is "we can have comfortable restrooms and snack bars and I can get the taxpayers to pay more for my kids nice fields".

Just says......whenever anything you recognize as being repeated over and over again....comes out of the mouths of politicians, watch out.....for your wallet, freedoms or whatever else you have.

Posted by: Stuart at June 8, 2010 9:49 AM

In unionspeak, asking for a 5% raise and getting a 2% raise is a 3% pay cut.

Posted by: Dan at June 8, 2010 11:30 AM

But if the politician is a far-left Democrat, his words are gospel and anyone who dares to disagree should be locked up in prison (say Alan Grayson, a far-left Democrat and the Leftist Beavises who pollute this blog).

Posted by: BobN at June 8, 2010 12:56 PM

I saw a t-shirt online once. It went something along the lines of:

"EDOPHILES: teachers unions exploiting children for monetary gratification."

That about sums it up, IMHO.

Posted by: Ragin' Rhode Islander at June 8, 2010 3:34 PM