This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Showing posts with label money. Show all posts
Showing posts with label money. Show all posts
January 5, 2012
Goddess Rambles about Charter Schools
i do see some successes in the charter schools in my area. there are populations that have been painfully under-served. in my case, Black students... yes i know there are many other students who fall into this niche, but i will only talk about what i know.
the goal in the school was to give everyone a chance at a quality college-prep educational opportunity. the downside is the proposal was fought like it was the plague. we had a school, the school was empty. we were not shuffling kids about, we just wanted a place for OUR kids... and we take everyone but hear me out. We had to go grassroots to lift enrollment. we pushed in our churches and through our families and we now have to turn children away. our schools are some of the highest in the state of CA at least if not in the nation for charter schools.
now that the schools are doing well, other want to sign up. i was on the waiting list for at least 3 years before my son was admitted. if we could open another school, we would be able to increase enrollment. our high and middle school are on a campus that has the ability to house roughly 2000 students, we have half that. it is almost as if we are being set up to fail because we are successful. there are other schools that have closed down. why not take them over?
some points that frighten people.
1. non-union teachers
2. unconventional methods used to educate (sure they don't fit the norm, but they work for certain students and we have studies to back that up)
3. makes other schools in the district look bad (my solution to that is for the regular public schools to step up and make the changes necessary for success for ALL of their students)
because a great deal of this is from the perspective of a parent of a gifted child in a public school where there was no GATE program, no instinct from teachers so overwhelmed with extremely high student numbers and lack of funding to manage their classrooms effectively (i rarely fault the educators and i don't fault them in this case either) , I felt i had no choice but to step out of the neighborhood school to help my child succeed. His teacher suggested in the 4th grade that i pull him and try to get him in charter.
it is a tough call for administrators, educators, parents, and in many cases even the students.
i truly believe that charter schools can be the catalyst for change in the educational system of America.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
May 24, 2009
A reason why we CANNOT agree to any offer right now.
My staff and I plan to use these messages as a way to directly communicate about important issues and opportunities, and today I have some encouraging updates about health care reform.
The Vice President and I just met with leaders from the House of Representatives and received their commitment to pass a comprehensive health care reform bill by July 31.
We also have an unprecedented commitment from health care industry leaders, many of whom opposed health reform in the past. Monday, I met with some of these health care stakeholders, and they pledged to do their part to reduce the health care spending growth rate, saving more than two trillion dollars over the next ten years -- around $2,500 for each American family. Then on Tuesday, leaders from some of America's top companies came to the White House to showcase innovative ways to reduce health care costs by improving the health of their workers.
Now the House and Senate are beginning a critical debate that will determine the health of our nation's economy and its families. This process should be transparent and inclusive and its product must drive down costs, assure quality and affordable health care for everyone, and guarantee all of us a choice of doctors and plans.
Reforming health care should also involve you. Think of other people who may want to stay up to date on health care reform and other national issues and tell them to join us here:
Health care reform can't come soon enough. We spend more on health care than any country, but families continue to struggle with skyrocketing premiums and nearly 46 million are without insurance entirely. It is a priority for the American people and a pillar of the new foundation we are seeking to build for our economy.
We'll continue to keep you posted about this and other important issues.
Thank you,
Barack Obama
P.S. If you'd like to get more in-depth information about health reform and how you can participate, be sure to visit .
Goddess
May 5, 2009
The Modern Depression
Let me give you a little meat and potatoes on what folks keep calling a "recession".
We are not in a recession folks. We are in a DEPRESSION.
Times are so bad now that when you see folks dropping off their children at school and they have a bunch of furniture loaded into the back of their truck that child is not going home at the end of the day.
People are out of food.
Senior Citizens cannot afford their oil for heat or their prescriptions.
This, my people, is a DEPRESSION.
Where people are walking away from their homes because there is no money in the banks to help them refinance and make their payments lower or more manageable.
Can you smell a Depression here?
This depression is different than the last depression we had in the 30s. This is a modern depression. We still have the technological advancements that make it seem like we are just having a downturn in the economy, but being one of lower middle class folks, I know times are hard. We have the "things" that make us feel we have been successful so we feel safe. Internet, Wi-Fi and Cable TV does not a safe economy make.
