This Land's Not Your Land - Cult of Con Teabagnorance in OUR Rotunda

Photo by Jenna Pope

The photo above taken by Jenna Pope of lyrics used by about 40 The We've Got a Permit Singers in our rotunda on July 19, 2013 (while a couple hundred sang in solidarity outside) exemplifies much of what is sick, twisted and disgusting about Tea Party Cult of Con.

For starters the TPs are always spouting about freedom and oppressive government, until that is Da Gubmint is the Double Authoritarian Scott Walker. Then their worship of authority kicks in and they willingly subjugate themselves to their Ruler's Order to get permission (aka a permit) from the Gubmint to peaceably assemble and exert their right to freedom of speech. That is either cognitive dissonance, the ability to hold two conflicting beliefs and fail to recognize the incongruity, or it is hypocrisy, the willingness to hold two conflicting beliefs and fail give a crap. Both are at epidemic levels in the Cult of Con which of course rests on faith and not reasoning.

To hell with your Fitzwalkerstani permission slip, here are your "permits" boys!
Wisconsin Consitution - Article 1 - Declaration of Rights - SECTION 4. [Right to assemble and petition] The right of the people peaceably to assemble, to consult for the common good, and to petition the government, or any department thereof, shall never be abridged.

Constitution of the United States of America - Bill of Rights - Amendment I: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Representative Government is NOT a Necessary Evil, It's a Vital GOOD!

Those who say YOUR government doesn't work, say so because THEY want to BE your government RULERS!

I cannot recommend strongly enough the show below on Wisconsin Public Radio about the John Birch Society and it's similarity to today's radical right wing Tea Party including support from the Kochs. The big difference? Instead of embracing the whackos and kowtowing to their handlers, in 1960's the Republican Party rejected the extremist wingnut Birchers because they didn't want to be tarnished by them.

http://wpr.org/webcasting/audioarchives_display.cfm?Code=jca

Thursday 7/25/2013 8:00 AM 130725C

A Personal History of America's Radical Right Before there was the TEA Party, there was the John Birch Society. Joy Cardin's guest this hour can speak personally to the inner workings of the Society. Her parents were founding members. Learn about the similarities she sees between the John Birch Society of the 1950s and the TEA Party of today. Guest: Claire Conner, author of Wrapped In the Flag: A Personal History of the Radical Right. She speaks widely on the John Birch Society. She holds a degree in English from the University of Dallas and a graduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

En Mowing Veritas

Sometimes, it takes a mindless activity to get thoughts to come.  It was during a session of mowing the lawn that a very bright light suddenly came on.  It was my Blues Brothers moment where I started suddenly shouting "ELWOOD, THE BAND!" with James Brown dancing and shouting "Do you see the light?".

I was never able to quite  understand why the hard righties were so in opposition to women controlling the number of children they produced.  I figured "As an employer, wouldn't it make my life easier to have a work force with no children?"  I understood a lot of what they were doing, but I couldn't figure out that part of the equation.

It was mowing that cleared things up.  The answer is "history".  What do I do for a living?  Why, I "teach history".   Seems as if it would have come to me a lot sooner, but maybe I was just simply trying too hard.

Most of the revolutions in the history of the world were basically about food and shelter.  Only when a population is fairly well taken care of--food, shelter, and other basic needs--will a group of people think about higher, more lofty issues.  Now, if I'm fairly comfortable and secure, I can focus on the loftier ideals.  Look at the founding fathers.  Almost all of them earned a pretty good income and didn't have to worry about their next meal.  This freed them up to think about other matters.

But if I am wanting for basic needs, my focus is completely different.  Freedom and rights are wonderful things, but if I'm living in a cardboard box and eating out of dumpsters, I'm not going to be too focused on matters of proper search and seizure or who is listening in on someone's cell phone.

