Comments by gone
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Posted on November 17 at 9:38 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Watch the interview on Nightline. Ms. Palin is simply a brilliant woman and should lead the charge to the White House. Unlike Governor Pawlenty, she can track down wounded game. Boy...that's really a cheap shot. Let's leave Pawlenty out of this and let his great policy efforts stand on their own. Ms. Palin and Tina Fey are both very talented women. OK that's pretty cheap, too. Let's try...it's great that Ms. Palin's relatives left the upper midwest. OK, I can live with that, for sure.
She'd probably be a nice neighbor.
Posted on November 13 at 6:38 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The investigative report on the Elks Club demise was well-investigated and well-written and was exceptional for a small town newspaper. Understanding it's collapse might help us preserve whatever character and structure and amenities that remain in Albert Lea.
Posted on November 13 at 6:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Albert Lea received a million dollars of free publicity. "If you build it they will come." It might be time for someone to write a book, start a magazine, start a blog,post some YouTube videos, profile life changes/success, have an annual refresher week(s), etc.
Posted on November 13 at 5:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Nice. Unfortunately in this day and age when I drink out of the garden hose I assume it's full of coliforms and cancer-causing chemicals. We knew all the houses in the neighborhood that left their hoses out and we carried a pliers for the houses that removed the handles from their faucets.
Posted on November 11 at 11:08 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I believe the A.L. Tribune does an outstanding job of hosting an online version of 'the paper'. I don't like to respond to responses to my comments but the following comment warrants such response.
"You wouldn't trade jobs with me for an instant. You just like to hear yourself sound like you think you know what you are talking about. Take a week's vacation and come into my classroom, teach my kids (35 students per class) and then report on this message board how "out of touch" I am."
Quite a few people who offer up comments here know what they are talking about. A few don't. As an adult with a long career in education, government, and the private sector, and as a product of AL schools and MN universities and as a compulsively-involved parent of two MN educated children I do know what I am talking about. I do not have Education MN spending untold sums on TV advertisements putting a "save education" spin on saving teaching jobs, salaries, and benefits. I do not have my job so tied up in MN Statutes and legislative policy that administrators and school boards are left with their hands tied behind their backs, unable to deal with the challenge of bad and good teachers. If approximately 90% of our education budgets go to contractually defined teacher compensation and benefits I guess it's not all that much about the children. Perhaps Education MN should put some of their lobbying dollars into our childrens' education instead of expensive TV time. I am getting an extra two weeks of vacation this year, without pay. Perhaps I should take up that offer. Underpaid seems much better than no pay.
Reform:
1) this 180 degrees from my longstanding position supporting public education...vouchers. Innovation and quality follows the money.
2) consolidation: we have three or four hundred school districts in the state, all with duplicate administrative jobs/roles.
3) technology: web-based education continues to expand and dominate. How does riding a bus for two hours a day to a 1950's 'dumb' building with inefficient knowledge-delivery compare.
4) unions: it's over.
5) true pay for performance (not steps and lanes which rewards tenure and numerous degrees)
6) etc., etc., etc.
At the risk of belaboring this even further, and the risk of being even more wordy, and at the risk of "message board" bottom dwelling I'm sick of all the whining, this statewide din of "poor teachers...save our children...fund education".
As always I believe that comments should be limited to 100 words or less, and as such, will suggest removal of this comment.
Posted on November 11 at 6:27 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Many teachers are deeply committed, and there is no doubt about that and they should make a reasonable salary. Others should be working elsewhere. Good salary or not, educators and public servants should not be immune to the recession-driven financial sacrifices that most of us have made.
Criticism of this negotiation process is entirely warranted.
Between the all-powerful lobbying work of Education MN, the legislatively mandated contractual process, and a MN legislature that focuses on bi-partisan posturing session after session we will never see the educational reform that is needed to keep our current and future generations educated and capable to compete in a world market. The contract process, the funding process, the education of children, and the education and compensation of our educators is broken and has been for a long time. Unfortunately in community after community and bargaining session after bargaining session and legislative session after legislative session nothing changes.
As someone who have spent time at the front of a classroom I want reform. We need to get to the core of the problem.
Posted on November 10 at 9:58 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Spelling Bee Guy/Gal: Please spell "R...E...C...E...S...S...I...O...N"
Teacher #1: "What is that word? Is it a foreign word?"
Teacher #2: "I've heard of that word, but I don't think it applies to us."
Education MN Representative: "We negotiate for teachers across the state. We have a budget of many millions of dollars. We make sure that that word and that most economic realities affecting the typical worker do not affect teachers. That's what we get paid to do. We advertise on TV that we are all about education but we're really just about lobbying."
Taxpayer #1: "Wait, we have groups that have been at this for months but figure it will still take to January to get this resolved. Perhaps we should get someone educated to solve problems like this."
Taxpayer #2: "You're losing track, dude. These are the educators. They are responsible for our educational initiatives and innovation. They teach students how to do research (like "I do the research" Rush). They make sure our kids can spell big words like 'recession'....well I guess not that word.
Taxpayer #1 & Taxpayer #2: "It's time to go back to our jobs where we've taken pay cuts and we work long hours and our employment is at risk every day and we have no retirement plan. If we have to listen to more of this drivel we're going to hurl."
Posted on November 7 at midnight (Suggest removal)
Should we get rid of Medicare and Social Security, too?
Posted on November 6 at 11:55 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The vitality project has brought national attention to Albert Lea. KFC fare, at best could be considered fast food. They did not change the name from 'Kentucky FRIED Chicken' to KFC just because it was shorter. The spirit of the vitality project has shown what goals and communication can do for a community and its' residents. This is the type of effort that differentiates Albert Lea from all the other struggling cities. The opportunity is not to look like every other city but to have other cities look to you. One more rubber-stamped city with one more rubber-stamped national chain is not a community investment. It does nothing more than make things cheap today.
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Posted on November 18 at 7:06 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Had ALL legislators in the last session not failed the Governor would not have put himself in this predictable pickle. Governor Pawlenty has no record of public policy so we really cannot blame or applaud him. If you go to the root cause of problem it rises from extreme bipartisanship which ultimately is detrimental to those of liberal and conservative positions, alike. Even a moderate level of cross-aisle coalition building and reasonable dialogue would not leave us in this ridiculous position. The destitute should not want for survival levels of food and those with higher incomes should not be taxed any higher.
On Pawlenty’s power to cut budget in court