I question the credentials and knowledge of David Harmer, corporate lawyer who's challenging Rep. Jerry McNerney for the 11th Congressional District seat. Having published an editorial in 2000 calling for the abolition of public schools, written a book and authored a research paper on the same topic, Harmer labels public schools as "insidious" and advocates a plan to "dismantle them."
Obviously, Hammer isn't an expert in U.S. history or in democracy. Universal free education is basic to the development and maintenance of a representative democracy. Education gives our children equal chances to participate and makes a difference in their own lives and in the broader community.
I speak not only from my heart, but from my experience as a teacher. This includes migrant education, four- and two-year college teaching, middle school instruction as well as a stint as a Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa, where my students were the first in rural areas to not only graduate but assume active roles in their country. Education peacefully revolutionizes the future.
I'm the daughter of a European immigrant who arrived with his family at age l0. Almost immediately, he became a student in the schools of Brooklyn. His family realized that education was the path toward becoming not only a wage-earning adult, but a participant in the values of America.
Mr. Harmer, I can't imagine what you want to replace our free universal education system with, but I do know you are too extreme for our society.
I support McNerney for re-election to Congress.
"Well tomorrow is Election Day!"
Mondays now, who knew?
"I know many are frustrated and think that throwing out the incumbent will improve the circumstances."
Trillions less monies wasted for sure.
"Will Harmer hold workshops for seniors trying to wend their way thru the maze of supplemental ins programs to Medicare?"
Shouldn't politicians hold workshops to explain programs trillions of dollars in the red?
"He wants Medicare to fail.."
Too late, It already has
"Harmer is for profit/He is an extreme libertarian Capitalist (which is at the far end of democratic christianity)"
Look for horns, tail, and a bifurcated tongue to appear any minute
"Will Harmer and staff (like McNerney's in the past) hold a workshop helping you look at options? Perhaps help you save your home? Like McNerney did?"
Well isn't that telling... vote with Barney Frank to exacerbate the problem, then hold workshops.
"I doubt it..Harmers buddies make money on those homes folks lost, and Issa is bragging that investigations now beginning on banks that used fraudulent means to make loans in order to make money will stop..the folks losing their homes will be investigated though. (according to the pubs)So Harmer will not be any more sympathetic than his remark at debate: When times are hard folks lose their homes"."
Boy, "if times are hard folks lose their homes" isn't a truism throughout history...
"If you have a disabled or handicapped child, will you get any attention from Harmer as far as education for that child?
Hum... education used to be a state operation. Course before that it fell to the locals.
"Will Harmer Harm the growth we are beginning to see in our economy?"
Please share your source information that we may be uplifted too.
"It is slow..but we know the Republicans ONLY goal is to make sure Obama fails."
If Obama continues to succeed the country continues to lose.
"May God Bless this Country"
Agree
But more importantly, why did our fellow Tracyites, who attended those workshops lose their homes?
Sure it's nice to shake hands, but at the end of the day, what did he accomplish?
Just asking all of those going to vote to think about a few issues in the McNerney Harmer race.
I know many are frustrated and think that throwing out the incumbent will improve the circumstances.
However, please consider a few issues:
Will Harmer hold workshops for seniors trying to wend their way thru the maze of supplemental ins programs to Medicare? I don't think so..He wants Medicare to fail..be privatized It is in the country's interest to make a profit by privatizing Medicare and Social Security?
Harmer is for profit/He is an extreme libertarian Capitalist (which is at the far end of democratic christianity)
If you are in a situation where your home may be lost? Will Harmer and staff (like McNerney's in the past) hold a workshop helping you look at options? Perhaps help you save your home? Like McNerney did? I doubt it..Harmers buddies make money on those homes folks lost, and Issa is bragging that investigations now beginning on banks that used fraudulent means to make loans in order to make money will stop..the folks losing their homes will be investigated though. (according to the pubs)So Harmer will not be any more sympathetic than his remark at debate: When times are hard folks lose their homes".
If you have a disabled or handicapped child, will you get any attention from Harmer as far as education for that child? I do not think so..Harmer thinks ALLL public school should go away. big business according to Harmer should be making a profit off education, prisons, etc.
Think about these issues,,they may not affect you. But they may affect a relative, neighbor or close friend.
Will Harmer Harm the growth we are beginning to see in our economy? It is slow..but we know the
Republicans ONLY goal is to make sure Obama fails.
May God Bless this Country
David was talking about poor results like this where the teachers union protect bad teachers while the good ones go unrewarded.
The lousy, pathetic teachers get the same pay as the better teachers thanks to the thug unions. In some cases, the bad ones get more pay based solely on seniority and number of years. Being a good teacher doesn't figure into the pay scale. This is outrageous.
Unions exist for 2 reasons:
1. To keep union leaders in power as they dole out the millions in campaign cash and
2. To protect the mediocre and lousy teachers
Unions have contributed over $750,000 to Jerry McNerney is a short career of less than two terms.
http://ow.ly/31HVm
Vote out union corruption, vote David Harmer
While I agree with most of yer comment I will state that uneducated is not th best word ta use here. Might I suggest misinformed or uninformed?
No doubt she is educated else how could she have gotten her teachin credentials? :)
First, nothing is "free" about our public education system. The real tax cost is about 27 cents per dollar of state/local collected tax money.*
*Reference: http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/html/pa662/pa662index.html
And as far as David Harmer's position on public education goes, his ideas are to promote vouchers and competition so that schools and teachers compete for dollars based on their performance. That way the schools that show the best results (in the form of highly educated students) will EARN the money they receive. And the schools that aren't producing educated students will go "out of business". Overall, the competition and accountability will elevate the quality of education from each school.
As it is now, public schools and their unions get bundles of cash and there's no accountability to provide results. We spend more money per capita on education in this country, yet we have some of the worst educated kids in the developed world.
So, more money isn't the solution. More choices for parents, and more accountability required from schools and teachers is the solution. That's all David Harmer is proposing.
If you want to read David Harmer's actual position on educational freedom, read it from a an actual source of reference:
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-269.html
Don't take Ms. Saltzman's political bias and propaganda spewing as a source of truth, because it isn't. She never includes any reference or source for her distortions, and she should be ashamed of herself for spreading such lies about Mr. Harmer.
Dropout rates and poor performing schools are the two main categories I am talking about here. Many educators will acknowledge, in private, that there is nothing the federal department of education cannot do that cannot be done better and more efficiently at the state or local level.
Discussion in the Congress of abolishing the Department of education is a good start. Under Congressman Jerry McNerney and Nancy Pelosi, Democrats beholden to the public employee unions, this debate will never even start.
These Democrats are not acting in the best interest of the American people. They are maintaining the power structure that finances their political campaigns. This was seen on the streets of Tracy last weekend, 'volunteers' for the Jerry McNerney campaign waving signs on the street corners were actually high school students who confirmed they were offered extra credit by their teachers to go out and support McNerney.