Fixing our public schools:

Under leftist control, public schools are a disaster. I don't know if Oregon has an equivalency to Washington State's OSPI report card, which details the academic outcomes of our schools.

But I'm sure it's a nightmare if such an online report exists.

This is the current copy of the latest reports on academic outcomes here in Washington.

You'd have to be insane or masochistic to send your kids to a state school system that has no requirements to get a worthless high school diploma in order to somehow protect the sensibilities of minorities who fail to perform.

Meanwhile, Oregon continues to punch out fringe-left programmed semi-literate cretins like movie tickets, just like Washington (which just fell behind MISSISSIPPI in academics - schools that spend roughly $6000 LESS per student than we do) and then, leftists ask for a "plan to fix it," as if 1. they were clueless that it's broken and 2. WHY it is broken.

Plan to fix all public schools:

1. End social programming.

Kids go to school for one reason only: academics. Social programing, insane gender issues, mainstreaming mental illness, teaching children to hate their country, hate law enforcement, hate the rich, hate internal combustion engines, hate immigration law enforcement, hate those advocating for actual biological science when it comes to being born male or born female while hating the police should ALL be prohibited.

2. Focus ENTIRELY on academics.

English. Math. Science. Government/Constitution. Shop. Music. Athletics. Home Economics.

This country ranks 31st in the world for academic outcomes. China spends $4200 per student. Our country averages $15,000 to $17,000 per student. "China generally achieves higher foundational test scores and STEM output." In Washington State, the number is $19,341 per student.

To call our academic outcomes here in the Washington Soviet “abysmal” is the understatement.

"China scores significantly higher in international metrics like PISA (Programme[sic] for International Student Assessment), particularly in mathematics, reading, and science within participating regions like Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang. The system emphasizes rote memorization, repetition, and foundational mastery.

United States students typically rank lower on standardized international math and science benchmarks compared to top-performing international cohorts, focusing more on conceptual understanding and student-centered engagement."

We rank lower. You know, on the things that matter most?

There's zero excuses available for ANY country to do better for their students than THIS country... and the issue is NOT money or so-called "underpaid teachers."

3. Hold teachers accountable for their outcomes.

Teachers have been mailing it in for years... decades. Demand accountability for what they produce.

Nationwide, there's horror stories. Baltimore, for example, spends $23,147 per student. Academically, they are among THE worst schools not only in the country, but in the entire 1st world.

It begins and ends with the combination of curriculum and those teaching it.

Try and hold teachers accountable for their end-product (you know, like all the rest of us are held accountable for ours?)

End teacher strikes, which are illegal and extortion. If teachers go on strike, lock them up.

If teachers don't like the pay, benefits, retirement? Then quit and go pump gas. But acting like failed teachers who are far more concerned with offending the sensibilities of those who refuse to do the work over those who actually make an effort, is a nonstarter.

Your value as a teacher is in direct proportion to the product YOU produce.

4. Hold STUDENTS accountable.

END the insanity of providing worthless pieces of paper that many students did NOT work for.

Implement reasonable academic standards to not only graduate, but to pass on to the next grade.

If a student can't read, how does that get better by moving them to the next grade so they can fall behind even more?

Holding failing students back provides some incentive to do the work, an incentive completely absent today because there are no requirements needed to move on to the next grade or even to graduate.

5. Stop blaming parents.

That's the favorite past time of teachers and their fringe-left acolytes.

It's NEVER the teacher’s fault. It's ALWAYS the parent's fault.

To hear them tell it.

I had two high schooler's graduate from Hockinson High School, one with a 3.6 and the other with a 3.1.

They did the work. As parents, we WERE involved. We checked their homework. We helped them to study, gave them tricks and pointers. We were proud of their academic achievement.

And neither one of them could pass the Clark College math placement test. (one has a 4-year degree now from WSU-V. The other did 2 years in college)

Explain it to me like I'm a 6-year-old.

The responsibility for those outcomes rests ENTIRELY on those who taught the subjects and graded the papers.

Not the parents.
___________

There may be, and most likely are, other steps that can be taken. But what Oregon schools are doing now simply does not work. And it's insane to continue to do the same thing, over and over, while expecting a different outcome.