Bernanke decides that we are going to come out of this recession near the end of '09. WTF???? No way. Businesses may come out of the recession, but the people who all lost their jobs and the families that are now living in cars and shelters because of downsizing will not recover by the end of '09.
We, my people, are in a Depression.
I do not foresee a recovery for the working stiff for the next 3 years.
How can Bernanke even open his mouth and talk about business recovering (the same folks that got us here in the first place) and not speak about and to the people and about OUR recovery. The only person who has been speaking about a recovery for the people and not the businesses has bee our President and we all know he doesn't have a lot of friends in Congress. Everyone seems to be thinking only of the big businesses and worry that anything that will help the people spells increasing taxes for business. I say so what! It is time you pay for dragging us down with you. Please remember, that we did loan you the money to get out of the hole you dug.
I am a patient woman most of the time and I have tried to be patient about this, but now is the time for us to help ourselves. It seems that most of government is not on our side and only on the side of their wallets and bank accounts.
Lord help us. We will pull through because we have been in this bad situation for quite some time but we have to do it together.
Just like most grass roots activists say. Talk to the people what don't want to listen and then talk to to the people who will listen and will put a bug in the ear of the folks who don't.
They need to be reminded that there are people down here. The people they call their constituents. the same people on whose backs they are standing on . The same people on whose shoulders they leave their political mud on who need help now. Not later.
Change is good.
Don't run from it.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
We are not in a recession folks. We are in a DEPRESSION.
Times are so bad now that when you see folks dropping off their children at school and they have a bunch of furniture loaded into the back of their truck that child is not going home at the end of the day.
People are out of food.
Senior Citizens cannot afford their oil for heat or their prescriptions.
This, my people, is a DEPRESSION.
Where people are walking away from their homes because there is no money in the banks to help them refinance and make their payments lower or more manageable.
Can you smell a Depression here?
This depression is different than the last depression we had in the 30s. This is a modern depression. We still have the technological advancements that make it seem like we are just having a downturn in the economy, but being one of lower middle class folks, I know times are hard. We have the "things" that make us feel we have been successful so we feel safe. Internet, Wi-Fi and Cable TV does not a safe economy make.
Bernanke decides that we are going to come out of this recession near the end of '09. WTF???? No way. Businesses may come out of the recession, but the people who all lost their jobs and the families that are now living in cars and shelters because of downsizing will not recover by the end of '09.
We, my people, are in a Depression.
I do not foresee a recovery for the working stiff for the next 3 years.
How can Bernanke even open his mouth and talk about business recovering (the same folks that got us here in the first place) and not speak about and to the people and about OUR recovery. The only person who has been speaking about a recovery for the people and not the businesses has bee our President and we all know he doesn't have a lot of friends in Congress. Everyone seems to be thinking only of the big businesses and worry that anything that will help the people spells increasing taxes for business. I say so what! It is time you pay for dragging us down with you. Please remember, that we did loan you the money to get out of the hole you dug.
I am a patient woman most of the time and I have tried to be patient about this, but now is the time for us to help ourselves. It seems that most of government is not on our side and only on the side of their wallets and bank accounts.
Lord help us. We will pull through because we have been in this bad situation for quite some time but we have to do it together.
Just like most grass roots activists say. Talk to the people what don't want to listen and then talk to to the people who will listen and will put a bug in the ear of the folks who don't.
They need to be reminded that there are people down here. The people they call their constituents. the same people on whose backs they are standing on . The same people on whose shoulders they leave their political mud on who need help now. Not later.
Change is good.
Don't run from it.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
April 23, 2009
Technical snag but i still support my union.
WOW! I have to try not to be pissed when I sit here unable to sign on to the union meeting that is being held online. grrrrrr
something tells me that I am just going to have to wait and watch a recorded version of the biggest union meeting in the history of the CWA union.
I registered, I waited for the instructions and I went to the site and logged on around the designated time and I am still hour glassing after 45 minutes.
hmmmmm. Did they do a test run? nah.
