My friend Walter Abbott up in Ruston seems to have a problem with any public employee as does, apparently State Rep. John “Jay” Morris, III (R-Monroe).
Abbott, as I, publishes a political blog and that certainly is his—or anyone’s—right. But the thing that he can’t seem to get around is his constant habit of labeling any public employee as a “deadhead.” In fact, he never refers to public employees, be they teachers, law enforcement officers, firemen, or highway construction crews, as anything but “deadheads.”
I’m not certain what Walter does for a living, but I would assume his work is essential and not of the “deadhead” status. But one can never be sure. Sometimes one creates a deliberate smokescreen (such as name-calling) as a tactic to deflect attention from himself. Again, I don’t know that, I’m just sayin’…..
Walter’s post today (March 31) provides a link to a story by Baton Rouge Advocate reporter Elizabeth Crisp which said that Louisiana college and university students plan to demonstrate at the state Capitol on April 15 as a protest to anticipated draconian cuts to higher education appropriations for the coming year.
But Walter, in his classic inimitable parsing of nomenclature, says in the headline to his blog: “Student Mob to Protest on Behalf of Deadheads.”
Student Mob? Seriously, Walter? You know with absolute certainty that these students will be roving bands of vandals, possibly armed, intent on rape and pillage and assorted other forms of crimes against humanity? Hell, Abbott, you’re better than the entire Justice League. Perhaps we need to make you an official state deadhead and bring you to Baton Rouge or New Orleans or Shreveport to fight crime—in advance with your gift of clairvoyance, of course. Which city? No problem; with your obvious skill at predicting the future, you need only tip off the deadhead law enforcement agencies in each city when a crime is about to take place.
And about that “deadhead” term you so love to toss around: I can only assume that you’ve drunk the Ted Cruz/Scott Walker/Rand Paul tea party Kool-Aid which finds all things public to be anathema.
In a previous blog you referred to teachers as “deadheads.” Well, Walt, unless I’m mistaken, a teacher taught you to read and write, which enables you to now turn on those same dedicated people by calling them “deadheads.”
Let me enlighten you about teachers, Walt, because you obviously do not know the facts or you choose to ignore them. Besides the problem that all teachers face, namely the constant push and pull from politicians who seem to think they have all the answers and rush in with ill-advised education “reform” measures, there are these specifics:
- Kindergarten and elementary teachers: Not only must they teach, but they also have to do lesson plans, grade papers at night (after cooking for the family and cleaning house and helping their own kids with homework), contend with kids who can’t keep up in class because their lazy or irresponsible, drug-addled parents won’t take the initiative to help the kids at home, then attempt to appease those same parents who want to shift the blame for the kids’ poor grades onto the teacher. They daily see these same children come to school hungry or unbathed—or both. In addition to all these duties is the constant paperwork that must be filled out by teachers and as they perform all these tasks, they often are called upon to wipe snotty noses and wipe soiled behinds. Summer vacation? Fugetaboutit. That three-month vacation you always hear about is a myth. When school is out, classrooms must be cleaned, books put away, furniture stacked against the wall so janitorial crews can move in to do their jobs and by the time all that is done, it’s time to start planning the new school year.
- Middle school teachers: One might think that middle school is a breeze but this is where kids grow into puberty, where cliques are formed and where little teen-age girls snipe at each other behind their backs. It ain’t pretty. As these children grow from adolescence into teens, attitudes are formed and teachers must deal with that reality on a daily basis. Moreover, remember those kids from elementary school who were lagging behind? Well some of them are older than their classmates because sadly, they had to be held back one or more grades. But they’re falling even further behind and it becomes the middle school teacher’s task to confront angry parents who won’t accept their own role in educating their own children. And that paperwork didn’t go away in elementary school. Neither do the late night paper grading sessions.
- High school teachers: By now, the slower students have become a real challenge. Not only do they refuse to do their assignments and fall even further behind before eventually dropping out of school (and teachers consider every dropout a personal loss, some might even say a failure). But those who remain have by now developed really nasty attitudes (often encouraged at home by parents who still refuse to accept responsibility) and teacher-student confrontations often occur that sometimes become physical, placing the teacher in danger of bodily harm.
So there you have your teacher “deadheads,” Walt. But you know what? Through it all, they persevere at salaries most likely considerably less than what you make, because teaching is not an occupation, it’s a calling, and these educators are dedicated to that calling—something you obviously do not comprehend or care to.
