Unfortunately, teachers’ unions don’t allow that option. They demand that teachers get paid based on seniority, are nearly impossible to fire after a very brief probationary period, and are vetted by completion of educational programs that most self-respecting lovers of learning would have to hold their noses to go through.

Am I willing to pay 5 poor teachers more money in order to pay 5 mediocre ones and 1 excellent one the same pay? No.

I deal regularly with the products of the public education system. After 12-14 years of taxpayer investment of about $10,000 per student per year (in my area), many are barely literate, and less than 10% are what I would consider competently educated.

I will grant you that good teachers are underpaid, but the premium on paying them adequately is just too high.

All six school-age members of my immediate family are either attending private schools or being home schooled (by family members with post-graduate degrees who are sacrificing considerable earnings to do that). That’s an expense we’d all be happy to forego to pay public school teachers better, if we thought it would do any good. We don’t.

It’s illegal here in Virginia for teachers to collectively bargain. I once was a teacher here, and I’d like to think I was a good one, spent a lot of hours above and beyond the time I was mandated to be at school.

Now, I’m not. Why? Pay. I couldn’t pay the bills once my wife got sick. When we knew there would be a time she wouldn’t be able to work permanently coming in the future, I had no choice. I went into IT. If you think this is an isolated incident, understand that the most common number of years for a career in teaching is 3-4 years. A lot of good teachers leave teaching because of the lack of pay. For states that still have collective bargaining for teachers, do you honestly think getting rid of them will fix the problem?

Just because no one “trashes” the capitol building doesn’t mean there aren’t serious consequences to enacting anything that further reduces compensation for teachers or other public servants.

I’d rather have some protests than a continued silent exodus of good teachers or other public servants. Everyone seems to agree we can’t just accept any warm bodies to be teachers, but somehow, when it comes to paying to retain good teachers, there is a significant portion of the population that seems to not care to do that. You can’t keep talented people by reducing their pay.

Another compromise that seems obvious to me for public employees is whether in exchange for collective bargaining rights they should lose some or all civil service law protections. Why should they have both?

On behalf of the taxpayers, another item I’d want on the table would be consequences on existing collective bargaining agreements and union certifications of any illegal strikes or other illegal conduct. My first offer might be the heads of the union leadership on a platter, but I’d be open to some lesser sanction, in the spirit of compromise.

You do realize that federal employees don’t have wage/benefit collective bargaining rights, nor do public employees in quite a number of other states. Yet nobody’s trashing the Capitol in DC or the legislative buildings in those other states, demanding them. Curious.

Q6 – revitalization zones – here in CA these are going to be disappearing/rescinded soon. Our town has already lost enterprise zones.

Re: new business advice. Larger cities have the SCORE advisers. These are retired business people who can give you advice, free.

Of course, I also dislike the attitude of “well, if there’s nothing productive happening, I’m just going to stay out of it.” If you don’t like the political process, get involved!

… or something so stupid both sides immediatly see as such. (note that I’m not saying you did that in this case, just pointing out the logical flaw in that scentence)

I don’t know if iPhone has it (I want to say they just recently got it, but I’m not 100% on that), but Android definitely does. It is one of the more valuable apps, imo.

I do like Skype, as well, but a few of my friends are having trouble with the last update, so we haven’t used it as much lately. There are also apps like HeyTell that act like push-to-talk features, though I don’t know whether they count against your minutes, as I’ve never personally used them. Hope this helps someone. :)

You’re right about the bathing suit post. Way off base. A cheap bathing suit doesn’t even cover the required parts much less stay on long enough to swim. I’d be happy in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt but most places won’t let you swim unless you have a “real” bathing suit.

Just for amusement, I’ll add that on one trip when I forgot to pack a suit, I purchased a couple yards of inexpensive fabric and used a wrap I learned in Hawaii.

I’ve used a homemade dishwasher soap – 1 tbs washing soda plus 1 tbs borax, vinegar in the jet dry space. It worked perfect for a few washes, then my glasses started getting cloudy. I actually found that off brand dishwasher soap was cheaper than the homemade, but I still use it in a pinch, since I always have those items on hand. YMMV, depending on how hard or soft your water is.

PS. Have fun reading the bathing suit post…it is hilarious!

Oh, and Trent, have you ever done a home-made dishwasher soap?

When you get to the point you can’t even have conversations with those you oppose, it’s out of hand. There are obvious examples of market forces solving economic problems. There are obvious examples of government intervention solving economic problems, too. Neither ideology is correct 100% of the time, and there’s a growing portion of the population that think their hardened ideology is.

If your statements about how to solve the Wisconsin budget impasse for example consist only of talking points from either the left or the right, and that’s it, you’re not contributing to the debate, and you’re not helping.

I’m not saying that extremes on either side of the spectrum are always wrong. I’m saying platitudes about your stance and oversimplistic criticisms of the other side doesn’t make you right helps no one. It hardens both you and your opposition in your views instead of exploring other alternatives that may be better than either side is proposing.

Q5: Getting an extension does nothing to the interest and penalties you pay if you owe money! It only lets you file your tax paperwork later. If you don’t have the money right now you can work out a payment plan with the IRS, there’s of course a form for it.

Q1: A lot of people favor the Roth because taxes just have to go up. But that ignores the fact that we live in a progressive tax system, which means your first dollar is taxed at zero percent. Putting all your retirement money in a Roth would be a clear mistake. You pay taxes now at your higest marginal rate, to avoid zero taxes in the future.

Q4: Check out the HP dm1z. It’s a pretty decent laptop for only about $400.