Maybe it depends on the teacher?

Sometimes I think the good things about Lum are thanks to ghost of the previous principal and are slowly slipping.

It is in our best interest as Janet Gibson implored in her remarks before the vote, but this is not the way to do it.

I don’t expect the district administration to embrace any charter proposals. I would hope that if the innovative proponents of charters do care about the larger community that they might spend more time coalition building in the parent/student at large community before they launch a proposal in a huge state budget deficit year.

Instead I listened to a Nea principle complain that there will never be a better time than now because all of Paul Benz appeals to Ardella have been shunned, etc. Well, duh!

I was personally criticizing Paul Benz attitude because he professes to be doing this because of his great dedication to the cause of quality education, but he seems to willfully ignore the negative impacts of what he proposes on many many students. As Barbara Kahn noted in her remarks at the meeting, Mr. Benz basically said that the budget problems of AUSD are it’s own and it’s not his concern what his proposal does to us. He is not indicating to me that he cares about the basic education of all students. If we are supoposed to care about his elite fleet then it’s two way street. I find the attitude smug, and this in leadership of ACLC no less.

It’s not like AUSD is being selfish with it’s money since these charters are completely dependent on the public system to exist and function at all. If Nea succeeds in appealing it will be interesting to see how things function. I for one would be happy to see Encinal teachers stop teaching AP to ACLC and then see how great their program looks. I wonder if under state or county charter AUSD teachers can be forced to teach these kids.

The ‘old white man in a business suit’…you looked at to see if he was talking to George Bush on a bat phone’ (let’s see how many insults do we have here; racist, ageist, sexist, jobist, dressist, politicist and still counting). What’s the difference between you wanting to instill, ‘… a sense of responsibility to the common good’ and him saying, ’sometimes sacrifices must be made to serve the greater good”?

Insults aside, it’s no more than a difference in a point of view.

Afraid??? I love a big bad bear market. What do you think I mean when I say “short” and “nasdaq” together in a sentence? (this is not investment advice, entertainment purposes only) hahahha…. but this isn’t the forum for this… seeya on the ticker.

So indeed- a recession is on it’s merry way. But long term, investments, mutual funds, and so on are the single best way towards retirement. If you live in the US, then you’ll need at least a million dollars by the time you retire. If you live in CA… 2.5 million.

Simply put, the average person in the US is now in debt and most of that is attributed because a larger chunk of their incomes are going towards their mortgages. The supposed ‘healthy’ level for a family to pay on a mortgage is 3 times annual income. In CA, that number has actually been 5 times Annual income. The recent boom brought it to 10 times. That means the avg homeowner in CA is paying over 50% of their income for their homes. That versus the recommended 28%.

If such people do not invest in the market in one form or another, they will not be able to retire lest they sell and move elsewhere.

Bottom line, am I worried about a recession? Heck no. I have a friend who used to be in the investment biz and mentioned that he and his buddies used to do high-fives on ‘bad’ economic news.

Another thing to think about is that if you look at which companies are doing well right now: aka- Mcdonalds, Nike, Microsoft, GE, and so on, they are selling well in countries like China, India, and so on. That is the key here. There are opportunities, but not as much in the US. Financials, retail, and Real Estate are now dead. International companies are fine.

I’m not afraid to lose money because I intend to keep my investments long-term. Who cares about today when 30 years from now things will be entirely different? Just imagine if you’d invested in all those companies that went down the toilet in 2000? You’d be sitting pretty right now.Lastly, cash doesn’t protect you from inflation. You have to offset that inflation with investments.

Anyhow, don’t be afraid of bear markets. Embrace them and have fun!

(not investment advice)

All legislation can be modified or repealed.

The same with NCLB.

Here’s my chili contribution
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vCO7yeIMbE