Friday, June 16, 2006

Do you know who's teaching your kids?

My wife, a public school teacher, recently received an e-mail from a co-worker of hers. This co-worker also happens to be the teachers union leader in this unnamed district.

This unnamed union leader decided to send an e-mail to all teachers in the district explaining why he is running for a seat in the Minnesota House of Representatives.



Some of you have asked why I am running for the House of Representatives.


Actually, no we haven’t. But I suppose you’ll enlighten us.


So to put it simply, here is how it happened:

I became a teacher to make a difference in the lives of young people.


By teaching young people that America is always wrong (verified by a former student of his).


I became a coach to help kids understand that discipline, hard work, and working as a team will raise the boat for all.


Raise the boat? Huh? Don’t you mean raise the bar? Come to think of it, public education is fast acquiring a reputation for being the proverbial “sinking ship”. In that case, raise the boat might be relevant.


I became a union leader to ensure that teachers would have the best possible environment to make a difference.


Didn’t Jimmy Hoffa have that same goal for the Teamsters? How’d that work out for him?


I became an endorsed House of Representatives candidate to fight for the needs of our working families, senior citizens and most importantly our children.


Endorsed by which party? Conveniently left that out, eh? Let me clear up the mystery by saying it’s that party on the left.


If you agree that:

-Our students need quality head start programs.

-Our students deserve affordable academic and extracurricular opportunities and quality curricular materials.

-Our students need a future that doesn't contain double digit tuition increases.


Cue the sound of a 10-key calculator.


Then we need to work as team to make this happen.

The hardest thing to ask a teacher is to donate more time or money to help a cause.


The hardest thing for me in this mission is the same.

If I could change the system on my own, it would already be fixed. I can't do this on my own, so I am asking you to join the team and together lets put the education of our children back at the top of the list at the Capitol.


At the TOP OF THE LIST??!!! About 40-50% of the state’s budget goes to education. Are you sure you aren’t looking at “the list” upside down?

For a first-timer in the political arena, he’s certainly mastered the art of demagoguery.

But here’s the best part. He responded to a colleague’s scathing e-mail by saying he’s neither a democrat nor republican. And this was after he promoted a town hall meeting with Al Franken as the keynote speaker.

Classic!

1 comment:

Douglas said...

Given that he is running for public office, tell us who this person is!