Welcome home, fellow Gator.

The Gator Nation's oldest and most active insider community
Join today!

You Think Florida Education is in Bad Shape?

Discussion in 'Too Hot for Swamp Gas' started by chemgator, Jun 1, 2023.

  1. AgingGator

    AgingGator GC Hall of Fame

    3,693
    794
    2,088
    Apr 24, 2007
    Been dealing with unions for over 40 years. Show me a union, and I’ll find you a couple of percent of its members that are incompetent and hide behind union procedures and rules to keep their job.
     
  2. gator_lawyer

    gator_lawyer VIP Member

    16,813
    5,760
    3,213
    Oct 30, 2017
    That sounds like the crap you see everywhere, regardless of unions. Some folks are great at figuring out how to use every loophole to avoid working hard. That's no more a knock on unions than it is on private companies.
     
    • Winner Winner x 1
  3. AgingGator

    AgingGator GC Hall of Fame

    3,693
    794
    2,088
    Apr 24, 2007
    It absolutely is. If someone is canny enough to pull it off unabated, then you just have to wait until they slip up bad to terminate them.

    Unions actively protect mediocrity and incompetence. I believe you yourself have had more than a few posts here about bad police. Well, who do you think protects the bad police when all of the warning signals are going off? It’s not until someone gets beaten, shot, or a knee to the upper back that the union is willing to not fight for them and cut them loose.
     
    • Winner Winner x 1
  4. swampbabe

    swampbabe GC Hall of Fame

    3,677
    918
    2,643
    Apr 8, 2007
    Viera, FL
    Again, I said that I’ve never known anyone to be “protected” by the union and you called me a liar. The only person that I know that requested the union’s help in a termination proceeding was turned down.

    Besides, most teachers are on annual contracts so getting rid of someone is easy.

    Oh, and by the way, nice goal post moving.
     
    • Fistbump/Thanks! Fistbump/Thanks! x 2
  5. gator_lawyer

    gator_lawyer VIP Member

    16,813
    5,760
    3,213
    Oct 30, 2017
    Unions actively protect workers. They protect all types of workers, from the high performers to the incompetent. That's their job.

    What protects bad police? Police unions. But also our legal system, government, and citizenry.
     
    • Agree Agree x 1
    • Funny Funny x 1
  6. archigator_96

    archigator_96 GC Hall of Fame

    3,736
    3,550
    1,923
    Apr 8, 2020
    Answer to your first sentence is yes. As to the rest of your post is all I heard was blah blah blah blah.... electrons.
     
    • Funny Funny x 1
  7. chemgator

    chemgator GC Hall of Fame

    13,507
    1,889
    1,318
    Apr 3, 2007
    Louisiana gets serious about education. Or at least, cashing in on the idea of education. Apparently, you can buy a diploma for $465. No classes or tests required.

    Diplomas for sale: $465, no classes required. Inside one of Louisiana’s unapproved schools

     
  8. G8tas

    G8tas GC Hall of Fame

    4,451
    901
    453
    Sep 22, 2008
    Why is it that those that claim they are anti-union never complain about police unions?
     
    • Agree Agree x 2
  9. PITBOSS

    PITBOSS GC Hall of Fame

    7,614
    791
    558
    Apr 13, 2007
    Last edited: Nov 27, 2023
    • Informative Informative x 5
    • Funny Funny x 1
  10. UFLawyer

    UFLawyer GC Hall of Fame

    6,409
    417
    198
    Apr 3, 2007
    Florida
    by couple of percentage you mean +40%?
     
    • Like Like x 1
  11. mrhansduck

    mrhansduck GC Hall of Fame

    4,745
    990
    1,788
    Nov 23, 2021
    [​IMG]
     
    • Funny Funny x 2
  12. homer

    homer GC Hall of Fame

    2,622
    820
    2,078
    Nov 2, 2015
    • Agree Agree x 1
  13. AgingGator

    AgingGator GC Hall of Fame

    3,693
    794
    2,088
    Apr 24, 2007
    I was trying to be nice
     
    • Funny Funny x 2
  14. chemgator

    chemgator GC Hall of Fame

    13,507
    1,889
    1,318
    Apr 3, 2007
    Probably because they don't go on strike very often. They generally get what they want, since no one wants the police to go on strike, and the government supporting them can raise taxes as needed to deal with the problem. Companies cannot just raise prices every time the union wants more benefits. So there is a lot more friction with unions in the private sector.

    For those of us in manufacturing, we also realize that unions are one of the barriers to making high-quality goods. Example A: Ford, GM, and Chrysler (versus Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai). Unions prevent discussions between management and workers that are necessary for a collaborative effort to improve quality. Manufacturing is important because it is one of the industries that drives the economy (both locally and nationally). If the economy isn't humming, then there's no money to pay for public sector services like the police.

    If it makes you feel any better, I will go on record as saying that I dislike police unions, along with teacher unions and other public sector unions. I generally support the police themselves, however (when they aren't beating people senseless).
     
  15. chemgator

    chemgator GC Hall of Fame

    13,507
    1,889
    1,318
    Apr 3, 2007
    I think the bigger problem is that principals are often unaware of who their really good teachers are and who their not-so-good teachers are. They typically never spend any time in the classroom. They seem like they are more concerned with managing the school's finances, the latest test scores, and keeping parents from pulling their kids out and enrolling in another school (which causes them to lose funding). At least, that was the case when my wife was teaching. It may be difficult to put together enough documentation to get a teacher fired as well.
     
  16. archigator_96

    archigator_96 GC Hall of Fame

    3,736
    3,550
    1,923
    Apr 8, 2020
    The chart is a breakdown of teacher ratio (per 1,000 students in this case). Wouldn't it stand to reason that states with the highest growth will have the biggest problems? Fl being one of those. More students are moving here (I know as we design schools) and the budgets for hiring teachers doesn't exactly turn on a dime.
    Those NE schools have stable or falling student growth. I know some teachers in NY state so some knowledge there supports this.
     
  17. swampbabe

    swampbabe GC Hall of Fame

    3,677
    918
    2,643
    Apr 8, 2007
    Viera, FL
    The bigger problem here in Florida is that if you let someone go, there is no one to replace them with. I don’t think that some folks realize how bad this really is.
     
    • Informative Informative x 2
    • Agree Agree x 1
  18. philnotfil

    philnotfil GC Hall of Fame

    17,691
    1,781
    1,718
    Apr 8, 2007
    In St John's county last year, our kids high school started the year with three Chemistry teachers and finished the year with one.

    I know of several schools that lost their Physics teachers and couldn't find replacements, so they just signed up whole classes of Physics students to FLVS and hired a babysitter to keep order in the classroom.
     
    • Informative Informative x 1
  19. chemgator

    chemgator GC Hall of Fame

    13,507
    1,889
    1,318
    Apr 3, 2007
    What is a FLVS?
     
  20. philnotfil

    philnotfil GC Hall of Fame

    17,691
    1,781
    1,718
    Apr 8, 2007
    Florida Virtual School, K-12 public online school un by the state of Florida.