Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[edindetroit]

Chipotle is an upscale $80 a plate Manhattan Bistro compared to Golden Corral though.

I think we'll just stay away.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Wise choice.

Chipotle is an interesting story. They touted organic products and got burned by serving that stuff. The Agriculture department has been lax in defining what "organic" means and what standard those products labeled that way have to meet.

Not surprisingly the cattle and vegetable processing industry's lobbyists have been actively engaged in holding up more stringent regulations being issued by the FDA for meat and vegetable processing siting cost concerns. Salmonella is a common food born pathogen that causes gastrointestinal illness that can sometimes be severe.

TBH, Federal level regulation of the US food industry targeted at protecting the public health from well understood pathogens that are introduced in processing lags well behind that of European nations.

Good 'ol capitalism and the anti-regulator aspect of it.

[hack]

Chipotle is a fantastic place to go vegetarian. The guac is free if you get the veggie burritio, and the pinto beans are cooked using bacon fat anyways, so it's not too alarmingly low-cholesterol. Drown the fajita veggies in guac, cheese and sour cream, and whatever else is in there hardly matters anyways.

Love live Chipotle!!!

[Da Geezer]

News this morning of a cancer treatment for NH Lymphoma and other blood borne carcinomas. Immunotherapy specialized to the patient. 70-90% cure rate in small tests. I once had an old country doctor who told me to watch older folks who come down with shingles. He claimed they would have cancer within about five years because shingles indicate an immune system that has been overcome.

And, for gosh sake, if you are over 60 get a shingles shot.

[entropy]

any links Geezer?

[Da Geezer]

TBH, Federal level regulation of the US food industry targeted at protecting the public health from well-understood pathogens that are introduced in processing lags well behind that of European nations.

Salmonella in particular is not typically introduced in processing. My USDA neighbor's job is to inspect foods. The operative difference between organic and "processed" vegetables is that organic is fertilized with fecal matter and "processed" is fertilized with chemicals.

I ate vegan for 8 months last winter in AZ. Lost 25 pounds and felt great. I figure your body tells you what is good for you by how you feel. Chipotle is great.

[Da Geezer]

any links Geezer?

I haven't looked, but I saw it on TV. It was on both Fox and CNN this morning.

[Da Geezer]

What do Christians in the several states give up for Lent?

http://time.com/4217680/lent-2016-what-states-give-up/

If anyone can find political patterns, I'd like to know, because I can't. Well, maybe Virginia giving up "self-criticism". It seems to me that self-criticism is not widely practiced by DC politicians in the first place.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I haven't looked, but I saw it on TV. It was on both Fox and CNN this morning.

Well then, it must absolutely be true.

[Mackenzie]

Eh, my 13 year old has a teacher that is tells the kids that the earth is only 2000 years old, Evolution is a myth, Obama is not an American, the moon landings did not really happen, and Ted Cruze is the best thing that ever happened to America.

Damn, charter schools!

[Wild Hoss]

With a side order of salmanella

Separates the men from the Metros.

[Da Geezer]

Strangelove:

I promised to deal with your question teacher pay and education expenditures in general in K-12 government schools in Michigan. If you are from Ohio, your teachers don't make as much as Michigan teachers.

A good place to start is with a current database:

https://www.mackinac.org/schooldatabases

I'll be rounding numbers, and there is variance among schools. Generally, starting teachers earn about $ 36,000. In most schools, teachers get a cola raise, and a "step" raise for their first 10-12 years. The cola raise is what is reported to the public, and is now around 2%. The step raise is around 3%. In addition, teachers in Michigan are required to take continuing education and the most efficient way to do this is to work toward a Masters degree in Education. One milestone is 20 hours of graduate credit and another is the Masters itself.

BA BA+20 Masters
Year 1 36000 37500 39000
Year 2 37000 38600 40100
This is for the grid for the first year teacher.

In the following year, the whole 44 boxes are raised 2% cola, so the new grid looks like
Year 1 36720 38250 39780
Year 2 37740 39015 40600

And the teachers has her 5% raise. After the 4th year or so, the teacher gets 20 hours, and so she moves over to the BA+20 column.

