For this week’s column, I predict a great deal of backlash and angry staff members for the following topic because this is a university newspaper — read by a great deal of professors and teachers.
That being said, I would like to preface the column by saying that I am not calling out any Cal Poly staff members or saying professors are guilty of what is written.
If the introduction was not blunt enough, I am writing about the Teachers’ Union that caused a great deal of controversy in Wisconsin this year. These teachers are taking on methods many would consider wrong.
So the U.S. is broke, and many sectors of the government have to deal with cuts in spending. This includes the education sector where schools are given less money to pay their teachers and buy new learning materials.
Many teachers felt they were already underpaid. Maybe some are even concerned students are not receiving the education they deserve. So you’re upset, I understand. What are you going to do about it?
Maybe petition on the weekends? Or elect a representative that would fight for your rights? No. Instead, the teachers of Wisconsin decided on a different method.
I would like to ask those teachers: How are you helping by calling in sick with fraudulent doctor notes when you’re healthy? Or taking over the State Senate House and not letting them do their jobs? Even bringing the kids into the fight and taking them out of school? What type of message does that send to kids?
Well I’ll tell you: it teaches that them it is OK to be stubborn noisemakers to get your way.
I would like to hear the bullet points for their campaign. I want to know how costing their school district and state more money, as well as putting the student’s education on hold, is helpful.
The truth is, these teachers are not the only ones who have taken a significant hit during this recession. They are not the only ones having to deal with lay-offs and pay cuts. They are not the only ones working for a salary below their qualifications.
The private sector, which pays these teachers with their taxes, is hurting just like the rest of America. They are experiencing reductions in jobs in just about every industry imaginable due to the recession. From manufacturing to real estate, there are workers struggling to stay employed.
So do you think because you’re a government union you have the right to more money and opportunities than those not working for the government? To me, that is a ridiculously selfish mindset.
I understand the frustrations of these teachers and can see why they are so upset, but their response was handled in a very negative manner in my opinion.
As a student, I cannot believe the amount we get ripped off by the cost of college (books and tuition to be more specific). I believe something needs to be done about students being taken advantage of, but the response needs to be done in the correct way. It needs to demonstrate my right to free speech, but at the same time, it doesn’t end up costing a broke economy more money. It’s like beating a dead horse.
So let’s give these Wisconsin kids an education and leave the protests to a time that doesn’t cost these students their right to learn.
At first, I thought you were just misinformed on how our government works. However, after reading your final comments about how expensive textbooks and tuition are, I realize you’re delusional. Why didn’t our forefathers hold meetings on the weekends? Why didn’t minorities elect officials who would properly represent them back in the 50/60’s? It sure was irresponsible for all those people in Egypt to interfere with hard-working businesses when everyone was protesting a few months ago, was it not?
Did you read your article out loud before you posted it and think, “Yeah, that sounds perfectly sane”?
I’m most surprised to be hearing this sort of rhetoric from a CONSERVATIVE columnist. Not to stereotype, but conservatives seem to be the first to protest about anything that you don’t agree with.
I was really looking forward to some mental debating on a subject that I am rather passionate about, but I can’t get past your retarded opening argument about the way they protested.
My god, is there any sort of screening process to become a columnist at Mustang Daily?
If I could fallow your arguments against me I would be able to argue a point, but for some reason you’re talking about egypt and racial minorities from the 50’s and 60’s. So I’m not going to take anything you say personally. YES I am a conservative, YES I do get made about things that I don’t agree with which is exactly what you’re doing in this comment. I dont expect hypocritical liberals to agree with me so I could care less about what you think about my opinion.
Your op/ed pieces are normally pretty dicey, but you’ve really outdone yourself with the comments you’re posting here.
To be honest, your column is normally a piece of shit – I’d bet that anyone with any sort of rhetorical prowess would be able to write a better “conservative” column regardless of their political stance.
That being said, your juvenile responses to people calling you out for your bullshit postings is worse than your terrible columns.
Instead of maintaining a dignified silence, you’ve one-up’d yourself with these absurdly terrible responses to criticism.
Maybe you’re just trolling (and to be honest, I hope you are – for your sake), but if this is the best you have, you should probably stop writing columns for the Mistake Daily – not just to improve the newspaper but also to avoid future embarrassment.
In the immortal words of James Downey: “what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul. “
A comment from Billy Madison as a response? Wow, you’ve really proved your point with that one. I can tell you’re just the person to tell me that I don’t know what I’m talking about. So you can take that elsewhere. What you say has no effect on me and as I said before, if you don’t like my columns you don’t have to read them. Its almost become cliche at this point for a liberal to turn a political piece into a myriad of personal attacks. If you ever want to have an educated debate I suggest you try a different approach.
I guess college journalists dont have to list sources? Where did your statement America is broke come from?
According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the fourth quarter of 2010 had the highest corporate profits ever recorded at an annualized 1.68 trillion in profit.
Also you complain about tuition? You pay what, about 2 grand a quarter for tuition and book? And that gets you 10 weeks of instruction for up to 18 or 20 units of school. Which means your paying about 10 dollars an hour for someone with a doctorate to teach you, prepaid lectures, grade your work, provide office hours, etc. and on top of that a school that provides facilities for education to occur. That seems like a great deal to me.
Basically this article is your poor, invalid, and non-crittical assumption about very complex issues you have no real knowledge of.
I fail to see where you prove my article “invalid”. I mean if “invalid” to you means “to not agree with” then yeah its totally invalid. and everyone here is taking the word broke too literal. In a general sense a high amount of debt (one of which will never be exceeded by corporate profit) and the inability to spend like we normally do is what is meant by broke. Obviously the largest bureaucracy in the world is not literally “broke”. So thanks for the input, but just because you disagree with me doesn’t mean that im wrong in saying that barring kids from learning is wrong. WHICH WAS THE POINT OF THE ARTICLE. and on another note to everyone: Debating is not about personal attacks between debaters, so if you don’t like what I believe i suggest you read the liberal column where you’ll be much happier.