Today at work must have been the last straw for the management staff. They are on call and ready for anything and the company starts to refer to them as lesser employees by trying to get the union members to get their drift by telling us that what they are asking from us is far better than the shitty plan they stuck their managers with. Usually, you see comments on the company sites about union bargaining littered with messages from managers saying good things about the company. After they dogged out the managers two days in a row by mentioning that the health plan they have sucks rocks, they finally lashed out.
I was waiting for Big Brother to swoop down and wipe out the messages, but not today...I think the company computer guy must have gone on a vacation... or has stopped following the company rule of wipe-it-out-if-it's-not-towing-the-company-line.
Some of the comments really got me thinking about how management gets screwed and how we cannot be mean to them because part of their job requirement is to follow company policy and work during strike.
Does it make you anti-company if you don't subscribe to all of the company's policies?
Maybe it is time for the managers to consider walking out with us. Now that would stick it to the corporation. From what I understand, managers have a 2500 deductible which means that they have to see the doctor a total of 65 visits per year in order to have the company pick up the tab at that point. Some of the comments from the managers stated that the only cost savings they had from their medical plan was the small discount they got on each doctor visit price.
If there were to be any type of catastrophic illness a family would be wiped out by having to pay medical bills up front before the company would take over and pay their share.
I am very disappointed by ATT for the way they have put down their management staff as well as the core wire line persons who keep this business running even if we aren't making as much money for them as we used to.
What the union and the company need to do is come to an agreement that is fair for ALL employees.
Why not have the employees, managers and executives share the medical cost. I think that if they worked it out, it would balance out quite well.
Shame on ATT
something tells me that I am just going to have to wait and watch a recorded version of the biggest union meeting in the history of the CWA union.
I registered, I waited for the instructions and I went to the site and logged on around the designated time and I am still hour glassing after 45 minutes.
hmmmmm. Did they do a test run? nah.
Today at work must have been the last straw for the management staff. They are on call and ready for anything and the company starts to refer to them as lesser employees by trying to get the union members to get their drift by telling us that what they are asking from us is far better than the shitty plan they stuck their managers with. Usually, you see comments on the company sites about union bargaining littered with messages from managers saying good things about the company. After they dogged out the managers two days in a row by mentioning that the health plan they have sucks rocks, they finally lashed out.
I was waiting for Big Brother to swoop down and wipe out the messages, but not today...I think the company computer guy must have gone on a vacation... or has stopped following the company rule of wipe-it-out-if-it's-not-towing-the-company-line.
Some of the comments really got me thinking about how management gets screwed and how we cannot be mean to them because part of their job requirement is to follow company policy and work during strike.
Does it make you anti-company if you don't subscribe to all of the company's policies?
Maybe it is time for the managers to consider walking out with us. Now that would stick it to the corporation. From what I understand, managers have a 2500 deductible which means that they have to see the doctor a total of 65 visits per year in order to have the company pick up the tab at that point. Some of the comments from the managers stated that the only cost savings they had from their medical plan was the small discount they got on each doctor visit price.
If there were to be any type of catastrophic illness a family would be wiped out by having to pay medical bills up front before the company would take over and pay their share.
I am very disappointed by ATT for the way they have put down their management staff as well as the core wire line persons who keep this business running even if we aren't making as much money for them as we used to.
What the union and the company need to do is come to an agreement that is fair for ALL employees.
Why not have the employees, managers and executives share the medical cost. I think that if they worked it out, it would balance out quite well.
Shame on ATT
April 13, 2009
What you can do as an angry consumer...
There is no reason for the credit card companies to make us pay twice to keep them profitable. We bail them out and then they raise our fees on our credit cards.
Do you smell poo?
I do!
It is time for the American Public to stop bitching and complaining about what is going on and take action.
Close the accounts at those institutions that have taken a bailout and screwed you twice by raising your fees.
They need to know that we will move our business elsewhere if we are not treated fairly.
Pay your minimum balances only because now is not the time to worry about paying off your credit cards if you do not have AT LEAST 8 months of living expenses in the bank.
If you lose your job and you cannot afford your credit card payments then you will be screwed if you don't have an ability to pay your bills in the bank (or under your mattress, depending on your level of trust with the banks).
If you are so over your head in debt don't feel bad about talking to a lawyer about filing for bankruptcy.
