At any rate, for many of you the lowpoint of your holiday gathering will be the relative--or neighbor--who carries on about the sad state in which public employees--including teachers--have placed the country. It's always fun to respond to their generalized bloviating with those nasty "fact" thingies. Here's a list of previous blog posts which you can print and stuff into your suitcase for just such an opportunity:
Assertion: Public employees earn way more than those in the private sector.
Facts: "Everybody knows" that public employees earn more than those in the private sector.
Public pay vs private: Truth is in the numbers.
Assertion: Public pensions are bankrupting the states.
Facts: Pensions NOT bankrupting the states!
Sometimes the comments tell the story.
The growing mythology surrounding public employee pensions.
The sky is falling: Not!
Assertion: Teachers earn too much.
Facts: Pay teachers more.
Teacher pay around the world: How we compare.
Teachers earn too much? Really?
Assertion: You're all just jealous of the rich.
Facts: Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%.
Assertion: We spend too much on education as it is.
Facts: A number that's hard to believe.
Assertion: Our schools are failing; unions defend bad teachers; billionaires know best; charter schools are the answer; more effective teachers are the answer.
Facts: 5 myths about education.
Assertion: Tenure means a job for life.
Facts: Tenure DOESN'T mean a job for life.
Assertion: Teachers don't work a full year.
Facts: Teachers don't work a full year?
Assertion: Public sector jobs aren't real jobs.
Facts: Relax teachers, your job isn't real!
Assertion: Bad teachers are the cause of our educational problems.
Facts: The grand coalition against teachers.
The grand coalition against teachers, part 2.
Let's stop blaming the teachers.
And then a teacher picked up her pen...
Finally, you might want to ask where your antagonist gets their news. Fox? Probably. Here's an interesting piece of research widely reported a little over a month ago:
"A new poll suggests people might be better off watching no news at all than tuning into Fox. Fairleigh Dickinson University surveyed New Jerseyans about the Arab Spring in Egypt and Syria, among other current events, and found that self-identified Fox News viewers were less likely to answer correctly than consumers of other news outlets. Fox viewers even did much worse than those who don’t watch any news....The results — controlled for partisanship, education, and other demographics — imply that there is actually something counterproductive about watching a Fox News program. Meanwhile, newspaper readers and fans of NPR, The Daily Show, and Sunday TV news, did the best overall." [Emphasis mine.]
Don't you just love research?
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