We can do better. Leftist intransigence while the sky actually IS falling is a critical element in the disaster that is not only Oregon’s educational outcomes but those of the entire United States.

We can fix it. But as always, it boils down to this single question: Do we have the will?

A few words concerning the WNBA discriminating against men, i.e., defining what a woman is.

A few words concerning the WNBA discriminating against men, i.e., defining what a woman is.

Under federal employment law, they can't exclude/discriminate based on race, religion, national origin, age, disability, genetic information or gender.

They have to be an equal opportunity employer.

Limiting it to women only would be a civil rights violation.

If it were THAT simple, chances are they'd have already done it to put an end to this discussion.

"Under the laws enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), it is illegal to discriminate against someone (applicant or employee) based on their race, color, religion, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation, and pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability, sexual orientation, gender or genetic information."

That is the main reason the conference the WNBA held concerning male players resulted in nothing.

In short, the WNBA has no choice in this matter, their protests and "unnamed sources" notwithstanding.

Has the left become a death cult?

Is it OK in their view to murder/assault those who disagree with them politically?

Leftists celebrated Charlie Kirk's assassination for weeks. Many of the more obviously sicker leftists are STILL celebrating the slaughter of Kirk to this DAY.

Message: it's perfectly OK to spill the blood of those who don't agree with US.

Many on the left have assigned their version of sainthood to Tyler Robinson, who's on trial for destroying Charlie Kirk's life because Kirk allegedly said things he (and the vast majority of the left) felt were "hateful."

This puts the majority of the left into an awkward position.

They cheerfully support the murder of a man based on what he has said which THEY view as hateful.

The awkwardness comes into play simply because the vast majority of today's left, not just in this country, but around the world, live on hatred themselves.

The left will attack, verbally and all too often physically, those who do not align with their view. And they will even either slaughter or make a serious effort to slaughter those they do not agree with or approve of.

Insurance executives, presidents, members of Congress, Supreme Court Justices... American citizens by illegal aliens... children...

All are on the left's approved target list.

We've seen that with the Kirk assassination. We've seen it with efforts to murder the president. We've seen it with efforts to murder Justice Kavanaugh. We've seen it with the mass shooting that nearly killed Rep. Steve Scalise. We've seen with leftist support of terrorists in politics; Congress... the Senate AND House... The election of political thugs as a result of the community short memory... (NYC comes to mind)

We've seen it with the slaughter of babies as the Clancy trials show and others have also done... Most recently this August in North Dakota where a mom (Kalley Erhart) murdered a 3-year-old and an 8-month-old, while her 1-year-old survived.

None of the fringe-left women supporting Clancy have demanded justice for her victims. Nope. The focus is all on poor, confessed perpetrator, admitted murderer Lindsay.

The left is increasingly pushing an envelope to justify their determined efforts to spill the blood of those opposed to their world view.

How much political violence do we need? Where and how is the line drawn? How do we put a stop to it?

The same can obviously be extended to islamic violence. Europe is the template. Flashes of that cult attempting to ignore or Constitution are already taking place.

We all know this. But what, and when, do we act?

Or do we simply stand here while the tarantula wasp (tarantula hawk) crawls all over us, looking for the place to sting and the site to plant the egg that will eventually eat us alive?

My concern isn't for me so much as it is for our children and our children's children.

Do we put an end to this insanity now, in its infancy? Or do we wake up one morning and realize, sadly, that it's too late?

I don't have the answers. But these and other questions need to be answered... and soon.

Washington teacher greed strikes again: Seattle teachers vote to go on strike over "respectful pay' (top salary=$142,000) and smaller classes (Class size averages 14.46 per class)

As every sentient being in the State of Washington knows, the McCleary budget was merely a scam to overpay underworked teachers who, based on OSPI report card statistics, were already overpaid as it was.

Now, proving once again there is no end to teacher greed, Seattle teachers have just voted to go on strike.

The demand to be paid MORE (so-called "respectful pay") for doing LESS (the usual smaller class room size scam.)

