Suppose a single-working mother has two kids. How much will she have to pay for day care?

(Note: this is not a criticism, this is simply an attempt to get more information before I form an opinion).

What’s not so great is that teachers may become a minority in the UFT, and our interests and concerns are not necessarily the same as those of nurses and day care providers.

Ex-US Secretary of Educaton Rod Paige, who called the NEA a “terrorist organization,” did not express admiration for UFT President Randi Weingarten because she’s improving the lot of working teachers. Under Ms. Weingarten’s tenure, our prep time has been cut in half, our workload has expanded, our days are longer, our year is longer, we’re subject to unpaid suspensions for months based on unsubstantiated allegations, and our seniority rights have been severely abridged.

Ms. Weingarten just won re-election with only about 20% of working teachers even bothering to vote. Apathy rules our union, and patronage thrives even as working conditions are the worst I’ve ever seen. My school hovers over 250% capacity and most of the country has little or no idea what goes on in Mr. Bloomberg’s New York.

Today’s LA Times suggested that LA teacher unions follow in Ms. Weingarten’s backward march. While such moves may gladden the hearts of demagogues like Paige, they’re very poor precedents for working people.

I have a daughter who talks of becoming a teacher, and I think it behooves us to leave things better, not worse, for those who will follow us.

Sewmouse @ 13

I’m going to do Devil’s Advocate here, because what I see this doing is pricing single mothers out of the workforce and onto Welfare because of potentially exhorbitant rates from the now-unionized daycare providers.

I was fortunate enough to have a daycare provider one block from my home when my daughter was small. She asked for $120 per week, and we provided our own “sack lunch and snack” for the kids, brought them already breakfast-fed and were responsible for their evening meal. Those with infants paid somewhat more, but provided their own wipes, diapes and other essentials.

If we left the kids there past 5:45, we paid $2/hour overtime.

Now, for a provider watching 1 child, that’s slave wages. However, “Aunt Bea” watched 8 kids. That’s $960 per week plus overtime (although rare), and most of the kids were in school for at least a good 4 or more hours a day.

If I’d had to pay “minimum wage” to Bea to watch my daughter, I would not have been able to afford to feed or clothe or house either of us.

Hearing about this unionizing – especially here in Illinois – makes me exceptionally glad that my daughter is grown and I don’t have to worry about that anymore.

AP – Steadfast allies President Bush and Tony Blair on Thursday strongly defended their decision to go to war in Iraq and to remain there, despite rising opposition in both the United States and Britain and their own plunging approval ratings.

This post has been linked at DKos now.
Good work Tula.

Woo Hoo Tula!

DKos also has an inspiring post on the possibility of relecting President Al Gore that is a must read IMHO. ;~)