But Walt insists on attaching that label to all public employees. Well, Walt, I was one of those “deadheads” for 20 years, working as a claims adjuster for the Office of Risk Management.
And being completely candid, I was far from being the best adjuster in the office (even though I was once told that I was by a member of management in his somewhat feeble effort at blowing smoke up my toga—some form of weird motivation, I suppose) but despite my many shortcomings (I love writing more than insurance), I still managed to help save the state several millions of dollars in bogus claims. To that end, despite my habitual failure to keep my diary updated and my distaste for insurance, I still managed to justify my salary many, many times over.
Finally, Walter, I would ask that you consider this in the future when dealing with these “deadheads”:
- When you find a pothole in your street that tears up your vehicle’s front end, call a tea partier, not the highway department—they’re deadheads;
- Same thing when you observe litter along the streets and highways;
- When your sewer line backs up because of a lack of maintenance because the deadheads have been laid off, call a tea partier;
- When you discover rust and other substances in your water line for that same reason, call a tea partier;
- When your neighbor knocks down your fence and refuses to pay for it, don’t bother filing suit. Those courtroom employees, including the judge, are deadheads. Call a tea partier.
- When your house catches fire, don’t call the fire department. They’re just a bunch of deadheads. Call the tea partiers;
- When you or a family member is being assaulted by some thug, the police department, staffed with deadheads, is obviously the wrong call. The tea party will set things right for you.
Count on it.
As for Rep. Morris, his recent comments constitute a classic example of shooting the messenger.
He, like Jindal’s former chief of staff, now president of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI), Stephen Waguespack (the same one who leaned on Murphy Painter to ignore Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control regulations in that issue over the Budweiser tent at Jindal contributor Tom Benson’s Champion’s Square), doesn’t feel that Bob Mann retains the right of free speech under the First Amendment simply because he’s on the payroll of LSU.
Rep. Morris, you are an attorney and as such you of all people should be at the front of the line to defend that right. Instead, you choose to jump into the fray based on another blog, that of Scott McKay’s The Hayride. http://thehayride.com/2015/03/twitter-tough-guy-bob-mann-takes-on-labi-over-waguespacks-column/
McKay and Morris wax indignant that Mann has the audacity to write—on his own time—a column for the New Orleans Times-Picayune while teaching (this semester) one class because of the necessity to care for his wife who is ill.
Of all things, Morris chooses to compare Mann’s salary to that of a public school teacher who he says works for a paltry $32,000 a year. Well, isn’t it in the legislature’s power to increase those salaries? Has Rep. Morris ever, even once, made a move to raise the pay for teachers? Or instead, was he one of 53 House members who voted to kill House Bill 645 by Rep. Marcus Hunter (D-Monroe) to raise the state minimum wage? See for yourself: HB 645 VOTE
Rep. Morris, you can’t have it both ways: you can’t use teachers’ salaries against Bob Mann if you’ve never attempted to rectify the gaping disparity yourself. That comes under the heading of hypocrite. Don’t be so smug in jumping on Mann’s case as a means of questioning LSU’s budget while defending NLU perhaps because some of that university’s employees might be your constituents whom you don’t want to offend.
Rep. Morris asks the rhetorical question: “How are we polititians (sic) supposed to raise revenue to save higher ed when there might be a whole lot of waste?” Shouldn’t that be a question for you, as a representative of the people, to sort out? Have you and other legislators been asleep at the wheel so long that waste occurs right under your collective, oblivious noses?
If you are so concerned about waste, don’t you think it might have been a good idea for you to have checked the campaign expenditures of Rep. Erich Ponti (R-Baton Rouge) before you contributed $1,000 to his campaign, and who in turn contributed $1,000 to the campaign of Rep. Clay Schexnayder (R-Gonzales)? Do you really think their expenditures of $15,405 and $9,660, respectively, to purchase of LSU football and softball tickets from 2010 through 2014 was the most judicious use of their campaign funds? Could that perhaps be included in your sanctimonious, somewhat selective definition of waste?
CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS:
Recipient | Contributor | Description | Date | Amount | ||
Ponti, Erich E. | JOHN C JAY MORRIS III FOR STATE REP 2705 OAK DR MONROE, LA 71201 | CONTRIBUTION | 6/28/2012 | $1,000.00 |
Recipient | Contributor | Description | Date | Amount | ||
Schexnayder, Clay | FRIENDS OF ERICH PONTI CAMPAIGN Thibodeaux Ave Baton Rouge, LA 70806 | CONTRIBUTION | 11/14/2011 | $1,000.00 |
CAMPAIGN EXPENDITURES:
Candidate | Recipient | Description | Date | Amount | |
Ponti, Erich E. | LSU ATHLETICS PO BOX 25095 BATON ROUGE, LA 70894-5905 | TICKETS | 5/13/2014 | $3,310.00 | |
Ponti, Erich E. | LSU ATHLETIC TICKET OFFICE BATON ROUGE, LA | 2012 FOOTBALL SEASON TICKETS/PARKING | 4/20/2012 | $3,130.00 | |
Ponti, Erich E. | LSU ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT ATHLETIC ADMINISTRATION BLDG BATON ROUGE, LA 70803 | FOOTBALL TICKETS | 5/5/2013 | $3,110.00 | |
Ponti, Erich E. | LSU ATHLETICS c/o Speakers’ Office LA State Capital Baton Rouge, LA 70801 | 2010 Legislative Football Tickets | 4/21/2010 | $2,000.00 | |
Ponti, Erich E. | LSU ATHLETICS P.O. BOX 25095 BATON ROUGE, LA 70803 | FOOTBALL TICKETS | 4/26/2011 | $2,000.00 | |
Ponti, Erich E. | LSU ATHLETICS P.O. BOX 25095 BATON ROUGE, LA 70803 | FOOTBALL TICKETS | 6/6/2011 | $950.00 | |
Ponti, Erich E. | LSU ATHLETIC TICKET OFFICE BATON ROUGE, LA | LSU FOOTBALL TICKETS | 1/4/2012 | $905.00 | |
Candidate | Recipient | Description | Date | Amount | |
Schexnayder, Clay | LSU ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT ALTHLETIC BLDG BATON ROUGE, LA 70803 | TICKETS | 4/11/2014 | $3,210.00 | |
Schexnayder, Clay | LSU ATHLETIC OFFICE 110 Thomas Boyd Baton Rouge, LA 70808 | TAFT donation and tickets | 5/23/2012 | $3,135.00 | |
Schexnayder, Clay | LSU ATHLETIC OFFICE 110 Thomas Boyd Baton Rouge, LA 70808 | tickets | 5/22/2013 | $3,115.00 | |
Schexnayder, Clay | LSUE SOFTBALL 2048 JOHNSON HWY EUNICE, LA 70535 | DONATION | 12/3/2014 | $200.00 |
We’re just saying people who live in glass houses…
Jindal’s latest consolidation- all human resource staff from 12 state agencies going to the DOA 7/1/15. DOA HR staff increasing from 31 employees to 300+. No room for employees so they will be clustered in other buildings.
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As college professor I heard that name alot, usually from some retiree swilling coffee at McDonald’s or the Huddle House. My response to each of them was “you come to my class, I will give you materials to prepare and deliver the next lecture. You do so successfully and I will pay you my rate of pay in cash for the lecture as well as any preparation time required. ” I never had a taker. These clowns just like to hear themselves talk.
Oh, Tom. You’ve taken an approach to scolding parents similar to the one you chastise Walter Abbott for taking with scolding teachers, “contend with kids who can’t keep up in class because their lazy or irresponsible, drug-addled parents won’t take the initiative to help the kids at home.”
There are many valid reasons why parents may not be able to live up to your expectations of them. Ever heard of a single parent with multiple jobs?
Please don’t go down the same road as Abbott. You’re better than that.
You are correct about single parents. One of the factors education critics consistently fail (or refuse to acknowledge) is that poverty, not teachers, is the single biggest cause of students’ failure in school and certainly a single parent holding two jobs is a big part of that. On the other hand, I have close friends who are teachers and they tell horror stories about negligent parents. That cannot be dismissed lightly.
Thank you Tom—from a teacher!
As most everyone here knows, Bob Mann holds the Manship Chair in the Manship School of Mass Communication. I don’t know for certain if the Chair is an endowed chair or not but I’m willing to bet it is. If so, here’s a definition for an endowed chair:
That being said, Bob isn’t being paid strictly out of state or LSU funds, or at least not totally.