In no way do I see anything that resembles a CONSUMER BAILOUT coming down the pipe in the near future so it is time to take our finances into our own hands and recover along with the banks.
We have already paid them once in the bailout, there is no reason why we should have to pay them again because they are being greedy like spoiled children.
Take charge,
Goddess
Do you smell poo?
I do!
It is time for the American Public to stop bitching and complaining about what is going on and take action.
Close the accounts at those institutions that have taken a bailout and screwed you twice by raising your fees.
They need to know that we will move our business elsewhere if we are not treated fairly.
Pay your minimum balances only because now is not the time to worry about paying off your credit cards if you do not have AT LEAST 8 months of living expenses in the bank.
If you lose your job and you cannot afford your credit card payments then you will be screwed if you don't have an ability to pay your bills in the bank (or under your mattress, depending on your level of trust with the banks).
If you are so over your head in debt don't feel bad about talking to a lawyer about filing for bankruptcy.
In no way do I see anything that resembles a CONSUMER BAILOUT coming down the pipe in the near future so it is time to take our finances into our own hands and recover along with the banks.
We have already paid them once in the bailout, there is no reason why we should have to pay them again because they are being greedy like spoiled children.
Take charge,
Goddess
March 28, 2009
Why strike?
Why strike?
50 years ago, strikes were important
there 470 strikes in 1952
just last year there were only 50 strikes of more than 1000 employees
there is a better way to assist in change for us and for the union. i believe the media is our best form of leverage in changing what we want at our jobs.
we all know what is going wrong at ATT . why not blow the whistle on them?
now is the time to use what you find against a company.
there is so much that the public is unaware of. things that they might want to know.
say the 5000 jobs that were brought back to America. ATT created jobs in new call centers and then PURCHASED the contract call centers in India!
think about it. they now own the centers in India and can do what they want.
instead of the customers getting Prahad and Bhagavad for DSL support questions they now get Dick and Susie from Wisconsin. The downside to this is now the internal customer, read: employees can now spend countless non-productive ours at work attempting to garner assistance for their computer and technical issues.
for example, i have had a phone down at my desk since about the 14th of March. we no longer have a number to call first to expedite assistance with work related technical issues, we have to go online and create a ticket number.
that ticket is funneled through Georgia and most likely ends up in Madhapur India where mine did. I post no ill will to the workers in India. they need jobs too, but training is very important when dealing with company infrastructure.
I have a soft phone or what most people would call VOIP at my desk. one down side to it is that it is not VOIP but instead a soft phone that uses an ISDN circuit. this leads to many problems. instead of all of the system being virtual, most of it is.
technical assistance is only offered for the virtual phone. I knew after changing out equipment, doing downloads, updating, installing and uninstalling etc, that it was a physical problem that needed a telephone technician to repair.
I would figure that i know this because i know a little about phones as i work for the phone company. meh!
still i prescribed to the company idea that that trouble ticket i opened would eventually be turned into a work order and a tech would come out.
i got an email message on Wednesday from a 'tech' saying he would be at my desk.
it was the company computer guy. he did an un-install, install, update yada yada yada. i think you get the picture. before he even sat down, he knew that he was not going to be able to help. obviously, he had been here done this' before.
he still took his 25 minutes assigned to prove out the program issue.
1 down... how many more to go?
he closed my ticket.
there would be no other person coming out.
i now had to create another ticket.
i got to Georgia this time. that is Georgia in the US and not Georgia in the Ukraine :)
i sat at my desk and had them access my computer remotely to download a new push into the equipment that i had already changed out and tested at another station and had proved out that it wasn't the equipment.
she did her best. i thanked her proficiently, she said she would watch the ticket closely and the then she referred it back to the company computer guy.
he got a message from me that said "don't bother to come out. enjoy your lunch"
it was at this time that i tried to take a familiar path.
i called REPAIR!!!!!
me and the rep on the line had a good laugh. she knew she couldn't help me and i knew too, but i just had to vent to someone who actually understood the ridiculousness of the whole situation.
i told her that all i wanted was a warm body with a tool belt to come on down and fix my phone. the guy with the clipboard was wasting his time.
she laughed, i laughed . it was all good.
by now, Georgia had closed my ticket.
