Weeks of Doom, Years of Good Fortune: Teacher Talk

by Don Pogreba on April 26, 2012 · 3 comments

in Education

The posting has certainly been light here in the past few weeks as I go through an annual ritual called the Weeks of Doom with my AP Language and Literature students. Over a four week period, those 80 students each get the experience of writing 10 timed essays while I get the pleasure of commenting on and returning each handwritten essay—overnight. It’s an incredibly stressful time for both students and their harried teacher, who is slowly coming to realize that he might be getting a little too old to grade essays at 3:00 a.m., but it’s also excellent preparation for their AP exams and college, not to mention the profits of coffee producers in the local area.

During this time of year, teaching can occasionally feel like an incredible burden, and that’s even before I read today that it’s the “most overrated”career in the United States. Tensions are high, the paper load feels unmanageable, and sleep is fleeting.  And the constant attacks on the profession from a certain political persuasion certainly don’t help.

The past few weeks, though, have also provided reminders of just how lucky I am to be involved in public education, flawed and frustrating as parts of it may be. I’m not only seeing real growth in my students’ writing; I’m hearing from former students who are continuing to do amazing things. They are a reminder that I have the obligation to do everything I can to improve their education and that I have the privilege of proudly watching them as they achieve goals they probably couldn’t have imagined when they were 17 years old, counting the minutes until my class was over.

One, a teacher,  just had a beautiful baby girl; another just began a pilot for his own television show; a former debater is leading an incredibly professional statewide political campaign here in Montana. An incredibly talented musician is seeking funding to release her album while another is running for the state legislature here in Helena. Two have worked in health and education for the Peace Corps, while others are serving with the distinction in the armed forces.

For each of these successes that I’ve recently discovered, there are no doubt hundreds I haven’t yet heard about, but it’s a real pleasure to continue rooting for all of them. No temporary frustrations can ever diminish the good fortune I’ve had to be a small part of these amazing and evolving lives.

No sense of doom or exhaustion can ever diminish that.

Republicans Invent Senate Committee, Battle Gas

by Don Pogreba on April 24, 2012 · 26 comments

in 2012 Statewide, 2013 Legislature, Montana Politics, Rick Hill

Remember when the Republicans in the Legislature tried to invent a state that hadn’t passed a constitution in 1972? When they tried to invent a militia for themselves to go play Army and defend us against the threatening horde of Canadians who threaten our sovereignty at every moment?

Well, they’re continuing to invent new tasks for themselves, having apparently fabricated a Senate Committee for themselves to advance their peculiar agenda, which includes not teaching science in public schools:

Publicly funded schools should be free from progressive social agendas such as climate change, gay “rights,” or political correctness.

Senator Jason Priest from Red Lodge appears  to have taken the lead in this bold undertaking, having written an editorial to the Billings Gazette in which he described himself as someone who “chairs the Children, Families, Health, and Human Services Committee and is a member of the Montana Senate Policy Committee.”

Other members include Rick Hill’s running mate Jon Sonju, failed gubernatorial candidate Jeff Essman, fabulist Verdell Jackson, and stream-closing, anti-fishing Debby Barrett.

To their credit, at least these bold patriots are honest about personal problems, as this powerful photo and caption from the site illustrate:

gas

Concerns about flatulence aside, I’d be interested to know who paid for the development of this site and organization, as there is no listing for a “Senate Policy Committee” with the Commissioner of Political Practices, the e-mail address associated with the site is registered to a Jason Priest from New York City, and the site itself resolves to a web host in New Jersey.

Perhaps these champions of conservative principles would be better served studying Montana’s constitution and their duties as members of the Legislature rather than inventing a committee with a name far more impressive than the ideas it espouses.

Another GOP Candidate for Governor Can’t Properly Account for Funds

by Don Pogreba on April 23, 2012 · 2 comments

in 2012 Statewide, Corey Stapleton, Ken Miller

It seems that Ken Miller is the latest Republican candidate for governor who is having trouble counting donations to his campaign, as Great Fall Tribune reporter John Adams notes today. According to the story, Ken Miller’s chief fundraiser Kelly Bishop  is accusing the candidate of failing to disclose campaign expenditures and accepting anonymous, illegal campaign donations:

Bishop, who was hired in January and was still listed on Miller’s campaign website Monday afternoon, said in an interview she had firsthand knowledge of Miller accepting campaign donations that did not appear on campaign finance reports as required by state law.

"At one point it was close to $14,000 that I accounted for that was missing off one of the campaign finance reports," Bishop said.

It’s never a great sign when a former campaign worker accuses a candidate of breaking the law, but it’s especially troubling when the person was in charge of fundraising.

To be fair, Ms. Bishop’s complaint is awfully light on details, but it hasn’t stopped the vultures in other campaigns from going after Mr. Miller. The story has already drawn comments from a Rick Hill supporter who allege that Miller was rumored to have “skimmed money” while the GOP chair and a comment from someone who works on the staff of Corey Stapleton.

Ironic, given Stapleton’s almost comical inability to correctly fill out his own campaign finance report.

I’d say it’s enough to let this collection of charlatans mismanage their own budgets. Let’s keep their hands off of the state’s finances.

