Teachers – The Burning Platform

Actually, The US LOST 1,030 Million Jobs in July (Teachers’ Summer Break)

To better understand the July Jobs report, one has to understand the seasonal adjustments that the Bureau of Labor Statistics employs.

Nonfarm payroll jobs added in July on a seasonally adjusted basis were +255,000 in July. But the raw or NON seasonally adjusted numbers were -1,030,000 jobs. Or 1.03 million jobs lost.

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Notice in the above chart that you get big downward dips in the nonfarm payroll numbers in January and July. And it repeats every year. For January, this is the release of seasonal employment for the holidays. For July, this is the transformation to summertime employment, mostly for teachers. Local government education NSA fell by -1,093,000 in July. Total PRIVATE jobs added amounted to +85,000.

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Attack on Teachers

Guest Post by Walter E. Williams

As the new school year begins, you might like to be updated on some school happenings that will no doubt be repeated this academic year. After this update, I have some questions one might ask the black leadership.

The ongoing and escalating assault on primary- and secondary-school teachers is not a pretty sight. Holly Houston is a post-traumatic stress specialist. She counsels teachers in Chicago public schools and reported, “Of the teachers that I have counseled over the years who have been assaulted, 100 percent of them have satisfied diagnostic criteria for PTSD.” It’s not just big-city schoolteachers traumatized. Dr. Darlyne Nemeth, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, said last year, “I have treated many teachers with PTSD, and I am currently following a few of them.”

A Philadelphia seventh-grade girl with a history of incidents against her teacher sprayed perfume in the teacher’s face after telling her that she smelled “like old white pussy.” After telling her classmates “I’m about to kick this bitch’s white ass,” she shoved the teacher, knocking her to the floor. In 2014, a Philadelphia 68-year-old substitute teacher was knocked out cold by a student (http://tinyurl.com/orldslb). Earlier that year, two other teachers in the same school were assaulted. By the way, Philadelphia schools employ close to 400 school police officers.

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GOVERNMENT’S TRUE INTENTIONS REVEALED – PHILLY STYLE

The Philadelphia Parking Authority is so fucked up and corrupt, they made a TV series about them. Their job is not to insure pedestrian safety or keep the streets safe for easy travel by vehicles. Their job is to collect as much money from its hapless citizens as humanly possible. They issue tickets to vehicles that are not illegally parked and it is the vehicle owner’s obligation to prove they weren’t illegally parked. They are the most despised government agency in Philadelphia, amongst dozens of incompetent, corrupt, union controlled government agencies.

But now the despicable mayor of Philadelphia – Nutter, reveals what a corrupt, tax and spend liberal phony he really is. He already funds his bloated, union controlled, insolvent, joke of a school system with outrageously high income taxes, sales taxes, cigarette taxes, real estate taxes, and business taxes. But that isn’t enough to pay the gold plated union teacher benefits. The school district, along with other corrupt government operations, are funded by parking violation fines.

Easy to implement technology for smart phones is now available that would allow citizens and visitors to Philadelphia the convenience of paying their parking fees from their phones. The hassle and parking violations would drop dramatically for we the people. One problem. Mayor Nutter is a socialist control freak whose union paradise depends on fucking its citizens. He has stopped the implementation of this great App because he needs to fine you to pay for his worthless school bureaucrats and teachers.

Government sees you as nothing but a milking cow to be taxed, fined, fee’d and controlled for their benefit and enrichment. The government is your enemy.

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6,000 ILLINOIS TEACHERS GET $100,000+ ANNUAL PENSIONS: BANKRUPTCY HERE WE COME

Via David Stockman’s Contra Corner

Why Illinois Is Bankrupt: 6,000 Teachers Get Pensions Of $100,000+

by NCPA

From 2013 to 2014, the number of teachers receiving six-figure pensions in Illinois increased by 24 percent. Today, 6,000 retired Illinois teachers are collecting at least 100,000 in annual pension money.

