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6:14 pm - 06/08/2012
Romney Says America Doesn’t Need ‘More Firemen, More Policemen, More Teachers’

The last three years are the worst on record for public sector job loss, and the 700,000 government jobs that no longer exist remain a large drag on the American economy.

Today, New Jersey Gov. and Mitt Romney campaign surrogate Chris Christie (R) said that those losses meant the country was moving in “the right direction,” and Romney himself backed that statement up later, criticizing President Obama for calling for the hiring of more teachers, firefighters, and police officers, the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent reports. From CNN’s report of the Romney event:

Romney said of Obama, “he wants another stimulus, he wants to hire more government workers. He says we need more fireman, more policeman, more teachers. Did he not get the message of Wisconsin? The American people did. It’s time for us to cut back on government and help the American people.”

State and local governments have been forced to layoff mass amounts of teachers, firefighters, and police officers because budget crunches have led to school closures and the elimination of public safety departments. That has hurt the unemployment situation (which Romney also criticizes), considering the unemployment rate would be a full point lower without the 700,000 layoffs.

Romney’s honesty isn’t a new position for him or the GOP — he’s called for more government layoffs since the beginning of his campaign. But it’s yet another indication that Romney is more interested in continuing the GOP’s ideological battle against government instead of curing the ills that are plaguing the American economy.

Source: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/06/08/496799/romney-says-america-doesnt-need-more-fireman-more-policemen-more-teachers/
pepsquad 9th-Jun-2012 02:47 am (UTC)
must be different where you are. Because I have seen the worst of public employment protected by unions. A county employee who had a gross firearms violation was fired the. Forced to be rehired. A teacher who arrived an hour late was seriously reprimanded and suspended without pay was when union got involved he was suspended for only three days with pay. This was with hours of video tapes and with testimonies from other teachers covering him.
beoweasel 9th-Jun-2012 02:59 am (UTC)
The problem isn't unions, it's state legislators that continually slash the budget, depriving funds that could be used to hire more government employees. Because the public unions are seeing a drastic cut in their numbers, they're determined to hold onto what members they do have.
pepsquad 9th-Jun-2012 03:12 am (UTC)
We're in a hole no doubt but I've never seen a true hiring freeze at our district. Yes the legislature is partially at fault but the unions share part of the blame.
nina_vendredi 9th-Jun-2012 03:01 am (UTC)
I have no idea what actually happened in any of those cases, but it would entirely depend on what the stated policy was in handling those cases.

Looking at just what you said there, I have no idea if that teacher was late once or if it was a reoccurring problem, but I would hope to god the union did get involved if it was once, or if it was the first time documented, that is the whole point of having a union.

And I'm sorry, but unless that gun violation occurred at work, generally speaking, unless there was something in their employment contract saying they could be fired for charges filed against them, then no, again, the union was right to get involved.
pepsquad 9th-Jun-2012 03:10 am (UTC)
Teacher was late every day, every single day buy at least an hour. For years a new principal got pissed off and collected testimonies and video evidence and made a "case" of it as it were, he was punished and the union stepped in and he got a slap on the wrist. Same thing with the teachers/coaches who allowed students to drink on the bus from a football game and were given a slap on the wrist.


In the other scenario we worked at the city shooting range it was definateky in our contact to be safe in fire arms, honestly this individual and one other werre the reason I left the city.
amyura 9th-Jun-2012 08:37 pm (UTC)
Then the principal wasn't doing their job correctly. It's actually a very straightforward process, and I'm in a state with a relatively high level of union protection. Teacher gets a bad evaluation and is given a certain amount of time to fix the problem. This needs to be documented in writing, and you have to have proof that the teacher has been notified of the problem. A video of the teacher walking in late isn't going to cut it. Teacher doesn't fix problem after the given amount of time. Teacher is fired. When you have an administrator who knows what they're doing, not only do they follow all the steps correctly but they also drop hints to the teacher that things need to change or they'll be fired. I've seen it work numerous times.
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