HB 805 Protects Good Teachers, Wolf Opposes

HB 805 Protects Good Teachers, Wolf Opposes

By Leo Knepper HB 805 Protects Good Teachers, Wolf Opposes

Pennsylvania is one of only six states to use teacher seniority as the only factor considered when making layoff decisions. On May 9, the Senate passed HB 805 to correct this problem.

Commonly referred to as “last in, first out” or “LIFO”. A seniority-based system often results in the most effective teachers being let go. According to the co-sponsorship memo, the most effective teachers are laid off 80 percent of the time. This is why we see so many stories about a “teacher of the year” being laid off for budget reasons.

Rep. Stephen Bloom (R-199), the prime sponsor of the legislation and a Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania member, summed the up the situation in a recent interview:

“Pennsylvania has an archaic law that says if a school district would need to furlough teachers for economic reasons, they cannot let go of the teachers that are the worst performing teachers. Instead, they have to go by blind seniority,” said Bloom. “It’s about time that our local school districts would have the ability to make a smart, rational decision to make sure the best teachers are in the classrooms with the kids.”

Despite the absurdity of the LIFO system, Gov. Tom Wolf has indicated that he will veto the legislation. If he follows through with that threat, the Governor will once again be siding with the teachers’ union. Wolf has repeatedly stated that one of his goals is to have “schools that teach.” If that is truly the case, how can he not be for schools having the ability to consider teacher performance in the unfortunate event of layoffs?

Mr. Knepper is executive director of Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania.

HB 805 Protects Good Teachers, Wolf Opposes

William Lawrence Sr. Omnibit 5-11-16

The Turritopsis dohrnii, a type of jellyfish, never dies.

William Lawrence Sr. Omnibit 5-11-16

Google Filter Bubble

Google Filter BubbleGoogle Filter Bubble — Google creates a profile built on one’s browsing history — including places like Facebook and Youtube — to direct one’s searches using its product.

This is why people searching for the same word often end up with different first pages when using Google.

Google makes assumptions on what one might be looking for hence one might never find what one wants.

DuckDuckGo, its Paoli-based competitor that does not use tracking, explains it here.

By the way, did you see where Facebook is making news stories disappear that don’t match their political preference?

Google Filter Bubble

 

 

China Sea Keeping Free

China Sea Keeping Free
Arleigh-Burke class guided-missile destroyer USS William P. Lawrence (DDG 110).

China Sea Keeping Free — China is claiming just about the entire ocean between Vietnam and the Philippines as its own and the rest of the world is telling it to get real.

The United States periodically sends warships into the area to make its point most recently the destroyer USS William P. Lawrence.

No relation.

The William P. Lawrence is named for a man who was the first naval aviator to fly twice the speed of sound in a naval aircraft and was also one of the final candidates for the Mercury space program. During the Vietnam War, Lawrence was shot down while on a combat mission and spent six years as a prisoner of war, from 1967 to 1973.

He was noted for resistance to his captors. He memorized every POW by name and rank while in captivity and developed a code by tapping on the prison walls to communicate with other prisoners.

John McCain said “he’s probably the greatest man I’ve ever known in my life.”

China Sea Keeping Free

 

William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 5-10-16

12.8 million Americans believe the world is secretly run by a reptilian alien race. That’s about 4 percent of the country.

William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 5-10-16

FBI Pranks Pa Senate In Sting LOL

FBI Pranks Pa Senate In Sting LOL
Corrupt idiots work here.

FBI Pranks Pa Senate In Sting LOL — The FBI pranked the Pennsylvania Senate into unanimously passing a bill pushed by a fake business to limit who could dispose of used textbooks.

The vote on Oct. 14, 2010 was 49-0 to pass SB 1379. The bill never got out of the House and never became law.

It was part of a sting to catch corrupt Pennsylvania pols. It worked and is working. Good one, feds. Applause and a big LOL.

The FBI created the phony firm Textbook Bio-Solutions LLC in Florida as the bait and hired lobbyist Long and Nyquist — good choice, there — to do the fishing.

Long and Nyquist, who didn’t know they were being used, worked their magic and if the FBI wasn’t just goofing, the people of Pennsylvania would have had to deal with another stupid, corrupt, wasteful, special-interest law.

Details can be found in Jason Addy’s story at PoliticsPa.Com.

Since 2010, there have been significant, for-the-better changes in the Pennsylvania legislature including the arrival of Scott Wagner from the 28th Senatorial District. Wagner has been going after Long and Nyquist in the most beautiful fang-and-claw way.

Hat tip Bob Guzzardi.

Update: State Sen. Larry Farnese (D-1) has now been caught in the net.

FBI Pranks Pa Senate In Sting LOL

 

William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 5-9-16

Russia and Japan have yet to sign a peace treaty ending World War II. It’s because of the Kuril Islands Dispute.

William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 5-9-16

Paterno Focus Misguided

Paterno Focus Misguided — Joe Paterno is again the subject of headlines regarding the Jerry Sandusky scandal, this time alleging that he knew about his former assistant’s child molesting as far back as the 1970s.

