SMU Law Grad/Florida Govenor to Slash Florida H.S. Sports

[RednBlue11]

The governor of Wisconsin was right. The governor of Florida is right. I hope they both succeed.

/facepalm

the basic premise the gov of Wisconsin used to justify his cuts was false to begin with.

and what kind of moral authority does the gov of florida have in cutting funding for these programs when it will have an obvious and almost immediate negative social impact?

what is cheaper? sports for schools? or fighting gang-related/drug related violence? (and the consequences)

i hope the answer to that is obvious to you as it is to everyone else who knows anything about those subjects


and to get back to recruiting....you know where the best athletes in florida are and you know it ISN'T in the middle and upper-class suburbs

[PoconoPony]

Had to sit through a deposition with this loser one time. This guy is such a smug [deleted] who bilked the US Government out of Billions-he'll be lucky to get elected Dog Catcher after 1 term. He's already down to a 35% approval rating BEFORE this genius proposal

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/1 ... 36767.html

Hate to tell you that for at least the last 20 years most high schools in California charge athletes a major fee to cover use of facilities, coaches salaries, equipment, insurance and officiating costs. Sports are viewed as an extracurricular activity and the participants are responsible for the costs.

florida is not california...do not equate them

I am not equating anything. Facts are that other states have faced massive funding issues for extracurricular activities and have deal with them differently. Just because Florida fully funds programs does not mean it is not time to revisit where tax payer dollars are being spent. Ever think that high schools could survive very well without football?

[RednBlue11]

i guess my more specific point is that the fiscal issues both of those states are facing are vastly different, florida is not in nearly the trouble California is...and if they would institute a temporary 1% income tax they could probably climb out of this hole very very quickly....hell they get about 15 billion in rev from tourism every year.

de-funding one of the most important social activities that young people and families are involved in has a more negative social impact that the deficit in my opinion.

[NickSMU17]

Its always a great idea to start by raising taxes....

GTFOH

[RednBlue11]

Its always a great idea to start by raising taxes....

GTFOH

[mathman]

Its always a great idea to start by raising taxes....

GTFOH

+1

[NickSMU17]

You are from Chicago right? From Illinois?

How has raising taxes helped your home state???

It is not a coincidence that liberal entitlement states are in the worst situations....Do you know the state that has the most liability on its desk....

Not California,
Not New York,

[RednBlue11]

You are from Chicago right? From Illinois?

How has raising taxes helped your home state???

It is not a coincidence that liberal entitlement states are in the worst situations....Do you know the state that has the most liability on its desk....

Not California,
Not New York,

i didn't say whether they were good or not, you're making some rather broad assumptions about how i feel about taxes.

just about every state that is fiscally in trouble has been put in that position because their tax base eroded and generally speaking they were outspending the revenue they were getting annually anyway.

they're stuck because they have been largely irresponsible fiscally...

it sucks to raise taxes mainly because it takes money out of the hands of people that would otherwise use their disposable income to help out both their local and the national economies.

but states aren't going to come up with cash from nowhere, it doesn't just appear.

realistically speaking there are going to have to be both the raising of taxes and the cutting of spending to save state governments.

i personally am not all together against taxes because of a few key things.

education, public security & safety, roads and utilities.

taxation is absolutely necessary to protect the public good...when used responsibly, and sometime that requires raising them.

now, Stroger is a fine example of how raising taxes irresponsibly hurts everyone.

[NickSMU17]

Your first response was to raise income tax 1% in a state that survives purely because it has no state income tax...

My first response is what can get cut, and if education and sports is so important, lets start with some of the teachers/educators ect. making cuts in pension benefits....

Do you know how teacher pensions work, how union pensions work...they are borderline criminal...

You want safety and roads...if unions agreed to 401ks instead of pensions, we would be able to build all the roads, bridges you need....

not to mention the police and fire can hire more people for safety....

[RednBlue11]

haha, okay...i would like to see some real economic analysis to back up that claim.

what i proposed was a non-sequitur, it isnt any real solution mainly because i obviously don't know the details of the Florida budget and revenue streams...who knows if a 1% income tax would even do anything.

if they're in as much trouble as they say they are then they have to do a lot more than just cut funding, and more tax on the already high, 11%, tourism tax would probably do something but in the end it just makes Florida more expensive to visit and could hurt more than help.

