Tag: teachers

Trump 2.0: The further dumbing down of America officially begins

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Donald Trump School Choice Executive Order: Here’s Who’s Impacted

President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order to expand school choice across the country. While this policy could allow more students access to alternatives outside of public schooling, critics warn it might divert essential funding from public schools and exacerbate educational inequalities.

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which provides a comprehensive measure of students’ academic achievement across the country, overall student achievement has not returned to pre-pandemic levels. The percentage of eighth-graders reading below NAEP Basic is the highest in the assessment’s history, and the percentage of fourth-graders scoring below NAEP Basic is the largest in 20 years.

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Recent audits revealed that private school parents, and now voucher recipients, have used the funds for a slew of, at best, questionable expenses, including kayak lessons, horseback riding lessons, home gyms, televisions, and more. Earlier audits conducted prior to the most recent expansion revealed similarly questionable uses.”

Related:

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President AMLO’s Sixth & Final Informe

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Friends:

Today I present to you and to the people and the nation my last government report and I do so more convinced than ever that the best of Mexico is its people, heirs of civilizations that flourished long before the arrival of the European invaders. Thanks to the roots of those pre-Hispanic cultures of that deep Mexico, the Mexicans of today are, in their vast majority, hard-working, supportive and honest. The legacy of good principles that were transmitted from generation to generation and that have not disappeared – despite oppression, classism and racism – is what distinguishes us and places us as a country of virtues and greatness.

President AMLO’s Sixth & Final Informe

Unions in Wisconsin sue to reverse collective bargaining restrictions on teachers, others

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Seven unions representing teachers and other public workers in Wisconsin filed a lawsuit Thursday attempting to end the state’s near-total ban on collective bargaining for most public employees.

Unions in Wisconsin sue to reverse collective bargaining restrictions on teachers, others

Related:

Wisconsin’s Act 10 Is in Jeopardy (WSJ)

The law, signed by former Gov. Scott Walker, has saved the Badger State from turning into Illinois or New York, where public unions essentially run the state government for their own benefit. According to the MacIver Institute, Act 10 has saved Wisconsin taxpayers $16.8 billion since it was passed in 2011, making public finances more manageable at every level of government.

Progressive mayors who publicly rail against the law know that repealing it would wreak havoc on municipal budgets. According to Wisconsin Right Now, Milwaukee’s budget says it has saved about $345.4 million in health insurance since 2012 because of Act 10’s requirement that public employees contribute to their health plans.

The lawsuit by teachers and other public unions focuses on a narrow part of the law that exempts public-safety employees. The unions say this creates a “favored” class of workers and imposes “severe burdens on employees in the disfavored group.” Act 10’s “anti-democratic regime,” the unions continue, subjects “general” employees “to a panoply of burdens and deprives them of important rights,” while exempting police officers and firefighters from “all its injurious provisions.”

Attacks on Public-Sector Unions Harm States: How Act 10 Has Affected Education in Wisconsin

A Decade After Act 10, It’s A Different World For Wisconsin Unions

WSJ quotes MacIver Institute, from the Atlas Network via State Policy Network, Bradley Foundation, and Americans for Prosperity (Kochtopus). Former WI Governor Scott Walker, another Atlas/Koch tool, does not rule out intervening.

Dear Moms, Think of Your Own Children!

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The following is an unhinged rant with a hint of sarcasm (forgive me as I’m not a talented writer):

Just listened to the stupidest press conference with Moms Against Liberty (Moms For Liberty, rebranded as Moms Against TikTok), Libs of TikTok, Heritage Foundation, and select members of Congress. Feigning concern about liberty, and children’s rights, they’re calling for a ban on TikTok!

Rep. Troy Nehls called for the creation of an app, called “AmeriTok”, that advocates for gun ownership, limited government, responsible cigar smoking, freedom, individual rights, and liberty (the irony of advocating for freedom and liberty while calling for censorship)! He seems quite jealous that China puts time limits on children being on social media! Why not advocate for a similar law, considering kids could spend just as much time on Facebook or Instagram (or maybe leave parenting to the parents)?!

The astroturfed Moms Against Liberty campaign has been calling for book bans the last few years! Tell me how you can claim to advocate for freedom and liberty, when you are calling for censorship?! Besides, what will Libs of TikTok do if TikTok is officially banned, besides inciting others to violence?! Banning TikTok sets a dangerous precedent! I doubt that these people are true to their beliefs on children’s rights, though, or else they’d be advocating for a ban on Facebook and Instagram, as well! Of course, this has nothing to do with TikTok, except that Facebook can’t compete!

These radical conservatives are just as bad as those on the ‘radical left’ that they rail against! Their hypocrisy about social media privacy is astounding (trying to figure out how cigar smoking is safer for kids than TikTok)!

America’s $52 Billion Plan to Make Chips at Home Faces a Labor Shortage + manufacturing chips in the US could make smartphones more expensive

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

America’s $52 Billion Plan to Make Chips at Home Faces a Labor Shortage

Another possible fix would be to keep people in the workforce longer, by raising the age at which workers can begin collecting Social Security or tapping into their pensions or 401(k)s. Yet Harry Holzer, a former US Department of Labor chief economist now at Georgetown University, says that neither feels politically feasible right now. Immigration has been a toxic issue in American politics for years, and Social Security has long been an untouchable entitlement. “None of that is doable,” Holzer says, which means “our labor force growth is going to continue to be modest.”

Related:

How manufacturing chips in the US could make smartphones more expensive

Morcos says a top concern of his is the narrowness of the CHIPS Act. Without bringing related device manufacturing back to the U.S., such as device batteries, sensors, cameras, antennas, and hundreds of other components, the manufacturing process could require the most critical component to be produced stateside, then shipped overseas to be assembled with hundreds of other components into a device that is then shipped back to the U.S. for the American consumer.

Work longer, for less pay, and you still won’t be able to afford the latest smartphone or laptop?! 🤷🏼‍♀️

Surging cost of living in US drives class tensions to the breaking point

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The latest inflation data published Tuesday shows that the working class confronts months of immense hardships as wages lose their value in the face of rising living costs. The ruling class’s attempt to make the working class pay for the crisis of capitalism is driving workers into struggle across the world, including in the United States, where teachers, nurses, and possibly railroad workers are launching powerful strikes.

Surging cost of living in US drives class tensions to the breaking point