Andrew, the thing about your “article” is it is an opinion piece, rather than a “news” article which would have facts with resources that have been checked, as well as your grammar & overall writing should have been checked for errors. For example, in this sentence “Well I’ll tell you: it teaches that them it is OK to be stubborn noisemakers to get your way.” You should have used a comma after “you” instead of a colon, and corrected “that them” and “your way” should be “their way”. Also, when you are using the possessive apostrophe for the plural of students it is not written as “student’s”, instead put the apostrophe after the “s” (e.g., students’). As for your original commentary in the Mustang Daily, you fail to be fully informed about what the Gov. of Wisconsin proposed & did to the unions’ bargaining rights & protections. This is not a dictatorship & in the U.S. of A. contracts are supposed to mean something & are binding. As Tom points out below, the teachers were not against the financial cuts. It was about the disregard & elimination of legal bargaining rights for unions & it was about elected officials changing their game plan after being elected & taking office. As for your concern for the students’ missing out on their education in the classroom, one must consider the “education” all of the students got in seeing their teachers & parents & neighbors & people from other states stand up for what is right as they employed their constitutional rights in a civil manner of protest. Teachers don’t just teach within the classroom walls. Events like what has been happening in Wisconsin will be a lesson learned & remembered much like the first steps on the moon & the civil rights protests in the 1960’s.
Andrew, the thing about your "article" is it is an opinion piece, rather than a "news" article which would have facts with resources that have been checked, as well as your grammar & overall writing should have been checked for errors. For example, in this sentence "Well I’ll tell you: it teaches that them it is OK to be stubborn noisemakers to get your way." You should have used a comma after "you" instead of a colon, and corrected "that them" and "your way" should be "their way". Also, when you are using the possessive apostrophe for the plural of students it is not written as "student’s", instead put the apostrophe after the "s" (e.g., students’). As for your original commentary in the Mustang Daily, you fail to be fully informed about what the Gov. of Wisconsin proposed & did to the unions’ bargaining rights & protections. This is not a dictatorship & in the U.S. of A. contracts are supposed to mean something & are binding. As Tom points out below, the teachers were not against the financial cuts. It was about the disregard & elimination of legal bargaining rights for unions & it was about elected officials changing their game plan after being elected & taking office. As for your concern for the students’ missing out on their education in the classroom, one must consider the "education" all of the students got in seeing their teachers & parents & neighbors & people from other states stand up for what is right as they employed their constitutional rights in a civil manner of protest. Teachers don’t just teach within the classroom walls. Events like what has been happening in Wisconsin will be a lesson learned & remembered much like the first steps on the moon & the civil rights protests in the 1960’s.
The fallacy this article makes is easily found in 4th paragraph. To say the “U.S. is broke” is insane. Last I checked, the U.S. has the more wealth than any other nation and corporate profits are at an all time high (Q4 Bureau of Economic Analysis report). To be broke is to be without money, and our nation is far from that. The real issue is that no one wants to pay for education, which is troubling since education is the only way to stay completive in a knowledge based economy (Andrew that’s what we have in the U.S.). Instead we should look at what polices are not working and adjust how government is run accordingly. The teachers’ protest in Wisconsin was not about making cuts, but about removing their right to collectively bargain. The teacher’s union accepted all the proposed financial cuts, but Scott Walker wanted to strip them of a right so fundamental that the United Nations General Assembly has recognized it (Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the U.S. in 1948).
Mustang Daily staff you’re better than this, next time use an Econ or PolySci major to write a piece like this, leave the Wine and Vit majors to the Culture section.
My issue is not with the professors. It is with the administrators. If you look at the salary data for Cal Poly in 2009 from the Sacramento Bee and do a little math, you’ll find that 32.8% of the cost of salaries for Cal Poly is due to administrators.
As a side note, considering that professors work a fraction the amount of hours as someone in private industry and have virtually no stress or responsibilities, I don’t think that professors are as underpaid as they claim. I’m not saying they aren’t, I just don’t think it’s as bad as some claim.
Last I had read and heard. The unions in Wisconsin and other states gave in to the demands from their state governments. The thing they didn’t want to give up is their bargaining rights. Even the governor from Wisconsin, when he visited Capitol Hill for an appearance before the House Oversight Committee, admitted that his bill against the unions had no fiscal benefit. I’m pretty sure this would be a good enough reason to protest. I admit that there are corrupt unions but I would think they are not the source of the country’s financial troubles but rather corporations to big to fail, bail outs from the government, and a bunch of wars going on in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, and etc.
Right on Walter!
Right on Walter!
To our country & state’s financial crisis we could also add the banking & mortgage crisis & the subsequent foreclosed homes & drop in property values & loss of property tax revenues & major corporations taking their business’ jobs overseas to increase their profit margins!
Andrew, you & other Cal Poly student should check out the billionaire Koch brothers (whose businesses pollute our environment) & their involvement, as in major funding, behind such things as tax breaks for corporations & the wealthy, destroying unions, social security, & unemployment benefits. They were financially behind what the Gov. of Wisconsin just did to the unions. Look it up, on google or You Tube if you don’t believe me.
Its funny, sometimes I read your columns just so I can have a laugh at how stupid you are. This is definitely one of those times.
I hope you realize that you sound less intelligent than anyone else involved in this discussion. Rather than name calling like a grade schooler, you might want to consider making an intelligent contribution.