And here's where the multiplier effect kicks in.  Most people think about their kids first.  So, if I can choke off a woman's right to manage her reproductive organs (not just abortion, but also making birth control harder to attain), just maybe she'll have an extra child or two more than she planned on.  If that happens, I have her (or them), right where I want them.  They are much more likely to trade pay and benefits away for job security.  If the job market is tight, they won't be able to leave, no matter how much they may hate the job or how badly I treat them.  And if they are putting in 60+ hours a week between the full time job and the part time, there won't be any energy or time to consider loftier matters.   I'll have them in a mindset of "existing", and if you are an amoral/immoral employer or political party, that's a wonderful place to have your populace, because they are too tired, stressed or focused on their immediate needs to think about lofty documents like the Constitution and such.  

Where's my proof?  I think back to the events I've been involved in between the recall, elections, etc.  MOST of the people involved were either childless (none at all, or the kids were adults and on their own) or they could be described as "comfortable", meaning they either made a pretty good salary, or had fairly good job security, or both.  How much would I have been able to do had I been working 2+ jobs and was stressing about losing one? 

Time constraints alone would have limited my participation, but even if that wasn't a factor, I can easily see how someone that was worrying about putting ANY food on the table would consider someone picketing over some lofty ideal as "whiners".  I know I've griped about the lack of involvement of low-income people in politics.  I now think this may be why, and I'm going to try to be less critical. 

The forces of the powerful do some things really, really well.  One thing they do best is to find things that we care about--family, work ethic, patriotism, religion, etc--and find a way to use it against us.    How do we fix it?  Man, I'm afraid I'm going to have to mow a lot of grass before I can answer that one.

Green Fire This Friday

Michael Fields Agricultural Institute will present the second edition of it's Summer Film Festival this Friday, July 19th at 7:00 pm with Green Fire, about Wisconsin conservationist Aldo Leopold. Admission is FREE!

Michael Fields Agricultural Institute

W2493 County Road ES

Upstairs in the Big Brown Barn

(262) 642-3303

RepubliChronic Wasting Disease

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/06/12144/chronic-wasting-disease-rise-wisconsin-deer-will-it-infect-humans This is very disturbing. But it is also important to remember HOW Chronic wasting Disease got into Wisconsin's deer herd. It was through the Republicon practice of Industry Self Regulation.

You see the Wisconsin deer farm industry is regulated by a board whose members are appointed by the governor. Tommy Thompson thought it would be a good idea to have the deer farm industry regulate itself and so he gave Pandora the Key to the Box by appointing 9 deer farm owners to the 11 member board.

The board members, thinking about their Short-Term Profits instead of the long term health of their industry or our deer herd, let alone the public interest, decided in their infinite wisdom to allow the importation of mule deer from eastern Colorado and western Nebraska, an Area Known to have Widespread CWD infection. Some of the imported deer were infected with CWD and as easy as 1,2,3 the disease spread to our wild white tail deer herd. So thank you Tommy for Your Legacy, the Genie is Out of that Bottle and there's no putting it back, in fact there is no stopping it's spread and Wisconsin's traditional (and highly profitable) deer hunt is on it's way out. It's just a matter of time. We can only hope the prions can't make inter-species leap to humans.

GOPster self regulation? Stupid, just plain Stupid.

BASD Morphed Into Another Gubmint Run Institution!

The above letters to the editor, School Tax Increase Makes Case for Voucher School Expansion by Wayne Raisleger and Walker's Budget is a Slap in the Face to Wisconsin, appeared in the June 27, 2013 Burlington Standard Press and are reposted here, with analysis, as follows below.

Local Mad Hatter Wayne Raisleger is worried about my hard earned money. Bless his heart. He blames our ELECTED Officials for not toeing Gubnah Smug Walkers' Divide and Conquer line by allowing employees of the Burlington Area School District (BASD) to receive a modest pay increase. He goes on to observe that, "Because of their inability to wisely spend your money and make good management decisions, the district has morphed into another government-run institution." Let's see, democratically elected representatives with rule-making and taxing authority, hmmm sounds like the very definition of government to me. But then I admit to being completely incapable of applying Tea Party "logic" to any subject. He probably also wants the Gubmint to keep their hands off his Medicare!

