Pennslyvanian Teachers Suffer From Lack Of Funding.

Great teachers definitely do inspire, and it's fitting that my 100th (!!!) post be about my future career.  The news I bring is both fantastic as well as awful.  Let's start from the ground and work our way up, shall we?

Pictured above is the Republican Governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett.  Don't let his soft, blue eyes fool you - Tom Corbett is a motherfucker.  When faced with drawing up the state budget, Corbett had a bit of a dilemma on his hands when it came to funding education.  "As ThinkProgress’s Travis Waldron pointed out, Corbett could relieve school districts if he let special interest groups like tobacco and the oil and gas industry go without their tax breaks." 

Then he remembered his party's platform: Fuck Poor People.  So Corbett cut $900 million from the state's education funding.  "But Shaun," you're probably thinking, "Teachers are overpaid anyway!  $900 million is blahpoopfartblaggublaggu!"

If that were the case, then the Chester Upland School District would be able to pay their teachers.  As of Wednesday, January 11, 2012, the educators will not be receiving a salary.  This is, by the way, after laying off 40% of its professional staff. 

So the teachers begged the governor for more funding to education.  And so did the school boards.  And so did the unions.  But Corbett said, "Nay!"  Worse, even the State Secretary of Education turned them down, saying that they "had failed to properly manage [their] finances and would not get any additional funds."

Now a lot of children are minus an education because those greedy fucking teachers are - 

Oh, shit, I'm forgetting the amazing part!

From ThinkProgress.org:

The teachers decided to work for free. As one teacher put it, students “need to be educated, so we intend to be on the job"...

At a union meeting at Chester High School on Tuesday night, the employees passed a resolution saying they would stay on “as long as we are individually able.”
Columbus Elementary School math and literacy teacher Sara Ferguson, who has taught in Chester Upland for 21 years, said after the meeting, “It’s alarming. It’s disturbing. But we are adults; we will make a way. The students don’t have any contingency plan. They need to be educated, so we intend to be on the job.”

I cannot express how fantastic this is.  The teachers are unwilling to let students go without an education, despite the possibility that they won't be able to support themselves and pay their bills.  This makes Governor Corbett look... well, like a motherfucker.  I can only hope that, for the sake of the teachers in the Chester Upland School District, this pay freeze is temporary.

Personally, I think Governor Corbett should give up his salary.  He does far less than teachers do, and makes twice as much.  How's that for fair?   

That about wraps it up for my 100th post!  No need to thank me, please, hold your applause.  Stick around for my 150th, and maybe even my 200th.  My 7,000 view mark is also right around the corner... Because you, all of you, my readers, are fucking awesome.