And…I don’t see that they had anything to say about Jeff Sadow and his blog that he writes. Also, Jeff sure makes a lot of comments on pieces at nola.com during the day when he perhaps should be teaching or grading papers or something (?).
Also, didn’t know about Bob’s wife being ill. I’m sorry to hear that and hope she is better soon.
Abbott’s father was a career government man and once a Teacher. ..if not for that he most likely would be working at the Hodge papermill Or catching chickens for Con Agra
Rep. Morris is a lawyer? There went the waste of an education, though I’m sure his “deadhead” teachers tried to do their best by him. A few students are simply not teachable.
I posted this earlier, but it must have gotten lost in the ozone: Now, Rolfe McCollister is piling on Bob Mann in his most recent publisher’s column in the print edition of the GBRBR.
Collateral damage of the ‘Southern strategy’ and Brown v. Board of Education. Rather than educate all, Red States refused to educate any. Now, the chickens of educational abuse are coming home to roost. The Liberal Arts and humanities teach us how to be human. How to be humane. Their removal from public education trains students to be inhumane. These are the lost souls who live in a tiny, feudal world. Ironically, the Civil Service generated by WWII was the work horse for America’s technological advances. They kept the military/industrial complex controlled through a bureaucratic bulwark between money and elected officials. They were our watchdogs, property managers and corporate memory. Then Reagan killed it.
My wife teaches teaches third grade in public schools and has been teaching for 30 years now. You definitely pegged her daily routine correctly. Thanks for noticing.
I have such a problem with so much of what is going on politically now, but I have to say that I am particularly disturbed over the comments against Bob Mann. How is it that a person’s perceived second amendment rights have become more important than their real first amendment rights?
So sad that this individual who is in a position to cause such conflict and discord just by giving his sad opinion of teachers and government employees. I am married to a teacher who taught school for 34 yrs. He has been retired for 15 yrs. and he still has people come up to him thanking him for giving them the best that he could in the classroom. Their comment is always the same.. “You made us laugh, but most of the time things were very serious in that classroom. You meant business and we had to listen. I thoroughly enjoyed your class and looked forward to attending each day!”
There are a lot of good teachers who mean well, but because government interference, cannot teach as they should or want to. They have to use their valuable time for unnecessary paper work and discipline issues. The discipline issues only pertain to those who teach in our public schools. Charter school teachers do not have discipline problems. I cannot understand why our tax dollars are going to public schools that continue to waste our money on policy that shows no concrete discipline enforcement . On the other hand, our tax dollars are well spent at Charter Schools who have good results with their discipline challenges.
As far as his remark about government employees…… I was a government employee for 30 years. I worked hard and was not a “dead head.” Sure, I had advantages like holidays and sick and annual leave but I retired with 2 years of sick leave. I went to work sick a lot of days. I was a devoted employee. I took pride in my work and was dedicated to my job. His words mean nothing to me. I am just satisfied with my accomplishments.
He must have had a bad experience. Not all teachers and parents are perfect. There are a few bad apples.
I guess his idea of someone with high morals and values is someone like Jindal.
He has all the right qualities of an individual who should be admired and looked up to. He is the kind of person you should always say “yes” to no matter how much damage he chooses to do to the people of our state.
This man is a sad individual. He needs to be made to “walk the walk” and “talk the talk”. Then and only then, will he be correct to put his ideas and deserving opinion where his mouth is!
Charter schools have fewer discipline problems because they pick and choose which students they accept for admission. They do not and will not accept students with poor grades or discipline problems. They leave those students to the public schools.
Exactly, Tom. The charter schools weed out children who are different or pose a challenge. Their discriminatory policies are not admirable. Public schools must take all comers.
Gentlemen, I don’t see why we cannot have discipline in public schools just like at charter schools. We should have rules and follow them. The whole problem with this world is that we cater to these people so as not to offend anyone. Bull!
We are constantly lying to them because instead of setting examples of good morals and values, we just do nothing so as not to upset them. We cannot discriminate. Bull !!!!!!
We should have one type of public school that keeps students that want to learn.
The other type should be for the ones who do not want to learn and just cause problems. These kids will surely be rewarded by being on government assistance the rest of their lives because they have no value of themselves and will never learn differently.