Paterno Focus Misguided
Jerry Sandusky is not the only weirdness from Happy Valley.

The allegations appear to be wildly unfounded but just the same they got the headlines.

The legendary football coach  died in 2012 a few months after his dismissal from Penn State after charges were filed against Sandusky in November 2011.

Paterno’s culpability concerns his choice to inform university officials rather than law enforcement after being told Sandusky molested a young boy in the football team’s shower facilities in February 2001.

Sandusky who retired — strangely early and with an unusual compensation package  — as the football team’s defensive coordinator in 1999, still had access to the team’s facilities due to his emeritus status.

Among the officials so-informed was Penn State President Graham Spanier.

And this gets us to the puzzling aspect about the reporting. While Paterno’s name gets thrown out with even the most spurious connection to the events, far more relevant — and interesting — things are ignored.

Spanier, two weeks after he was told about Sandusky’s molesting, was informed that noted special education professor John T. Neisworth was also a molester.

As with Sandusky, he swept the matter under the rug and actually treated the victim bringing him the information with contempt.

So how accepted was (is?) child molestation in Happy Valley?

Here’s an even more remarkable under-reported story.

In 1998, a mother reported to University Police that Sandusky molested her son. Det. Ronald Schreffler compiled a case and submitted it to Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar, who declined to prosecute.

In 2005, Gricar vanished without a trace along with county-issued laptop. The laptop was found in the Susquehanna River with its hard-drive missing.

You think that bit of weirdness might be a more interesting story than a whisper-down-the-lane report of something from the ’70s? Imagine if the Delaware County D.A. disappeared without a trace while in office.

In a more mundane matter, Spanier is getting an annual public pension of $59,000 for which Pennsylvania taxpayers are on the hook and can expect tax hikes to cover. Sandusky is getting a pension of $58,800. And Gary Schultz, another of the high-ranking officials to who Paterno reported the crime? He’s getting a sweet $330K per year.

Yes, Mr. and Mrs. Working Person, you are on the hook for this.

Paterno Focus Misguided

 

William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 5-7-16

Someone suggest you move to a cold, barren land of ice and rocks and you answer that you'll have Nunavut. Someone suggest you move to a cold, barren land of ice and rocks and you answer that you’ll have Nunavut.

Nunavut is the Canadian province north of Manitoba. It is the second-largest governmental subdivision in North America after Greenland and makes up about a fifth of Canada. About 37,000 people live there on 787,155 square miles.

Nunavut — William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 5-7-16

Corruption Caused Pension Crisis

Corruption Caused Pension Crisis

By Leo Knepper Corruption Caused Pension Crisis

No matter what pension plan design reforms the legislature enacts for future employees, the Commonwealth will still have a massive unfunded liability. The unfunded liability is the result of over-promising retirement benefits, poor investment performance, investment performance, but mostly a willful redirection of necessary pension contributions by the Pennsylvania government to other purposes. This gross negligence on the part of elected officials has been bipartisan. It started with the 2001 pension increase signed into law (Act 9) by Governor Ridge and continued through the Rendell years when he signed legislation that purposefully underfunded the pension systems (Act 40 in 2003 and Act 120 in 2010).

Decades of mismanagement have resulted in a combined $63.3 billion in unfunded liabilities, based on the market value of assets. The longer the unfunded liability persists, the worse it becomes. It’s helpful to look at the unfunded liability as a loan. This “loan” has a 7.5 percent annual rate. In Year 1, the principal is $63.3 billion. If no payments are made, the amount due increases to $68 billion next year, then $73.2 the following year and so on. In other words, the unfunded liability grows year after year unless the payment made exceeds interest and the cost of newly earned benefits.  And, just like any other loan we need to be making payments on the principal.

The loan example conveys the basics of the problem. Rep. John McGinnis (R-79) introduced HB 900 last year to address the unfunded liability. In his co-sponsorship memorandum, McGinnis states:

“Right now, just the annual interest on the pension debt is over $4 billion, equivalent to the full yearly salary and benefits for over 50,000 teachers.  The situation is so dire that there are likely scenarios where the pension assets will become exhausted in the next 8 to 15 years.  When that happens, benefits paid to retirees may well consume 40 percent to 50 percent of the general fund.  The consequences for our future only get worse as we delay dealing effectively with this problem.

“The right approach is to follow the recommendation of the 2014 Blue Ribbon Panel on Public Pension Funding commissioned by the Society of Actuaries and commit ourselves to paying off the current UALs [unfunded accrued liabilities] of SERS and PSERS over 20 years with level dollar funding.  It is not just the responsible thing to do after more than 10 years of serious underfunding–it is absolutely necessary to prevent substantial and irreversible harm to the future of Pennsylvania.”

We can avert the fiscal catastrophe. However, every day the General Assembly does not act, the unfunded liability grows. HB 900 is currently in the House State Government Committee. Please, contact your representative today at this link and urge them to take action.

Mr. Knepper is executive director of Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania.

Corruption Caused Pension Crisis