GOP Gubernatorial Candidates Endorse Discrimination Against Women

by Don Pogreba on April 19, 2012 · 0 comments

in 2012 Statewide, Corey Stapleton, Jim Lynch, Ken Miller, Montana Politics, Neil Livingstone, Rick Hill

KXLH’s Marnee Banks is reporting that six of the GOP candidates for governor have endorsed the idea of repealing Montana’s decades-long prohibition against gender discrimination in insurance policies, claiming it will “lower the cost of insurance.”

I don’t mean to be cynical, but does it seem likely that insurance executives would fight for decades to reduce the rates they can charge? Experience seems to show that the opposite is true—and that rates, especially for women, are likely to go up if the Republican candidates get their way. While it’s stunning to imagine that the Republican Party would put the interests of large insurance companies ahead of the interests of women, it’s happening once again.

The National Women’s Law Center says that women pay significantly higher premiums than  men.

Gender rating, the practice of charging women different premiums than men, results in significantly higher rates charged to women throughout the country.  In states that have not banned the practice, the vast majority, 92%, of best-selling plans gender rate, for example, charging 40-year-old women more than 40-year-old men for coverage.  Only 3% of these plans cover maternity services.

The total cost for women across the nation is over one billion dollars:

Nationwide, the effect of these discrepancies can be staggering.  New analysis by the National Women’s Law Center, finds that gender rating costs U.S. women approximately $1 billion a year. Insurance companies, despite being aware of the problem, have not voluntarily taken steps to eliminate it.

For a group of candidates who seem so eager to proclaim their fealty to state sovereignty, these gentlemen are awfully willing to give up central tenets of Montana’s constitution just to enrich the insurance industry.

I suspect the rest of us would rather protect Montana’s proud heritage of non-discrimination in the law.

Addendum: It’s also awfully amusing to see these champions of limited government, united in their opposition to things like  mandated insurance coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, defend more government:

NAIFA also asked each candidate if they would support tightening up the law which requires drivers to carry liability insurance.  All the candidates say they would.

Lee Enterprises Loses $26 Million Dollars and 7 Per Cent of Employees

by Don Pogreba on April 18, 2012 · 7 comments

in Independent Record, Missoulian, The Media

I must admit that I am not a highly compensated member of a corporate board nor an expert in executive compensation, but I have to assume that Lee Enterprises CEO Mary Junck is due for another half million dollar bonus after these stellar results in the second fiscal quarter:

Operating revenue for the quarter totaled $172.3 million, a decrease of 3.6% compared with a year ago. Combined print and digital advertising revenue decreased 5.3% to $117.5 million, with retail advertising down 3.5%, classified down 7.1% and national down 9.7%. Combined print and digital classified employment revenue decreased 0.3%, while automotive decreased 3.9%, real estate decreased 12.2% and other classified decreased 11.5%. Digital advertising revenue on a stand-alone basis increased 9.9% to $15.7 million. Print revenue on a stand-alone basis decreased 7.3%. Circulation revenue increased 0.1%.

Overall, as the Washington Post reports, Lee lost 54 cents per share in the quarter for a total of 26.6 million dollars:

The company said it lost $26.6 million, or 54 cents per share, for the fiscal second quarter that ended March 25. That compares with a loss of $1.5 million, or 3 cents per share, for the same period a year ago.

Lest anyone forget, Lee’s CEO Mary Junck took a bonus of $500,000 during a quarter when the company she leads lost $26 million dollars.

Optimistic press releases about evolving “in the digital age” notwithstanding, the corporate raid on Lee’s profitable small newspapers continues, as readers and advertisers are fleeing a product that lacks the resources to produce consistent quality. Lee’s failed strategy and corporate piracy are stripping these local papers of their most valued commodity: local belief that the newspaper will offer complete and comprehensive coverage.

One has to love the dispassionate tone of corporate press releases, especially when it relates to actual human beings losing their jobs. From the press release:

Compensation decreased 5.2%, with the average number of full-time equivalent employees down 7.5%.

That’s 7 per cent fewer people collecting, editing, producing, and distributing the news that is vital to many communities only served by one newspaper.

I derive no pleasure from watching the decline of newspapers—it’s certainly a tough environment when a company with no revenue is worth more than the New York Times—but the mismanagement and theft from local newspapers by the Lee chain is especially galling. People who work for their papers and the communities those papers serve deserve better.

Bob Wagner Endorses Max Yates

April 18, 2012

If I were candidate from Butte running for the Legislature, I think I’d rather not have the endorsement of some of the…uh…more colorful characters in the Montana Republican Party. I suspect Max Yates, from House District 74 would rather not have the endorsement of Birther Bob Wagner, for example. Mr. Wagner, famous for his eloquent [...]

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Again?

April 13, 2012

I’ve talked about this before, but come on! Helena is utterly unsafe for non-motorized transport,and as if we needed more proof,we’ve gotten it. The apparent inability of a pedestrians to cross Helena’s streets safely ought to be considered a huge public safety issue. When one of the few places to cross a major street like [...]

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David Howard: Still A Racist

April 11, 2012

Well, Representative David Howard is still at it: using his Facebook page to advance crackpot racist theories and abuse apostrophes unmercifully. Remember, when you vote for a Republican for the Montana Legislature, you’re voting to put people like this in the majority and in charge of committees which impact the lives of all Montanans. And [...]

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