It is sad that you think first of discrimination before you address the real issue at hand. It is all about the discipline. Do you really think that if you discipline a child or expect them to follow the rules that are set in place for them to follow, you are discriminating against them? Did you raise children? Did you have rules for them to follow? Did you enforce these rules? If you had rules for them to follow, was it for the purpose of raising them to have good values? Did you just let your children do whatever they wanted to do so as not to offend them or discriminate?
My hats off to the teachers who have to go to work each day with kids who disrupt the class keeping the teacher from doing his/her job. And, it is funny how the administration says it is up to the teacher to have control of his/her class no matter what takes place. Bad behavior is ignored. Nothing is done. Teachers have to be miracle workers.
We have really messed up! Retired teachers are being called back into the work force because of the lack of qualified teachers available.
Would you work as a teacher in that kind of atmosphere?
As we continue to look the other way instead of addressing the discipline issue,
I predict that you will not have any qualified teachers teaching in public schools in a few years. The public schools are going down, down , down, and its our fault!
If you investigate well, the few good public schools that exist have administrative leaders who address the problem and enforce the rules. They don’t look the other way. They do not discriminate. They set good examples for the children to follow and they support their teachers with positive action.
Our children went to public school and received a good education, but that was back in the day when learning was a priority for all concerned.
Our grandchildren attend private schools today. We thank God everyday that our children have the means to afford good schools for them to attend.
“We should have one type of public school that keeps students that want to learn. The other type should be for the ones who do not want to learn and just cause problems. These kids will surely be rewarded by being on government assistance the rest of their lives because they have no value of themselves and will never learn differently.”
Wow, Carmen! Just throw the kids away. Don’t bother trying to work with them, for they are already judged hopeless. What about children who are autistic or have ADD or ADHD? My son removed my grandson who has ADHD from his Roman Catholic school, because he had the reputation as the “bad boy” and was targeted for very minor infractions. It was obvious the school wanted him out, because he was different and a challenge. He’s happier and doing much better in public school. I’m impressed with the quality of the teaching in his school, where discipline actually does take place when it’s called for.
You surely misunderstood my statement. I don’t want to throw the children away. ADD, Autistic, and ADHD students are not the discipline problems I was referring to. I am referring to the ones who can learn, but would rather be somewhere else & their main ambition is to cause disruption in the classroom. This is a big problem in some of our public schools.
If you don’t believe me, try speaking to a teacher, or rather several teachers about the problems they face each day and how they believe the situation could be improved. They are the ones who really know the situation. It is the person in that classroom who bites the bullet each day. It is not the supervisor, principal, school board members, etc. who “walk the walk” as they do. They know the problems, and they know how to best solve them.
I am all for special education, and special programs for children who need special assistance to help them learn. These children have a learning problem that needs to be addressed, not a discipline problem. I would never ever label a child with true learning disabilities or discriminate against them for their disability. I believe they should all be treated fairly and given the best possible education that our money can provide. I sincerely believe it is our duty to do as much for them as possible.
I am happy that your grandson was put in a school where he could get the education/attention that he needed. Not all private schools are what they should be. A good parent gets involved and stays on top of things. Your grandson is lucky to have a dad that really has his best interest at heart.
Tom, I’m sure we would all agree that there are exceptions to every rule. Without a doubt there are some “deadheads” throughout both the public and private sectors. In private industry you have a choice to take your business elsewhere whereas when dealing with a government entity you are pretty much stuck. As a former head of a department, I would estimate that about 15% of my former employees would qualify as deadheads mostly due to lack of formal education and career/job focused training Throughout my career I argued for the ability to increase the base pay for many positions and provide a job focused training curriculum to improve my chances to recruit and retain qualified and motivated employees while reducing the total staff count. I argued that I could improve productivity and deliver exceptional customer service while reducing overall salary and benefit expenditures, but of course that doesn’t fit the Civil Service model. Many times departments are forced to outsource complex task through consulting contracts in order to get the skill sets necessary rather than recruit and train quality employees. Mind you, I’m not talking about the Mega-Consulting contracts and firms that the current administration has been so fond of where the final product was commonly a “cut and paste” presentation that has little or no true value, just promises false cost saving recommendations. After 30 years of state service I can say that the vast majority of state employees are very dedicated professionals who truly want to uphold the public trust. Unfortunately all tend to get “Painted” with the same brush.