Tell the President not to Cave-corrected link

Please take a few minutes out of your day to email President Obama. Tell him not to give in to the bullying and lying by the Republican Party about the Affordable Health Care Act. These people are willing to shut down the government because of their irrational hatred of Barack Obama. Our soldiers won't be paid! Hardships on the poor and senior citizens has already been institutionalized. 

http://whitehouse.gov/contact/

Don't be fooled. This is no longer only about Tea Party Extremists. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, has just led his House Republicans to vote to delay Obamacare by one year. 

http://m.washingtonpost.com/politics/house-republicans-to-propose-one-year-delay-in-obamacare/2013/09/28/1e884de6-2859-11e3-9256-41f018d21b49_story.html

It takes a special kind of selfishness to want to deny Americans access to health insurance coverage. Especially when those same Americans are paying for the health care of these very hypocrites. 

Human beings in the United States of America should not have to choose between buying food or taking their children to the doctor. And getting cancer should not mean bankruptcy. 

Republicans want government to fail. They want President Obama to fail. They want their wealthy campaign contributors and cronies to keep getting lucrative government contracts and jobs while the poor and middle class languish. 

No more lies! Tell the President to stay the course. 

We Don't Need No Education

I just bought my first - and last - ticket for the NC "Education" Lottery. Not because it was a stupid waste of $1.00. Not even because the woman at the drug store told me that she sells $800 worth of tickets to folks on a regular basis. But, because on the ticket, under the number "4", the word is spelled "f-o-r". 

It has never been about education. All the warnings of supplantation of the education budget have come true. Me? I'm a stickler for proper spelling. 

Drink More Perrier

http://m.charlotteobserver.com/charlotte/db_260238/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=1TNphUzG - 

Charlotte-area legislators, dean will study N.C. teacher pay-Charlotte Observer, 9/12/13

It may be apocryphal, but I've always loved this business school case study for its simplicity. After sitting through a seemingly endless strategic planning meeting to come up with a new mission for the company, the CEO of Perrier allegedly shot to his feet screaming, "Sell More Perrier!"

The brain trust at the NCGA that wrote the state budget this year--you know the one, it was devastating to teachers and public education - have created a committee to advise them on teacher pay. Does anyone else want to shout, "Pay Teachers a Living Wage!!"?

There is just a little more advice I would offer, without the benefit of a Committee Room, microphone or gavel. 

1.  Do not fire teachers. 

2.  Do not fire teacher assistants. 

3.  Do not dismantle the NC Teaching Fellows Program. 

4.  Do not raise the limit on class size. 

5.  Do not remove the small bump in pay for teachers who earn advanced degrees. 

6.  Do not require teachers to pay for their own substitutes. 

7.  Do not stop paying for teachers to earn National Board Certification.  

8.  Do not provide taxpayer money to private and religious schools for children whose parents can afford the tuition on their own. 

9.  Do not lift the cap on the number of charter schools and then remove any accountability by their leaders. 

10.  Do not keep saying that this budget gave more to public schools than ever before, because the facts say otherwise. 

Oh wait. The NC GOP majority has done everything listed above. You do not need a committee. You need to restore the budget cuts. Or just admit that your idea of education public policy is to destroy public education completely.