Who says government doesn't listen to you?

[gabosaurus]

When I went to Washington DC to lobby for education reforms and a "bailout" of public education, I got a lot of negative feedback from a Congressional subcommittee. I expected this and had put together a list of budget cuts that could easily finance such a thing.
One thing I presented (through help from other sources) was a 30 percent cut in defense spending. Mostly through weeding out the overly bloated Pentagon bureaucracy and limiting defense contractors and lobbyists. You could eliminate a third of the jobs in the Pentagon and defense industry and no one would ever notice.

Good to see that someone is listening.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/08/AR2010050802495.html

[SassyLady]

When I went to Washington DC to lobby for education reforms and a "bailout" of public education, I got a lot of negative feedback from a Congressional subcommittee. I expected this and had put together a list of budget cuts that could easily finance such a thing.
One thing I presented (through help from other sources) was a 30 percent cut in defense spending. Mostly through weeding out the overly bloated Pentagon bureaucracy and limiting defense contractors and lobbyists. You could eliminate a third of the jobs in the Pentagon and defense industry and no one would ever notice.

Good to see that someone is listening.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/08/AR2010050802495.html

Well, Gabby, what do you think of this? Seems that the CA Governor wants to make some budget cuts by weeding out some teachers and programs here. If he adopted a law like the one in Arizona perhaps we could reduce the classroom sizes and there wouldn't be such an educational crisis.


CTA Denounces Bill Backed By Governor to Attack Teachers and Ignore Real Challenges Facing Public Schools


BURLINGAME – David A. Sanchez, president of the 325,000-member California Teachers Association, released this statement today denouncing Senate Bill 955 by Republican state Senator Bob Huff of Diamond Bar in Los Angeles County to destroy teachers’ rights and ignore the real problems facing our public schools during these hard economic times:

“Once again, as he did in 2005, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is backing destructive education proposals that will hurt teachers and students and do nothing to improve teaching and learning in our classrooms or to solve the budget crisis facing local schools. The governor, Huff and other lawmakers are scapegoating teachers during these tough economic times and robbing them of due process rights. The governor’s promises to support public education are as empty as school districts’ coffers depleted by his $17 billion in state education funding cuts over the last two years.

“Now the governor is supporting outrageous legislation that will make it harder to attract and retain quality teachers in our classrooms, and open the door for discrimination and favoritism by local school districts, while at the same time eliminating a teacher’s right to a hearing before being laid off. Taking experienced teachers out of our schools is not the best way to help students or improve learning.

“With our school districts at the breaking point, class sizes nearly doubling in some grades, over 16,000 educators laid off last year, another 26,000 receiving pink slips this year, and critical student programs disappearing, the governor is pushing legislation that won't save the state one dime or do anything to improve student learning.

“California's parents, teachers and students want the governor and the Legislature to focus on solving real problems like soaring class sizes, inadequate resources, and the elimination of music, art, and vocational education programs. It’s time for the governor and lawmakers to work with educators to support neighborhood schools and provide all students with a quality education.”


http://www.cta.org/About-CTA/News-Room/Press-Releases/2010/04/20100420_1.aspx

[cat slave]

Gabbys really taken with the little trip to DC! Can we say
busy work? Try to get over yourself. Everyone else has.

A huge savings could be gained by abolishing the education
dept and cut all the fat out.....abolish the teachers union...
its a mafia type org.

[sybarite]

If you would take all of the government jobs across the board and cut them 1/3 nobody would know they were missing. SERIOUSLY! Do you know how many people are sitting at desks being paid $20.00 per hour doing nothing at the taxpayers expense?? Some of them do know what the most recent porn movies are though!!:rolleyes:

[cat slave]

Dont you love it when politicians say they will cut costs by eliminating non
essential employees/depts? If they are not essential why are we paying them to
do a job that doesnt really matter?

[PostmodernProphet]

the essence of the problem is government is only willing to cut funding (if ever) when they want to find money to spend somewhere else.......how about cutting spending just because we spend too much.....