Republican Public School Teachers - A mystery to me..

[bleedingheart]

School Taxes have become the big issue in my area. The state used to fund 50% of school costs through state revenue but then Gov. Ridge came along and cut that back to 35% and guess what...Taxes went up.

Taxes also went up to pay for construction, new books, and of course health care for the teachers and their salaries.

The people who detest the teachers in our area are the republicans...they absolutely hate paying school taxes, they bitch about teacher salaries and they spit when they talk about any of the good things happening in our district..."cuz it's just a waste of money"...

....in spite of this there are teachers who are vocal republicans...and I wonder....But ...teacher contracts are going to be coming up in a year or two and when that time comes I am going to go to the meetings and I am going to ask all those republican teachers to save us tax payers some money by taking cuts in their healthcare and asking them to shoulder more of the burden..I am going to ask them to live by their own teachings. So the teacher who married to the local contractor who likes to bash the tax system...I want her to drop her husband off our tax payer benefits...if he was such a good businessman then he shouldn't need our tax payer paid bennies....


****disclaimer...I don't mind paying good salaries and bennies to teachers but I want to see the jerks squirm and see if they want to live by what they are preaching...

[JDPriestly]

1. Good for you.

[trixie]

15. oh to be a fly on the wall

Let us know how it goes.

I work in a public library and a neighboring city was asking for support by vote for more funds. One of their most outspoken people against the vote was a librarian within the city. Vote failed and he was the first one layed-off. It was quite funny when he realized what he had done to himself. :rofl:

[bleedingheart]

17. Oh I can't wait for the moment...

I will be prepared

[Ron Green]

2. Some teachers have more money than the families of their students, and it

would seem natural that their fear of having it taken away would align them with the "trickle down" mindset. Other teachers, maybe ones who make LESS than the families they serve, would reasonably be more progressive in their economic views.

[FreedomAngel82]

3. I agree with you

I don't get why the richer people can't pay more money on tax's to help us as a society. I don't get how these people can be so heartless and make the people who don't have money pay more and struggle. I hate it. It's like they're spitting on people when they should be helping. I love the public school system and went through it myself. Yes, there's some kinks to be fixed but the schools could be great if people worked together for them. Wouldn't people want that? I had a lot of friends in school who were all really brilliant and went on to do great things. My school used to be really great but then a year or two before I graduated (I did in 2001) it started going down hill. :(

[Hello_Kitty]

11. What is wrong with people?

I have no kids myself and I'm happy to pay taxes for quality public education. From a purely self-interested view, good schools in my neighborhood make my house worth more. And what part of the idea that an educated populace makes this country more competitive in the global marketplace and less prone to problems like crime and teen pregnancy do these numbskulls not understand? And let's face it, whether parents or not, we are ALL going to be dependent on the care of today's kids at some point. Who would YOU rather have taking care of you in the nursing home?

[triguy46]

4. My wife's taught for 25 years...

She is a pit bull around her repug colleagues. Any time any of them bitch or moan about NCLB she simply says, "You voted for him." They bluster and blurt and have no response. Worse are the teachers that dis the NEA as the "union" and then gladly show up with their hands out when the local chapter fights for a pay increase. The finest example of repug hypocrisy I can imagine.

These same ones complain about lack of respect, yet support the party that would gladly shut the schools and put them out of work. Idiots.
Freakin idiots.

[HockeyMom]

21. Moment of Silence

When my daughter was a Junior in HS a few years ago, her homeroom teacher announced on the second day of the school year that she was going to start the day with a moment of silence. She told the class to stand up. All but two of the 24 kids in the class walked out. My daughter was one of the two who stayed but they both remained seated. She said she sat in her seat and glared at the teacher and the teacher glared back at her.

This caused a MAJOR uproar at the school. The parents of the kids who walked out called the school. When the rest of the school's parents heard about this, they also started jamming the school phone lines. Everybody was pretty mad about this. As my daughter said, it was just that teacher's way of trying to get the class to PRAY and all the kids and parents knew it. She was severely reprimanded by the school district and was gone the following year.

My daughter had problems with her for the rest of the year. The teacher seemed to single her out more than the kids who walked out. Maybe because she felt my daughter "defied" her more by staying, sitting, and giving her dirty looks? Fortunately, she was only her homeroom teacher and she could not affect her grades or anything else really.

[Massacure]

26. I'm a Junior this year

Every day the principle does the Pledge of Allegiance over the PA, but very few people stand for it. One day a couple months back, we had a sub who yelled at us who didn't stand. So the entire class turned their back to the American flag and sung O' Canada.

All I have to say was the look on her face was priceless. :D

[CatholicEdHead]

27. Hilarious

Well it was a sub and forced patriotism is meaningless. Forcing you to recite on command really does not mean much.

That was pretty creative.

