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Mayor Nickels begs for frivolous things

And so it begins.

The Democrats got their president elected, and now they come with their hands out. Mayor Nickels is leading the parade of beggers, with a grandiose plan to install $7 million of solar panels. Why not? It is Christmas, and Santa Obama is trying to figure out how to spend $700 billion! I am sure that this project in Seattle will generate many, many new jobs and make the world a happier place.

By the way, if this project makes economic sense, and will save lots of money on future energy bills, why not do it with Seattle money? I'm betting it is just a big boondoggle that will work about as well as the toilets.

peer review of teacher pay

I also have a question about merit pay based on peer review, although from a different angle.

I'm trying to figure out why there is such an adherence to basing teacher evaluations on other teachers opinions. I don't know of any business where one's peers are the source of one's pay raises. In the real world, how a job is done is measured by how well the employee meets objective standards. In sales, it is a quota. In accounting, it is getting statements out on time and accurately. In engineering, it is producing robust designs that stand up in practice.

So why isn't teaching subject to the same critique? There are measures that can be objectively set. There are customers who can be asked for their satisfaction for the product being produced. Supervisors (otherwise known as administrators) are well schooled in observing teaching, and providing feedback.

So why does this proposal reject all these, and instead rely on the subjective opinions of other teachers? I agree with the commenter above: for a teacher to do this effectively, he must leave his classroom to observe a selection of teachers. Otherwise, the evaluation is based on hearsay and popularity. I could tell you right now which teachers would get the biggest pay raises, based on their peers. I don't think they would be the same teachers getting high marks from parents, students, and administrators.

I would suspect that peer review would be preferred by the teacher's union. It would maintain the illusion that the union is about professional standards, when in fact it is about getting the most pay for the least amount of work.

What I want to say to the PTA ladies

I realize we are supposed to be "education-centric". But I have to ask - if education is completely spared, where are the cuts to be made? Rather than just harp on what you don't want, why not suggest who can sacrifice in order to preserve class size? Even if class size has never been documented to correlate with better education? And of course we can't cut teacher pay. All those highly qualified teachers will go elsewhere, even if there is 15% unemployment, and California is laying off 20% of their public work force.

Heck, cut out out those social service workers. It's not like the lives of foster kids are at risk if they don't have good supervision. Or maybe reduce the size of our prison population. A few extra drug dealers or gang members won't hurt anyone if they are back on the street.

Maybe we can cut the hot meals out at the prisons. No, wait, we can't do that. It would violate their civil rights. Or maybe we can stop the money sink of mass transit that no one will ride anyway. Shucks, can't do that either. Aren't we all green now? Maybe we could privatize the liquor stores. Nah, that would lead to excessive drinking and private profits, which we all know are evil.

I got it. Let's implement an income tax.

Yes. People aren't paying enough of their fair share, anyway.

Olympia Budget Crisis

Unfortunately, the silly show that is happening in the Capitol Rotunda over Christmas has put the very real budget crisis in the background.  Gregoire and the Legislature have to come up with $6 billion in savings.  Where will they find it?

One place, of course, is the biggest pool of funds - education.  So the question becomes, Jobs or Pay?  Do the teachers believe in what they've been saying for years, that smaller class sizes are the solution to our education woes?  If so, and if they truly have the welfare of children in the forefront of their beliefs, they will vote to cut their pay in order to save the jobs of all the teachers who have been added in recent years.  In other words, keep I-728, get rid of the COLA's and other pay increases received in the last five years.

Who am I kidding?  This is the comedy at its best!  New teachers overboard!  Or is it last in, first under the bus?

Auto Bailout

So it looks like the impossible is happening - the big three, and the union power behind them, won't get to raid the US treasury.  

Bush betrayed the conservative movement by starting this stupid bailout in the first place.  Adding liquidity is one thing, deciding winners and losers is far different, and a dangerous game to start playing.  

I'm glad to see that Reichert voted against this bill, even if he was on the losing side.  Of course, he voted against the original plan as well, but only because he hadn't really read it.  Once he figured out what it said, he indicated he didn't have a problem with it.  Oh well.  Right for the wrong reasons.

Gas Prices

The price of gasoline keeps dropping.  Like a rock.

This is bad news for the global warming believers.  If gas is cheap, people will drive more.  They won't care about alternative energy sources.  They might even want more domestic drilling, so we can separate ourselves from the barbarians in the Middle East.  Who needs biofuel when regular old oil costs less than $2 per gallon?

But the faithful to global warming won't give up.  In fact, they want quicker action from the UN.  Quick!  Before the world finds out our theory is a fraud!  

I'd believe the greenies, except that when you want to build power lines connecting their newfangled wind farms to the electric grid, they lobby to block the lines.  Nuclear energy is our best bet to be independent, but the thought is absolute taboo to the faithful.  No matter that Europe has used it for years, safely.  No, the greenies don't want energy independence.  They want us to live in the dark ages.  Literally.