Here's the top salary schedule for Seattle:

Top salaries:

Bachelor’s: up to $122,271/year (~$58.78/hour) at Step 4

Master’s: up to $139,106/year (~$66.88/hour) at Step 5

PhD: up to $142,523/year (~$68.52/hour) at Step 6

That's not bad for a 183 day/7 hour per day work year

Here's the Seattle Student/Teacher ratio, according to OSPI:

Students: 50,948

Teachers: 3,523

Classroom Average Size (Students/Teachers): 14.46

It's illegal for teachers to strike in the State of Washington:

"Yes. Washington law does not grant teachers—or any public employees—a legal right to strike, making teacher strikes unlawful under RCW 41.56.120 and confirmed by the Attorney General’s 2006 opinion."

But since unions own the legislature and he courts like the 13th Amendment was never ratified, no striking teacher is held accountable for, effectively, pissing on the law of this state like an illegal alien crossing the border... something else leftists totally support.

Republican Senate passage of the McCleary budget scam caused property taxes to explode, but academic achievement has continued to fall year over year... which any blind idiot could tell would happen... just like THIS blind idiot (me) knew they would.

If *I* knew it, then how come legislative morons DIDN'T know it since the McCleary pay scam required NO improved teacher performance?

And as teachers in Seattle have just proven, there's no end to teacher greed even though the academic achievement they provide has been exceeded by, for example, Mississippi... at a paltry $6000 per student per year LESS.

Money isn't the issue. If it was, SPSD and most every school district would be punching out geniuses like movie tickets instead of functionally illiterate "graduates."

Thoughts on the midterm...

Well, I'd say the left is.... what was that phrase in '24 Harris's people used.... "nauseously optimistic?"

I believe the left could have done better if they had stuck with gradualism... but they seem to have got too greedy, too fast.

Instead of taking the tarantula wasp approach, they've lurched to the far left HARD. And the faces of the left have not done well for them.

The leftist fringe is thrilled. But militant progressivism is failing more than it's succeeding in places where it counts the most.

New York City has turned into a 24/7 punchline. Seattle has become a disaster. Portland as well. 

Washington's income tax scam isn't helping them.

Leftist impatience and their inability to control their hatred is problematic.

Increasing unemployment as major businesses leave for greener (i.e. redder) pastures (Texas, Florida) combined with restrictions on landlords guarantees increased homelessness. Leftist failure after spending billions (Multnomah county spent over $700 million on the homeless with the result equaling a 61% INCREASE in homelessness) is an issue. Leftist failures to hold people accountable for criminal activity, leftist inability to address fentanyl or tranq use... open air drug use... defunding police (Portland just whacked $21 million from their police) is the sort of thing which does not equal great planks for a political platform.

Exhaustion from race-based crime, gangs, theft, drive-by shootings, shoplifting... leftist failures to address those types of issues...

Fringe-left candidates from Platner in Maine to a jihadi in Michigan, tens of billions in fraud on government programs, obstruction by leftist cities and states on getting rid of illegals, even those convicted of murder...reopening borders, more murder of Americans, rape of Americans, drive by shootings of Americans... these issues SHOULD keep the GOP in charge of both Houses.

The bumper sticker: Vote GOP. The other guys are insane, is a fact-based observation.

In fact, Perez, our Congresswoman, is attacking the GOP candidate for trying to outlaw abortion, something he can't do in Congress any more than she can legalize it in Congress... a fake promise also made by the Pole Dancer, come to think of it.

And, I believe the abortion issue hasn't got much punch in Washington State, Any more than it had in Florida in 24.. where an abortion initiative failed with a 57% yes vote (needed 60% under Florida law) and Trump won Florida with 56.09% meaning the majority voted yes for abortion and then for Trump in large numbers.

Footage from now multi-story homeless camps in Cali for example... FOUR STORY homeless structures... the visuals of leftist government can be very effective if used properly.

Add trans issue involving children, terrible schools, forced urbanization, ramming the waste of light rail down our throats... Those KINDS of issues should tilt it right if handled properly.

It boils down to turnout. But then, the GOP has the themes I believe they need. The question remains, do they have the will to use those themes effectively?

They've blown it before. Will they blow it again?