Hello again to limbo.
so my boss overhears me making the warm body and a tool belt comment and decides that it is time for him to step and an be more professional. hahahahaha
it was time to allow my manager to feel my pain.
i could not get an answer from him in the beginning, but somehow he felt that he could get things moving for me now.
i have never enjoyed a watching a man squirm as much as i did this day. hahahahaha!
i followed him to his office and watched him go through all the motions. he was not nice for long. i was sitting there waiting for his bells palsy to come back he was so stressed!
after he asked for a manager a couple of times and got his nose bit a couple of times, he tells me that he has a tech coming out on Monday.
stay tuned. ..
strike?
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
50 years ago, strikes were important
there 470 strikes in 1952
just last year there were only 50 strikes of more than 1000 employees
there is a better way to assist in change for us and for the union. i believe the media is our best form of leverage in changing what we want at our jobs.
we all know what is going wrong at ATT . why not blow the whistle on them?
now is the time to use what you find against a company.
there is so much that the public is unaware of. things that they might want to know.
say the 5000 jobs that were brought back to America. ATT created jobs in new call centers and then PURCHASED the contract call centers in India!
think about it. they now own the centers in India and can do what they want.
instead of the customers getting Prahad and Bhagavad for DSL support questions they now get Dick and Susie from Wisconsin. The downside to this is now the internal customer, read: employees can now spend countless non-productive ours at work attempting to garner assistance for their computer and technical issues.
for example, i have had a phone down at my desk since about the 14th of March. we no longer have a number to call first to expedite assistance with work related technical issues, we have to go online and create a ticket number.
that ticket is funneled through Georgia and most likely ends up in Madhapur India where mine did. I post no ill will to the workers in India. they need jobs too, but training is very important when dealing with company infrastructure.
I have a soft phone or what most people would call VOIP at my desk. one down side to it is that it is not VOIP but instead a soft phone that uses an ISDN circuit. this leads to many problems. instead of all of the system being virtual, most of it is.
technical assistance is only offered for the virtual phone. I knew after changing out equipment, doing downloads, updating, installing and uninstalling etc, that it was a physical problem that needed a telephone technician to repair.
I would figure that i know this because i know a little about phones as i work for the phone company. meh!
still i prescribed to the company idea that that trouble ticket i opened would eventually be turned into a work order and a tech would come out.
i got an email message on Wednesday from a 'tech' saying he would be at my desk.
it was the company computer guy. he did an un-install, install, update yada yada yada. i think you get the picture. before he even sat down, he knew that he was not going to be able to help. obviously, he had been here done this' before.
he still took his 25 minutes assigned to prove out the program issue.
1 down... how many more to go?
he closed my ticket.
there would be no other person coming out.
i now had to create another ticket.
i got to Georgia this time. that is Georgia in the US and not Georgia in the Ukraine :)
i sat at my desk and had them access my computer remotely to download a new push into the equipment that i had already changed out and tested at another station and had proved out that it wasn't the equipment.
she did her best. i thanked her proficiently, she said she would watch the ticket closely and the then she referred it back to the company computer guy.
he got a message from me that said "don't bother to come out. enjoy your lunch"
it was at this time that i tried to take a familiar path.
i called REPAIR!!!!!
me and the rep on the line had a good laugh. she knew she couldn't help me and i knew too, but i just had to vent to someone who actually understood the ridiculousness of the whole situation.
i told her that all i wanted was a warm body with a tool belt to come on down and fix my phone. the guy with the clipboard was wasting his time.
she laughed, i laughed . it was all good.
by now, Georgia had closed my ticket.
Hello again to limbo.
so my boss overhears me making the warm body and a tool belt comment and decides that it is time for him to step and an be more professional. hahahahaha
it was time to allow my manager to feel my pain.
i could not get an answer from him in the beginning, but somehow he felt that he could get things moving for me now.
i have never enjoyed a watching a man squirm as much as i did this day. hahahahaha!
i followed him to his office and watched him go through all the motions. he was not nice for long. i was sitting there waiting for his bells palsy to come back he was so stressed!
after he asked for a manager a couple of times and got his nose bit a couple of times, he tells me that he has a tech coming out on Monday.
stay tuned. ..
strike?
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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