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wait wait wait, if education and extracurricular programming are important, then why are you messing w/ the lively hood of the people who provide that education? do you realize that even private school teachers are affected by this rhetoric?

we're not just hurting public education by demonizing the people that teach, every teacher of elementary, middle, or high school is being attacked including private ones.

the starting floridian teacher income is 13k below the average income of any individual in the united states, and the average in that state is 3k below.... ostensibly, attacking public education and all it offers is attacking middle class people...the people that are key to a healthy consumer driven economy.

it's antithetical to common capitalist economic sense!

and im going to take a wild guess and claim that you do not understand all public employee pension programs to the degree to assert that they are practically criminal, and they they are not universally the same...or even close enough state to state to make analogous assumptions between Illinois, florida, california, and texas

[NickSMU17]

The capitalistic approach is to pay the what they are worth...

Unions oppose merit pay...

Where I live the average teacher salary is 95000, 80% make over 100K...not bad for 9 months work....not to mention they get 90% of that salary when they retire after 25 years...

Do I have a problem with them making that much, no, because I choose to live in the best school district in the state...I knew what I was getting myself into...but I get to make that decision not someone else...

We will never have economic analysis b/c we will never get rid of entitlements...so who knows...

I know that I an manage my money far better than the govt....as for state income tax increase, trust me, I had to question whether my compensation was correct after IL. state income tax jump this year...its not pretty...and if I could trade out of texas I would be there...

You cant honestly think that the pension system is a good thing...Illinois is going to be bailed out at some point, mostly because of pension liability, no tax increase is going to help that...

[RednBlue11]

The capitalistic approach is to pay the what they are worth...

Unions oppose merit pay...

Where I live the average teacher salary is 95000, 80% make over 100K...not bad for 9 months work....not to mention they get 90% of that salary when they retire after 25 years...

Do I have a problem with them making that much, no, because I choose to live in the best school district in the state...I knew what I was getting myself into...but I get to make that decision not someone else...

We will never have economic analysis b/c we will never get rid of entitlements...so who knows...

I know that I an manage my money far better than the govt....as for state income tax increase, trust me, I had to question whether my compensation was correct after IL. state income tax jump this year...its not pretty...and if I could trade out of texas I would be there...

You cant honestly think that the pension system is a good thing...Illinois is going to be bailed out at some point, mostly because of pension liability, no tax increase is going to help that...

in my opinion there are very few things nearly as important as educators...the strength of our society is essentially measured by how much we know, and it's an upfront investment.

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c'mon 9 months work? haha. get real.

i've never had a teacher that was off from work more than 2 months out of any year in texas or illinois...i attended private in both states and public as well in texas

a majority of them spent their time investing in becoming better at their jobs in spending large amounts of money to attend conferences and workshops, that was paid for out of pocket.

it's not an easy job just because they have more time off than the average person, that's foolish...there is a disproportionate high amount of stress in teaching...think back to when you were a kid. most teachers likely did not have the opportunity to have the support and resources that your teachers had, especially regarding discipline.

wealthy school districts are not the example to look to when discussing most teachers.

from all the articles ive read in the sun-times and tribune it seems that yes, teachers in Illinois do get a rather generous pension when they retire...but it's also been severely mismanaged, especially the CPS fund.

remember all of those shady commercial real estate deals that Daley's nephew made w/ the pension money, and lost millions?

teachers don't deserve that just because their union is strong, Illinois is unusual in the way the unions influence politics these days.

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my main problem w/ this larger discussion is the broad, largely unverified, rhetoric that makes teachers look like criminals w/o vaguely acknowledging that the service they provide is arguably the most value service that exists.

i will not stand up and defend all teachers unions carte blanche because there is an admitted degree of corruption in most large unions. i feel as though the discussion as been extremely one-sided and unfair.

and i have to admit to a bias in that my aunt is a elementary school teacher in rural California.

her salary plus my uncle's are not enough to send my cousins to college w/o substantial loans.

[gostangs]

They chose to be teachers....thats what comes with the turf. Pensions that kick in after 25 or even 40 yrs of service are a thing of the past and will have to go. mny of them dont have any contribution to their health plans - and that will change also. It is just unsustainable.

They will have alot more money to put towards retirement when they dont have to pay those union dues. Why does a goverment employee in a white color job need a union anyway.? Its just extortion. If you dont like your job - get a different one, or go to night school and educate yourself to move up into a different position or career.

[2ndandlong]

They chose to be teachers....thats what comes with the turf.

They bought their tickets. They knew what they were getting into. I say, let 'em crash.

[RednBlue11]

They chose to be teachers....thats what comes with the turf.

They bought their tickets. They knew what they were getting into. I say, let 'em crash.

and with it will go the credibility of our education system