It's the Liberal Elite!

The above letter to the editor, It's the Liberal Elite Who've Taken this Country on the Path to Ruin by admitted Obamaphobe Kathleen Ehlen, appeared in the June 20th 2013 Burlington Standard Press and is reposted here, as with analysis, as follows below.

First of all, the batty scattering above is supposed to be a response to my letter from the previous week which was a slightly edited version of the following BAP blog Post: http://burlingtonareaprogressives.blogspot.com/2013/06/gopsters-pile-on-shtuff.html Apparently Ms. Ehlen didn't grasp that my "screed" was not about "the country", but about Wisconsin's Republicon state budget and had nothing whatsoever to do with abortion, birth control, sex education, pornography promiscuity, drugs, alcohol, sexually transmitted diseases or narcissism. I guess somebody is very groin oriented. And yes, I do feel better, it's good to be elite and awesome to be a liberal! Not to mention a person who can use critical thinking and compose a rational "screed" based on actual facts and reasoned argument. Furthermore, if you don't like that I'm a liberal you can go @$#% yourself, because of course what you do in the privacy of your own home is no business of mine.

Walker Hurts Wisconsin Workers

As Gubnah Smug Walker signed the Republicon crafted disaster called the state budget, his selfish, ideological and irresponsible refusal to accept Federal Medicaid funding as part of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare has real consequences for real Wisconsin workers.

A person that I know well works for a non-profit agency that employs hundreds of home healthcare workers. These Wisconsinites perform personal care for disabled citizens in their homes. They do the lifting, bathing, feeding, cleaning and other everyday acts most of us take for granted, that some of our neighbors cannot do for themselves.  The population is aging and these workers will continue to provide vital supports for people who wish to age gracefully and remain in their own homes.We are all potentially one injury or illness away from needing their services. It's a job that comes with hard work, low pay and the requirement to have and maintain a reliable vehicle.
 
The agency's tight budget does not allow them to provide health insurance to these workers who help maintain the health of others. Most of them make just enough over the poverty level (about $11k per year) that they won't qualify for Walker's revised eligibility Badgercare. However, because of the low earnings of these mostly full-time workers, they would have qualified for healthcare coverage under the expanded federal medicaid funding. But because the ideologue in the Gubnah's mansion turned away $120 million federal dollars with Wisconsin's name on it because he thinks he can be president, these hundreds of workers and 85,000 other Wisconsin citizens are $hit Outta Luck!                            

NO HEALTHCARE FOR YOU!

Voting Rights - A 50 State Strategy!

The Fifty-State Strategy: In light of the Robed Reactionary Judicial Hactivists on the U.S. Extreme Court gutting voting protections from the Voting Rights Act and knowing that the Republicon traitors are intent on enacting voter suppression laws in every state of the union, the Democrats need to adopt a fifty state strategy!

Instead of updating and fixing the Voting Rights Act as it was formulated, focused on the Jim Crow states of the south, the Democratic Party needs to put forth federal legislation that protects the voting rights of All Americans in Every State, TODAY, from the Neo-Jim Crow GOPsters. Keenly aware that demographics are against them and their Corporate Sponsors, the Republicons will Hiss and Writhe at this idea and they will fight it with all the Venomous Malice they can Muster.

Let them! Let these Pseudo-patriots expose their Fangs and openly oppose the right of All American Citizens to Vote and see where that gets them!

Let's see the Democratic Party do something ballsy, smart and quite frankly, Patriotically American and step down hard on the necks of these Vipers and make their Forked Tongues Loll!

Microban on Paper Towels!?

Microban!? Yesterday morning I was at a gas station and noticed that the paper towel rack by the fuel dispensers was labeled as treated with Microban. What!? why would I want to spread poison around to kill bacteria on my windshield?