This typically happens in each of the first 12 years. Just figuring 5% on 36000 for 12 years gives $ 64,650. When you add the continuing ed raises, the total after 12 years easily comes to $66,000. Pension was 33% four years ago, so that is another $ 22,000, and MESSA insurance is $ 20,000. After 12 years the cost is 66+22+20= $ 108,000.

I'll state right now that a good teacher is easily worth $ 108,000 per year even if the job entails less than 29 hours per week average. But I'll also say the pension payment of 1/3 of base is at double that of most businesses and the MESSA insurance is far higher than BCBSM or any other plan.

I'll post this and you guys can fire away.

Sorry thatI am unable to copy the grid I made onto the post. The BA + BA+20 and Masters are three verticle columns

[Ghengis Jon]

I have yet to know any teacher that worked less than 49hrs/week much less only 29. Grading tests, reports, projects are all done on their own time, but still required to get done. Lesson preparation, creation of tests/quizzes, visual aids, all of that and more - own time.

I exclude professorial teaching as I can't speak to the amount of time spent since GAs do a lot of the grunt work.


Teaching is a lot like flight attendants, there's a lot of unpaid time. Did you know that flight attendants are only 'on the clock' when the aircraft doors are closed? All that cleaning of the aircraft, seating of passengers, fussing with idiots that drag on oversized baggage, stocking the galley, insuring every seat has safety info and all of that is unpaid? Only when the doors have shut does paid time begin and it ends when the doors open. Lots of professions, teaching being a biggie, have large unpaid work expectations.

[Da Geezer]

If Michigan spends $ 14,000 per student and Michigan Charters spend $ 9,000 per, then the actual question comes to "why doesn't this money go into the classroom?", or if you prefer, $14000 @ 25 students is $ 350,000, 100k to the teacher, then what about the 250k?

1. In general, government schools spend an amazing amount on administration. Most times this is around 35%. There are no economies of scale to speak of. Charters try to direct 75-80% of their $9,000/student into the classroom.

2. The $ 14,000 includes the cost of buildings, as does the $ 9,000, but charters build their own buildings and get massive savings. For example, in MI, 45% of the outside of a school building must be brick. We build new schools using what I'll call "office specs", and we insulate heavily because every building has A/C. There is no business anywhere that could stay in business using their capital plant 200 days per year.

We expect to use the building year-round because we locate almost exclusively inner city schools. There is no magic here. Poor kids who are 4 grades behind are not going to make that up very rapidly unless they go to school in the summer.

I personally believe that teachers should be paid an hourly rate of around $ 50/hr, $ 70/hr, and 90/hr. I'd then let them buy their own insurance and retirement. In Michigan, the MEA is an insurance monopoly using MESSA as a conduit for large sums of money paid directly to the Democrat Party. MESSA is terrific insurance. eg: teachers now get massages at least twice per month and like $ 2.00/prescriptions. My joke with the punch line "he has the same virus, but he has MESSA insurance." was told to me by and officer in the MEA, and we both had a good laugh. Obviously, this is a tougher group.

I absolutely reject high-stakes testing. I do like standardized tests that give immediate feedback to the student and to the teacher. For example, if, over time, you see that Mr. Jones' fifth-grade excels in math, and at the same time, Ms. Smith's fifth grade does well in English, then you might want Jones to teach math to both classes and Smith to teach English.

It is a good idea require students to wear standardized clothing. For example, JC Penny will come to an inner city school and sell tops for $ 5.00 each and pants for $ 10.00 each. So a single mom can buy 4 tops (navy, white, khaki, green) and two pants (navy and khaki). Put a 20.00 limit on the shoes, and the kid is outfitted for $ 60.00. No gang colors, no writing on the shirts, no $ 150/pair tennis shoes to be stolen and no peer pressure. It is just easier for everyone.

[Da Geezer]

Jon said

I have yet to know any teacher that worked less than 49hrs/week much less only 29.

I basically agree. Pay them by the hour and trust them to report time spent at home working. The 29 hour figure comes from the adjusted time when you consider the time off in the summer. Summer vacation just screws up education in that teachers have to reteach stuff for the first month in the fall.