[FreedomAngel82]

30. Haha pretty cool

I remember either my junior year I had this advanced biology class. One day this guy who sat on my left didn't stand up for the pledge for whatever reason. He was very cool, calm and collected and said he didn't have to stand up. The teacher (this really little black lady) got really upset with him. :shrug: I've never seen anything like that before. When I was in high school we did the pledge, moment of silence and then announcements. And to the student who stayed I think that's more brave because you're showing the person you're not running away and standing up and fighting on the home turf.

[liberal N proud]

5. I don't get it either... Our12 year old has problems with teacher

and we finally figured out why.
Our daughter is very opinionated when it comes to politics. Yes I am sure that I have had some influence on those opinions. But much of it she has figured our her self. She amazes me with her insight some times.
The point is she has had problems with her teacher since January.
The teacher sent home a note and asked if she has been having problems.
It has been a constant battle between the teacher and the child. And actually the child has been winning for what I can tell.
But she finally said something that both woke me up to the problem and made me go How can a public school teacher be a repuke?

Our daughter came home one day and says that she got into an argument with the teacher about the Toby Keith. She said, she didn't see how anyone could listen to him with his support for bu$h. I asked what the teacher said and all she would tell me is "she is a republican what do think she said."

And then I started to think about any conversations we had with this teacher and it was evident that she was a neo-con and she is basically holding it against the kid for her views.
We are just hoping to get the kid through the 5th grade at this point.

[triguy46]

7. Same here

When our daughter was in 9th grade she regularly took on her history teacher, a lazy repug worthless piece of crap. I guess this is not part of the problem that the repugs are trying to fix with the "education bill of rights" legislation. OK to puke up the party line.

[TwentyFive]

13. You should expose this teacher

I had a major problem with a republican/christian teacher when I was in the third grade. I wish my parents had wired me, so we could have recorded some of the satements this teacher made to me. We should have sued her for harassment and emotional abuse.

Your daughter does not have to take this. This teacher sounds so emotionally disfigured, that she thinks all 12 year olds should be good little Nazi neo-cons. If you don't stop her, how many other students will she screw up?

[liberal N proud]

20. There is only 2 weeks of school left,

not much time to accomplish anything.
I am not worried about here screwing up my kid, just setting her resolve against the type.

[FreedomAngel82]

31. Maybe since there's not much time left

when your kid knows they'll get out of the class send a note to the principle about it. Or if you know anybody who will have this teacher the next year just give a fair warning.

[lolly]

6. Most are probably "hobby" teachers

Before anybody flames me, I didn't say they were "bad" teachers, necessarily.

I would suspect most Republican teachers are women married to very well-to-do men. They don't NEED to work for the money, and their interests lie not with the other teachers, who may very well need a decent salary and benefits to keep the family afloat. Their interests lie with whatever is the source of their husband's money--a corporation, business, accounting firm, whatever.

[ProfessorGAC]

9. Careful With That

We don't need my wife's salary at all. It's strictly extra spending money and investment for retirement stuff. So, she's married to one of those successful guys who makes enough that she doesn't have to work.

And, her teaching is no hobby. She'd bonk you on the head with a baseball bat for saying it! It's hard work and not very rewarding financially. And she and i sure aren't repugnicans.
The Professor

[triguy46]

10. Sometimes true...

At my wifes school, the repugs are mainly males, lazy, 2nd rate. They've never pursued continuing education, do as little as possible.
The women demos at the school all eat together, calling themselves the "Blue Hat Society." Many, mine included, don't teach because they have to, we are fortunate. She teaches because she truly believes God called her to teach. She's good at it and after 25 years, strangers come up to her all the time "Remember me???"

The loudest of the repug women at her school is a counselor who moans the most about kids getting shortchanged, too much testing, etc. etc.
"You voted for him," my wife responds. At this point she's said it so much the counselor just looks at her and says "I know what you're going to say." and snips of

[TwentyFive]

14. ...or the BFEE n/t

[Horushawk]

16. Laura Bush comes to mind

:puke:

[triguy46]

19. One year? or was it 2?

And as a librarian. Now, before I get flamed, my wife is a librarian, but she was also in the classroom for 20 years beforehand.

I work at a very, very conservative state university. the college of ed is dominated by young little girls all wanting to be elementary ed teachers for 3 years till they have their first baby. it is veiwed as an appropriate job before the real work of being loyal wife takes over in importance. It's cute for newly weds, but by time hubby gets his first promotion, and they move into the right suburb, its time to get back in kitchen and leave the teaching to poor slobs who have to work.

That of course is broad brush, but is a significant occurrence to be easily identified by those of us here.

[Goblinmonger]

8. I've taught for 17 years

and I don't get it either. I don't let my fellow teachers that are repukes off the hook. How can you be a public school teacher and be a republican? It baffles me.

[triguy46]

12. My son made that statement

when he was in 6th grade. Of course the year before he had walked the picket line with mom!! Solidarity Forever!!