Yesterday afternoon I got a roll of screen mesh that I had shipped to me so I can screen the big door to my shed for my son's graduation party. The mosquitos are bad.... It's labeled as treated with Microban. WTF!?

Why would I want to sanitize screening with poison? Bacteria are natural, they are SUPPOSED TO BE THERE! I have to work with this material and cut it and to get in and out after it's installed, people have to touch it to push open the flap. This is really irritating! I don't think I have time to send it back and get a replacement. It was never noted on the product description. I wouldn't have bought it if it had.

Oh look, you can get it on your fricken faucet!
Your keyboard
Bird feeders?!
Your childrens' scissors in assorted colors!
Your office foot rocker, whatever that is

We must be OFF OUR ROCKERS! We don't know (because they won't tell us), but Microban MAY contain Triclosan which is a suspected endocrine disruptor, carcinogen and may cause developmental defects.

A better question is what AREN'T they putting it in? It's bad enough you see anti-microbial soap everywhere you go. Whose brilliant idea is this crap?! Not only will we no doubt find that spreading poison everywhere has it's own consequences, but we'll almost certainly create another class of super-bugs as the highly adaptable microbes that live in and all around us develop resistance. God we're stupid!

Michael Fields Film Series

The Micheal Fields Agricultural Institute is kicking off their summer film series this Friday on food and conservation related issues with the film Genetic Roulette: http://michaelfields.org/the-summer-film-festival-at-michael-fields-first-movie-genetic-roulette-june-21st/

Admission is FREE!

Skills Gap? Nope! Walker Loses Another Excuse for Failure

Gosh, Gubnah Walker loses another excuse for his austerity induced epic job failure in Wiscossippi. We're 49th! We're 49th!

EXCERPT: A new analysis from the UW-Madison’s LaFollette School of Public Affairs released Thursday found there are enough tech school and college graduates for both the current and projected job openings in Wisconsin through 2020. It's the second study in the past year with similar findings.

The new report here did note some anecdotal evidence of a worker shortage — mainly for low-skill, low-paying jobs that require no post-secondary education — but little indication of a broader crisis.

In fact, the report found the weak job market in Wisconsin was actually forcing those with college degrees into jobs that once went to people with no education beyond high school. For example, about 60 percent of people employed today in bartending or retail clerking have some form of post-secondary education or training.

It also appears that the main stream media has be slow to recognize that most of the talk of the supposed skills gap is anecdotal, while ignoring the research that shows it doesn't exist and that the inability some employers to higher skilled workers is due to the low pay they're offering for those with the in demand skills!

But Gubnah, it's not all bad news for the Badgered State if you can't create jobs by putting up banners you can always add tens of ultrasound tech jobs to the work force with your new fALEC Vaginal Invasion Jobs Bill!

Wispublicons Enact Legitimate fALEC Rape

Legitimate Rape In Progress!

Let's face it, unless they're talking about penis envy, the Republicon Party has not believed in smaller government for decades, let alone local control. But apparently they've grown tired of shoving their "values" down our throats and have decided to take another avenue of approach. Today the GOPsters in the Wisconsin Senate used their gerrymander derived illegitimate majority to enact "legitimate rape" by requiring women in Wiscossippi to get a transvaginal ultrasound before getting an abortion. The K-Y applied assembly will no doubt slip this measure right on through to the A$$hole in the Gubnah's mansion who is eager to apply his little pen to it. Talk about intrusive government sticking it's nose right up in there where it does not belong!

This is Local Control?

Well I guess the Wankers plan to turn around his totally failed jobs agenda, that as evidenced above he's working so, um hard on, is to create demand for ultrasound techs in the Badgered State. That'll work. But seriously, I fucking despise these people and all the crap they stand for! The GOPsters are the ones that need to be aborted!

