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Jun 7, 2011 at 5:16 pm
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800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
So it's all okay right?
indeed. i meant the voters who support continued cuts over restructuring the tax code to be able to maintain revenues & services.
I don't just mean you, I mean all of us.
Maybe the crack team of reporters and editors at the Stranger should put together an investigative piece of journalism to enlighten us with all your wisdom on the topic.
What's that? You're interviewing zoo animals about a new album?
Yeah. Thought so.
I'm continually frustrated at the rapidly eroding support for education, primarily higher education, although they're going after k-12 more and more. Young adults don't even know how badly they're being screwed because they don't know about it-- it's almost never reported how good a deal their parents and grandparents got for state colleges. It seems hopeless though, as this is what the voters want.
No. 1: You're an idiot.
No. 2: Well, not an idiot in an IQ sense, but an idiot in your bulshit-thinking-out-of-issues.
No.3: Why are you at The Stranger? Why did Dan Savage hire you?
No. 4: You're an old, acerbic, leftie who just throws shit out and hopes some of it sticks.
No. 5: You have something in common with Charles Mudede. Neither one of you actually produces anything of value (and producing coherent writing about issues is of value, but you don't do that). Your value, I guess, is having Slog readers read your crap, shake their collective heads, and then respond because it only costs them 15 seconds of typing and maybe takes them away from their own mundane lives.
Yes, the state's public schools have been raped in the name of "small government."
And, yes, Seattle public schools have been swindled in the name of "social justice".
Both are true, both are serious issues, and neither is a fucking squirrel.
My "precious spawn" will be OK in the public cesspool, thank you very much.
The right is fucking public education by gutting its funding. The left is fucking public education by diverting its mission away from free education (the ultimate liberal cause!) towards social services. That means public education is being double fucked from both sides, and that fucks over middle and lower income kids.
Jesus fucking Christ that was the most obnoxious thing you have yet written. Get your head out of your ass.
And, to quote the little used document, the State Constition:
"It is the paramount duty of the state to make ample provision for the education of all children"
…and my pet peeve? We don't even fund full-day kindergarten!
Kids like me.
okay, i'm done talking about this. sorry about the triple-comment. and, you know, "hey squirrel" etc, it distracts from the conversation at hand. carry on, slog.
Nice work, sir.
And while I perhaps agree in principle that you could, had you devoted a little thought, come up with a better term than "rape," I think it's patently silly to imply that using a word which has become a recognized part of informal modern English somehow diminishes the experiences of people who suffer sexual assault, and also, for fuck's sake SQUIRREL! Hey you guys! Goldy is writing about something incredibly important that I think you all need t- HEY HE USED THE WRONG WORD LOOK EVERYONE FUCK YOU GOLDY USE A BETTER WORD.
Seriously, talk about fucking irony. I don't mind that Seattlites' sensitive consciences make them uptight sometimes, because it's better than the alternative, but sometimes you people need to loosen the fuck up and just let the vernacular slide when there's a bigger point being made.
Cronyism, corruption, and an overwhelming desire to support artificial goals (Diversity! Social Justice!) at the expense of the primary mission of education appear rampant.
Grow up. No one is upset because of a "quesionable real estate deal and $162,228 in accounting errors." They are upset because the school board goes against the best interest of 99% of Seattle to placate those who holler the loudest and this is just another of many examples. There was no questionable real estate deal. They took property that belonged to everyone and gave it to a church. And used tax payer money for their "gift". Nothing questionable there, it's completely despicable.
There are several states with less per-pupil spending, but higher graduation rates (including states like Texas, Tennessee, and Arkansas).
http://edmoney.newamerica.net/node/36914
And I'm pretty sure per-pupil spending is higher now in inflation adjusted dollars than it was in the 70's. So, it seems that there must be things going on besides simply funding issues.
@40 - surely you’ve heard of the games Texas plays with their statistics? Kids who either 1) aren’t going to pass the tests or 2) aren’t going to graduate magically disappear off the school rolls. Schools in Texas have had 900 entering freshmen, but only 250 graduating seniors. However, it’s easy to have a great graduation rate when you calculate your rate by only looking at entering seniors vs. graduating seniors, which is what they do. The only way to get a truly accurate graduation rate is to look at your entering freshmen, then your graduating seniors. I’m willing to bet Arkansas and Tennessee have also been playing fast and loose with many of their stats as well. The other place to look at is the GED rate. Typically the number of enrollees in the GED programs in those states is much higher than in other states. Why? Because they’ve been “encouraged” to leave their schools so as not to drag down the test scores or the graduation rates.
Google the myth of the Texas Miracle for more info.
Also, if Utah pops up as a low-spending state with good grad rates and test scores, then you’ll also want to Google Simpson’s Paradox.
I'm not saying that states don't skew education data to make themselves look good, but if everyone is measuring these things in different ways, then it's really hard to know what's going on. Either way, I think the fact that per-pupil spending is decidedly up since the 70's and 80's indicates that there's more at work here than simply lack of funding.
I get it. Originally you were just... making conversation. And people went and got all ape-shit. Now, their ape-shit-ness brings up another point... why don't people care more when things REALLY MATTER?
Why?... Because they just really like being angry! RAWR!!!
Good series of posts.
If you want to sit there like some leotarded parrot, reciting some ready-to-wear talking point from your little unregistered cage, go right ahead. But if your betters succeed in killing the teacher's union, who will you blame for the state of education then?
Conservatives abhor personal responsibility. Everything is always someone else's fault, and they're always the victim. What a miserable way to go through life.
Well, it shows propaganda works, but it is more than just a simple distraction away from questioning austerity because focusing on the notion that our tax dollars are squandered by evil government bureaucrats accomplishes 2 things: yes, it ignores the elephant in the room (services reflect how much we invest) but it also fuels the logic for drowning gov in the proverbial bathtub.
But, HE DID NOT write a post about the real crime which is the gutting and non investing of our public education system, and the lack of vision in our state legislature. Indeed that is the true crime that is happening in this state,I agree, but that’s not what he posted about. So what’s he angry about? He wrote the post so he is as guilty as everybody for looking at the squirrel.
The thing is, the AME deal isn't propaganda, it's an actual scandal, even if it doesn't fit the left-wing's preferred narrative.
Whenever some arm-chair grammarian pipes up like you have, I generally assume they are OCD, tend to lose the forest for the trees, and have a need to feel intellectually superior to others that stems from insecurity about their own intelligence.
But, hey, I made a grammatical error, so what could I possibly know?
BTW, douchebag, you forgot the comma after "but", and you included one too many dots in your ellipses.
No, you'll do what you always do.
"The thing is, the AME deal isn't propaganda, it's an actual scandal, even if it doesn't fit the left-wing's preferred narrative."
I'd say the propaganda aspect is the disproportionate importance given to AME relative to that given to our underfunding education. I actually don't know enough about AME to decide whether there was foul play.
Having gone to a really terrible public school and a very nice private school, I find the Seattle Public School system great. It doesn't get to cherry pick high performing kids like a private school, so of course it's got troubles because it's fucking required to have troubles.
WA Middle Class is ripped off to give away our tax dollars to Boeing and Microsoft instead of education!