Teachers' unions uneasy with President Barack Obama

Politico ^ | 10/17/2009 | NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON

[fiscon1]

A skirmish between powerful teachers’ unions and President Barack Obama over nearly $5 billion in education spending is shaping up as a preview of the battle to come over No Child Left Behind in Congress early next year.

But the tables are turned: now the unions are worried that Obama, a Democratic ally, is going to be just as tough on them as President George W. Bush, a longtime foe.

[A_Former_Democrat]

LOL at liberals when reality hits home

[A CA Guy]

If it were up to me I would disband all unions connected in anyway with government and would not allow any government connected public job to have pay or benefits higher than the average wage in the private sector.

In other words I'd cut all their pay by 60+%.

[Randy Larsen]

You wouldn’t have to cut their pay...

Just get rid of the excessive bull sh!t and lazy slackers...

It would cost the taxpayers 1/4 of the taxes they pay now!

[The Comedian]

The people responsible for Ignorant and Illiterate America are demanding stuff! Quickly! Get one of their students to read them the reasons why they can't have it!

Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.

[alice_in_bubbaland]

Too late now, a$$hats!

[South40]

“When school children start paying union dues, that 's when I'll start representing the interests of school children.”
~Albert Shanker, President of the United Federation of Teachers from 1964 to 1984 as well as President of the American Federation of Teachers from 1974 to 1997

[Peanut Gallery]

ping

[italianquaker]

Dont believe that odumbo wont bow to the teachers union

[OldDeckHand]

"Just get rid of the excessive bull sh!t and lazy slackers..."

John Stossel had a report on 20/20 a couple years ago about the mess that is the New York City public school system. In the report, Stossel explained that NYC pays in excess of $20 million each year in salary & benefits for teachers that are still on the payroll, but because of court order (either permanent or temporary) are NOT ALLOWED to be around minor-children. But, the teacher's union contracts are so complicated, which makes firing a teacher virtually impossible, NYC is stuck paying them.

The teachers show up to work everyday at a number of locations around the city which have the nick-name, "The Rubber Rooms". They're effectively teachers lounges where they read, watch television, play cards, etc. But, do no actual work. As long as they show up, they can't be fired. Stossel reported that the year before (I believe 2006), there wasn't a SINGLE teacher fired. Can you think of any other employer in the country with an excess of 80,000 employees can go a whole year without firing at least one?

[constitutiongirl]

Get over it public ‘educators’. Hope ya’ll don’t learn the hard way...true believers are the first to go.

[Eva]

There is an article on WSJ that says just the opposite, that the teachers’ unions are falling in line.

Obama is not really the friend of the teachers’ unions. The teachers’ unions are too demanding for Obama’s taste. He wants a union that he controls, the SEIU. The voters in WA state elected a former head of the WA state SEIU as the state superintendent of schools. He told voters that he was a former lawyer for a teachers’ union. It was a serious obfuscation.