Speaking of which, there is strong evidence that these Very similar Vagina Invasion Bills that have either been inserted, or are being ogled in numerous states were in fact drafted and voted on by the corporations at the fascist American Legislative Exchange Council (fALEC). Yup, fALEC, where your Republicon Misrepresentatives secretly go to get model bills to rule YOU in YOUR state, in the interest of global corporations. And THAT makes these Republicons both Traitors AND Rapists! Bend over, here it comes!

fALECly Yours,

Benedict Arnold

PS: Musolini would be proud of his ideological spawn among the Wispublicons.

Or is that a Corporation I see in There? 

If any of the women that I care for is unfortunate enough to have to endure this insulting insertion and mental torture, I swear I don't know if I'll be able to stop myself from getting a big stick and shoving it so far up the ass of the nearest Republicon politician I can find, he'll be spitting tooth picks! My disgust is 100% complete. What a bunch of DICKS! And that goes double for the author, Mary Lazich!

Bloody NRA - The Gift the Keeps on Giving!

Weapons of Mass Murder
Santa Monica, Ca - June 7, 2013

Dear Bloody NRA:

How the hell does this have ANYTHING to do with a WELL REGULATED MILITIA!

GOPsters Pile on the Shtuff!

GOPster Crapitalism Delivered!

The budget the Republicon's are in the process of enacting is not only mean-spirited, it's fiscally irresponsible and grossly immoral. Kicking 85,000 Wisconsin citizens off Badgercare so they can refuse to accept $120 million in federal money to cover their healthcare, while giving big tax breaks to rich people by borrowing one time money and falsely claiming they've eliminated Wisconsin's budget deficit is just disgusting. 55% of the tax savings would go to people making over $100,000 per year, another unstimulative gift in the 30-year long failed experiment/scam of supply-side economics. They're also funneling our tax dollars to private/religious schools, by giving a tax credit to anyone, regardless of income, who sends their kids to private schools. Budgets are moral documents and this budget, crafted in the dead of night by extremist ideologues and their corporatist lobbyists while good Wisconsinites slept, is egregious, absurd and heartless. SHAME on all of you!

And on top of refusing the $120 million in federal medicaid money the GOPsters approved another $70 million dollars to go to the corporate hospitals to make sure THEY are not hurt when the uninsured people show up hurting at the emergency room and try to get healthcare.

You SEE? Even THEY don't believe their own nonsense that these poor people will be able to afford health insurance under the Obamacare exchanges! And they have in fact ADMITTED, to the tune of $70M that they're kicking Wisconsinites off of healthcare and that their lying about it! 

Fairies, Frog Princes & Failing Schools!

Scooter "Koch Ho" Walker & Robin "Vulture" Vos

Yup, it's the Poverty Stupid. DUH!

We've said it before, there is No Such Thing as a Failing School! Students fail, and where students fail in large concentrations it's due to factors Concentrated in the Community, Principally Poverty that are out side the school house walls and beyond the control of educators. We've also noted that income inequality is bad for the economy and causes more Poverty!

Well now here is the solid evidence that the two together, increasing income inequality and increasing poverty are at the heart of the so called education crisis in America. Linked below is an excellent article by David Sirota on education and who the Public School bashing, Vulture School pushing Republicon "Reformers" really serve, what their hidden agenda is (because EVERYTHING they do has one!) and why they Dare Not speak of concentrated poverty as the root cause!

http://www.salon.com/2013/06/03/instead_of_a_war_on_teachers_how_about_one_on_poverty/

EXCERPT:  America’s wealthiest traditional public schools happen to be among the world’s highest-achieving schools. Most of those high-performing wealthy public schools also happen to be unionized. If, as “reformers” suggest, the public school system or the presence of organized labor was really the key factor in harming American education, then those wealthy schools would be in serious crisis — and wouldn’t be at the top of the international charts. Instead, the fact that they aren’t in crisis and are so high-achieving suggests neither the system itself nor unions are the big factor causing high-poverty schools to lag behind. It suggests that the “high poverty” part is the problem.