Yet, as Kelly Riddell reports for the Washington Times, if the Illinois Teachers Retirement Service (TRS) were forced to pay out the pensions it owes today, it would only be able to pay retirees 40 cents for every dollar. Indeed, the state’s pension fund is in trouble:

According to a report from the spending watchdog group Open the Books, over 100,000 Illinois teachers had already broken even on their pension payments after just 20 months of retirement.
Illinois taxpayers can pay up to $2 million per teacher per retirement.
The TRS pension fund is underfunded by $54 billion, according to the Illinois Policy Institute.
By 2029, the fund could be entirely broke.

TRS is the largest pension fund in the state. According to Riddell, Illinois legislators have continued to underfund TRS in order to free up funds for spending elsewhere. Yet, over half of Illinois teachers are retiring before the age of 60, and many teachers are making twice the amount they earned while they were actually employed. For example:

Sandra Renner served as the superintendent in the Butler School District in Illinois. During her last four years at her job, her salary rose by 31 percent to $288,240. As a result, her starting pension was $210,480. She will receive pensions higher than her salaries for all but five years of her time in the workforce.
Administrator Mohsin Dada saw his salary rise from $156,160 to $358,750 during his last year in his job. As a result, his pension was $254,700.

In the TRS plan, teachers are guaranteed a 3 percent annual cost-of-living adjustment, not connected to inflation or adjustable based on budget crises. Moreover, the adjustments are not capped as they are in Social Security. As a result, the state’s public employees will see an average $1,906 cost-of-living adjustment in 2014, nine times the amount a Social Security beneficiary will receive to account for cost-of-living increases. According to Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation, the cost-of-living provision is one of the central reasons the state’s pension costs are so expensive.

Another problem in Illinois is “pension spiking,” in which educators’ salaries rise immediately prior to their retirement.

For example, Open the Books discovered teachers in the Hinsdale school district were receiving a 24 percent salary increase during the last four years of their careers, boosting the value of their pensions.
Unions often make salary spikes a part of salary negotiations. School districts are only on the hook for these payments for just a few years, while taxpayers bear the real financial burden: the resulting higher pension bill.

The Illinois legislature passed pension reform last year, which included salary caps and a cost-of-living adjustment based on inflation, but labor unions challenged the reform in the courts. Riddell reports a judge issued a temporary injunction against the law in May. According to Ted Dabrowski of the Illinois Policy Institute, if the court rules pension reform unconstitutional, taxpayers are going to face large tax increases.

Source: Kelly Riddell, “Generous teacher pensions continue as Illinois’ financial crisis worsens,” Washington Times, September 1, 2014.

For more on Tax and Spending Issues:

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/?Article_Category=25

This is a syndicated repost courtesy of Daily Policy Digest. To view original, click here.

BACK TO SCHOOL THE TEXAS WAY

Back in January, the district voted in favor of school marshals. Some Argyle teachers will act as the long arm of the law under the state’s Protection of Texas Children Act.

Gun-toting teachers must have and maintain a handgun license; pass a psychological evaluation; and undergo firearms and emergency response training.

Some parents say the district is right on target.

“I think if a tragedy does occur, lives can be saved by guns being in the right hands, and I think the teachers here might be able to stop something like that and life can be saved,” parent Lacey Fenoglio said.

Argyle ISD Superintendent, Dr. Telena Wright tells NewsFix continuous training is required, and some training even took place over summer break. However, the names and number of pistol-packing teachers will not be released for safety reasons.

Seven states – Texas, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Tennessee and Alabama – have passed legislation to make it legal for teachers to carry a gun following the Dec. 2012 Sandy Hook shooting.

Greg Coker, creator of the Shield 91 program that helps schools effectively arm teachers, talked to Brian Kilmeade this morning, explaining the process by which armed teachers are chosen.

Coker, a Special Ops veteran, says he is on a “crusade” to prevent another attack like Sandy Hook, which took the lives of 20 children and six adults.

He said the program is worth it if it can save even one life. Coker noted that most school shootings are carried out in about five minutes, but it usually takes police about 10 minutes to respond.

Coker said a properly trained individual can draw and fire in two seconds, adding that the goal is to delay the shooter’s actions until law enforcement arrives.