[Piperay]

18. or any working person

either, all this is a mystery to me. :shrug: :-(

[Bouncy Ball]

22. I taught in a school in which 90% of the teachers were Democrats.

We started figuring out, over the years, that there were a LOT of teachers who were Dems at our school and so finally one year we did an informal count. 90% were Dems, 5% were apolitical or independent (whichever way the wind blows--one 24 yr old teacher said she votes for "the one that she thinks is the cutest") and 5% were repukes.

Then the 90% of us sat around and wondered what was firing wrong in the brains of the 5% who were repukes. We found some commonalities:

1. They all expressed a severe dislike for kids.

2. They all did as little as possible just to get by (nice way of saying they were hands-down the crappiest teachers--aleady known as such before we figured out the political affiliation breakdown).

3. They were the loudest "bitchers" in the school about ANYTHING the principal, district, or state asked us to do. Negative, negative, negative.

4. They were ALL convinced things were just lovely and wonderful back in the unspecified "good old days."

5. They all had racist leanings and made no secret of their special dislike of any kids who weren't white.

6. All of them were married to husbands who made a pretty good amount of money.

Now I fell into that last category. And so did several other Dem teachers. But we didn't fit in the other five categories at all.

It was so nice teaching there--you could just walk into the teacher's lounge, point out something stupid bush had said the night before, and have just about everyone in there snort at him and give their loud opinion on just how stupid he was.

One coach was an independent, according to him, but had voted for bush in 2000 and was trying to make up his mind for 2004 and started to debate us on bush.

I actually felt sorry for him. He was SO outnumbered. None of the 5% repuke teachers were in my lunch period, so he was totally outgunned, but most of them were nice. When he started saying bush would keep us safe, though, they let him have it. He looked a bit rattled that day.

[JDPriestly]

23. My student teaching sponsor teacher

was a Republican. You describe her to the tea. Now you know why I never taught after I got my education degree. It was one of the worst experiences of my life.

[lolly]

25. I think you nailed it

With more specific info than I had.

I wonder if some of these Repub teachers--the ones who hate kids so much and who long for the "good old days" (which apparently means when teachers had more raw power over kids)--are into teaching primarily as a power trip.

Really--there aren't many professions for the average person where you can have such power over up to 100 people at a time. These are probably also the teachers who love humiliating kids in the classroom (making sure everybody knows who got the lowest score on a test; responding to students with sarcasm). They'd give anything to be able to take out a strap and whale on somebody for not turning in homework or talking to a friend for a few seconds.

[La Coliniere]

24. So much of it boils down...

to historical/familial party identification. I don't see any real correlation between political party affiliation and the qualities that make for being an excellent educator. I agree with those who can't understand how a repug can be a public school teacher when that reptilian party of theirs espouses an agenda that would love to dismantle public schools and privatize most of the system. As a public school teacher who tries to maintain positive working relationships with my repug (and even repug/fundie!) colleagues, the only real answer I have is that these folks come from families who have always been repugs and that's who they are, forever. I don't try to intentionally fight them and I don't try to get them to see things through my progressive/liberal frame of reference. Except, that is, when I hear them supporting the chimp. They've learned to keep their political opinions to themselves for the most part because they are intimidated by me. My antiwar stance, one that I was quite vocal about in early 2003 (No WMD, Scott Ritter reports, noconnection between 9/11 and Saddam etc.) turned out to be 100% accurate and truthful. I feel vindicated and have never felt guilty about refusing to decorate my classroom door with cute patriotic symbols when my colleagues and their classrooms were festooned with flags,ribbons, stars and stripes. They've learned through experience that I can always counter their uninformed opinions with a barrage of facts that I can always back up. When such discourse occurs they usually wind up shutting down or changing the subject. That said, some of the most wonderful and highly skilled teachers I know are card carrying repugs who would never think of being anything else. As the destructive chimp badministration continues to run roughshod over the constitution, and the war continues to be the quagmire I predicted it would be two years ago, my colleagues aren't saying one way or another whether their political perspectives have changed. I wish they would sometimes complain about things just so I could have the opportunity to say "you voted for him", but that opportunity never arises. When they see me coming I'm sure they're changing the topic of their conversation if they were discussing their beloved repug party and the chimp who would be king. I'm hoping someday they'll see the contradiction of their political beliefs and professional practices.
I'd also like to add that some of these repug teachers are quite effective as union officers and reps. I just don't get it sometimes. By the way, I teach in a school district located in a solidly red county, located in a solidly blue state.

[Ilsa]

28. I wonder the same about nurses, but that's another thread topic. eom

[BamaGirl]

29. It's definitely weird

My oldest dd's teacher this year was a Rep. Today was their last day thankfully. I posted before the election about my experience with this man. x( She's in 3rd grade and you should have heard some of the crap he told her. I let him and the principal have it. They apparently had a meeting about it with all the teachers that basically resulted in "don't talk to so and so's kids about religion or politics". It's amazing how fast they take action when you threaten to sue them lol.

Oddly enough he was a pretty good teacher. The system basically did away with our gifted program this year, but he managed to fill the gap for her. Still, I requested someone else for my other dd who will be in 3rd grade next year lol.