That, of course, shouldn’t be a controversial notion; it is so painfully obvious it’s amazing anyone would even try to deny it. But that gets back to motive: The “reform” movement (and its loyal media outlets) cast a discussion of poverty as taboo because poverty and inequality are byproducts of the same economic policies that serve that movement’s funders.

It's the GREED People! Don't let the these shills for the Profiteers turn our children into their Revenue Streams!

Republicons Hungry to Further their Attack on Food for the Poor

In their latest attempt to punish poor people for being poor people, last week Republicons on Wiscossippi's Joint Finance Committee approved a measure in Gubnah Scooter's budget that would require childless able-bodied adults to work at least 20 hours per week or attend 20 hours of job training per week to continue receiving federal food assistance.

On it's face that's sounds reasonable. We all believe in the dignity of work and that able bodied people should work to support themselves. And job training, well that's a good thing, right? Well of course the devil is in the details and a little critical thinking can expose some of those devils and their devilish intent.

For example, since the FoodShare program is available to individuals under 200% of the federal poverty level ($39,000 for a family of 3), we all know that lots of people receiving food assistance are already working. But suppose your job doesn't offer you 20 hours per week on a consistent basis. Will these people be able to find another job to make up the additional hours needed? That's very unlikely in Wiscossippi where Walker's jobs agenda has failed miserably due to his ill-willed and politically motivated austerity and anti-worker policies. Walker's Wiscossippi Sucks at Job Creation!

Now suppose you're among the estimated 63,000 unemployed or under-employed Wiscossippians receiving federal food assistance who will be required to get the training to continue receiving food. Twenty hours per week, that's two full eight hours days per week plus an additional 4 hours. So the question is WHERE will the training be offered and HOW will people get there and back Three Times Per Week?

Wisconsin Food Deserts & A Place at the Table

Documentary - A Place at the Table

Sometimes things just seem to converge for a reason. Recenlty BAP Steering decided to work on presenting a new documentary film about the hunger crisis in Merica, entitled - A Place At The Table. It's not that we don't have enough food in America, it's that we have too much poverty. The showing is set for 7:00 June 4th at the Plaza Theater in Burlington. Admission is free, but donations are accepted to cover costs. Our costs are also defrayed by by concession sales, so have a beer/wine and some popcorn. Students are encouraged to attend without donation. Please also bring non-perishable food items for donation to Love, Inc. Check out the the trailer starring The Dude! AND see the two women behind this effort on the Daily Show!

At the same time Build a Better Burlington member Karen Tolle is working with student volunteers to grow vegetables for Love, Inc. on the grounds of the 1st Methodist Church here in Burlington. We hear the Karen has absolutely beautiful plot plans and that she is going well beyond tossing a few seeds into the earth. She has found out what veggies are needed and has a trellis planned. Contact her at kltolle@gmail.com if you'd like to volunteer.

Also the Michael Fields Institute in East Troy will be hosting a Summer Film Series that focuses mostly on food safety and availability issues and kicks off Friday June 21st, 7:00 pm with Genetic Roullette: The gamble of our lives, about the dangers of GMO foods.

Meanwhile, out of touch congressional Republicons say let them eat cake as they push for even deeper cuts to the food stamp program than in last year's farm bill. They don't care that 1 of 2 American children will have to rely on food assistance at some point, that 50 million Americans need charity for their food or that food insecurity exists in every county in the U.S. They're too fetus focused to care about actual thinking, feeling Humans Being!

And THEN! Last week, Wisco Republican Representative Dean Kaufert of Neenah got a bill passed through the Wiscossippi Assembly that would require food stamp recipients to spend at least two-thirds of their food budget on "healthy" food. The bill would even treat organic milk and sharp cheddar cheese as junk food - In Wisconsin! Wait, I thought Republicons hated the "Nanny State"? Oh but of course, they Love the "Abusive Father State". You'll do what I say is good for you and you'll like it, or else! . . .

We all wish everyone would eat more healthily, right? But there are Food Deserts present in both urban and rural portions of Wisconsin. You can investigate where these deserts are on the USDA's interactive Food Access Research Atlas.

IF the Republican legislator wrote this bill with a sense of goodwill and is not (in typical GOPster fashion) trying to punish poor people for being poor people,

Betrayal of the Public Trust by Tyler August & fALEC

If you live in eastern Walworth County (as I do) or Wheatland in Kenosha Co. or the Bohners Lake area in Racine Co., you are misrepresented in the State Assembly by the porcine likes of Tyler August.

Tyler doesn't want his constituents to know the intentions of the corporations he REALLY represents, so he has directed that all communication from the fascist American Legislative Exchange Council (fALEC) go only to his personal email and he has defied Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for these messages. As a consequence he is rightfully being sued by Common Cause and the Center for Media and Democracy for this information that legitimately belongs to the PUBLIC! Unfortunately, us constituents will foot the legal bills, instead of the fALEC Corporate interests who he serves, for his trying to keep us in the dark. That's a lose - lose situation for us "citizens". Thanks for nothing Tyler, you are a disgrace!

Yours Truly,
CorpSerf ID: IMFD-OURFD-2

June Clever, we have a job opening for you.

Some thoughts about education, my chosen profession.  Many conservatives have hopped on board the voucher train.  Vouchers are, according to their "experts", best for providing a quality education at a lower price that the public schools.

Much of the planned savings come from paying teachers much less than those in the public schools.  The theory is that good teachers will flock to these schools where there will be fewer discipline problems and the student body will be more engaged and--well, simply more likable.  "I will have a classroom of little Beaver Cleavers, and when the day is done, I will go home and eagerly wait for the next day."  Great plan.

But here's where it gets interesting.  New, young excited teachers can no longer work for much less than the public schools are paying, much less the crumbs that the new, privately run schools will.  Due to cuts in state funding done by the politicians that these people supported, these young people are saddled with huge student loans that have to be paid.  They don't have the option of working for less than the big, evil, union schools pay (unless they also want to give up the option of not living in a van down by the river). It's like owning an Italian sports car;  it may be appealing, but it's not anything that will realistically fit in the budget, so there's no point in spending a lot of time pondering it.

And hiring older, experienced teachers?  Those ladies who are married and are looking for a lower stress job than the public school experience?  That, like the world of the Cleavers, no longer exists.  My mom was a school nurse.  Money wasn't something that was talked about much in my home growing up, so I don't know what percentage of the family income her salary covered. But if I was just guessing I'd say Mom's salary was what paid for vacations and better cars in the driveway. But I know about my family (my wife also teaches), and I know that unless we wanted to radically change our lifestyle neither of us could take much of a pay cut.  We both love teaching, but we also love a nice summer vacation, eating out on occasion and dinner that doesn't include spam or canned spagetti.

So who will be teaching the kids?  People that can't find any other work.  Or the other option?  The teacher that are putting in 20-30 hours per week in a second job.  Why does this matter?  Because teachers that work long hours at other jobs don't give essay exams or writing assignments.  They do true/false and multiple choice tests because they can be graded quickly.  Also, you will be dealing with high turnover. If that teacher gets a shot at a job that actually pays them a decent wage, there will be no reluctance to bail out in early March if the chance comes.

I have plenty of other questions asking where corners can be cut to make these schools "efficient" enough to not only pay for themselves, but generate a profit.  Do you save on the building?  Technology?  Textbooks?  Security?  And how much can you cut without the quality of education paying the price?  Are 15 year old used books still good enough?  If a teacher wants to show kids a live  feed of an erupting volcano--is there a way to do that?  When a teacher bails, are there substitutes available?  But for now, I'll be happy to have just the first one answered.  And yes, I know that I won't ever get an answer, because there isn't one.