These protests over budget cuts in Wisconsin and soon elsewhere - including Texas - are all about unions and their monopoly power to drive the wage rates up at taxpayer expense.

They are fueled by morons who think that "democracy" owes them the right to blackmail their neighbors in exchange for endless benefit increases at taxpayer expense until there is no more money left to anyone.

They are as spoiled and stupid, as demanding for instant gratification regardless of cost, as the students some of them teach.

And the naked Marxist barry soetoro will ride their coat tails into an easy re-election.

Traitors to America, one and all.

“Behavior Bucks” is a system being used in schools such as those in Spotsylvania County, VA. Each day every student is arbitrarily given 5 “Behavior Bucks”. Teacher calls of individual misbehavior during the day result in the student losing one or more “Bucks”. Accumulation of 25 “Bucks” results in the student receiving some toy.

While respectful attention is a necessary prerequisite for learning, this system does NOT contribute to a learning environment capable of inculcating a value for education in and of itself. Nor does it creatively engage the minds and hearts of small children to learn. This system instead relies upon manipulation and threat to control behavior. But it is even more insidious than that.

Structured behavior forms individual values particularly in impressionable young children. The behavior enforced by this system is congruent with socialism promoted by our current federal welfare state. For example, distributing the same number of “Bucks” to each student daily, without individual effort or measurable merit, indoctrinates them with a working definition of social justice, equality of circumstance, entitlement and dependency. It vividly enacts the idea that the state, represented by the authority figure, is the source of all property (“Bucks”) and rights (students’ ability to retain them). The message these children are indoctrinated into is that “Big Brother” is watching. They are led to expect a life where obedience is the way to receive substance and security. Its use smacks of the tax system which is designed by and for government authority to reward its friends and punish its enemies. It reinforces that the government’s goal in education is to stamp out little robots who will obey and serve the state. To the extent that the behavioral regulations in the classroom are undefined, subjective and arbitrary, children learn to accept the rule of men, not the Rule of Law, and that the state’s right to abolish private property (the child’s holdings) requires no due process. This system effectively replaces individual liberty and free-market capitalism with nothing short of a behavioral indoctrination of these young, impressionable minds and spirits – at the raw, physical level - into soviet-style Marxist collectivism.

Contrary to the values this system promotes, God, not the state, is the source of our inalienable rights to life, liberty, and property. Nor does the state, despite the tax laws we’ve tolerated have any legitimate claim to the private property belonging to any individual. Communist collectivism has been the basis for many totalitarian dictatorships in history and can only produce more of the same. This system is anathema to free-market capitalism, our civil liberties under our Constitution, and therefore our American way of life.

We are the United States, not the Soviet Union. In our capitalist society, we are granted equal rights to earn a living, to own private property, and to control the state in its sole legitimate function of preserving these rights.

Freedom isn’t free. You must fight for it where you are or lose it forever. We will all preserve our personal liberty and our private property only by promoting the proper education of functional capitalism and civil liberties among all our youth. Use of this disgusting anti-American system of “Behavior Bucks” must be recognized for exactly what it is and be put to immediate end.

There are two main factors that create "impoverished" families, and money is not the soul/sole measurement.

The first is the fatherless household.

The second is not having a full time job.

God didn't promise it would be easy, but growing up in a home with a mom and a dad with a job sure helps.

Just ponder all that just these two factors entail. It boggles the mind.

When my daughter was in High School I was called in for a Parent-Teacher conference. Her History teacher explained (in my daughter's presence) that she had failed to complete an assignment. He started to explain to me all the reasons for this assignment. I stopped him and asked my daughter if she had completed the assignment. She said she had not and I cut her short when she started making excuses.

I then told the teacher that he did not have to explain himself to me. He was the teacher, she was the student, and she was wrong in her actions. He could take whatever action he deemed appropriate.

He said he never had a parent say this to him. All the other parents wanted to argue how great their kid was and that he, the teacher, was being unfair to their darling.

I explained I wasn't doing this for his benefit, but for my daughter. She must learn to be responsible and she would not always have her parents to fight her battles. If she makes a mistake, she pays the price.

She graduated college and now has an 8 year old son whom she home schools.

Parents make the difference.

As a teacher for 41 years I know that discipline and the lowering of expectations in the classroom is something that the teachers did not give away but was rather taken away by the school boards and politicians who were voted into office by the public. The public felt there was a need to change and so they made the policies and laws that they felt would benefit students or at least their parents expectations. Frequently when teachers would try to hold students to higher standards they would be held accountable in negative ways. We live in a very complex and confusing time where people are challenging all authority. Good teachers, and most teachers by far are good teachers, got into education because they enjoy working with kids and wanted to make a difference. Teachers very rarely get rich even though most have a 4 year college education and have taken many extra classes, required by law, and may have a masters degree or higher. Teachers want to be able to do their job and help provide for their own families welfare. At times they need the protection of an association [ union ] so they can do their job without fear of reprisal. Teaching is a rewarding profession that does require a team effort with teachers and parents working together to challenge students. Let us hope that teachers will be given the support [ not just money ] so they can help our students learn. Thank you.

I want to thank Comander for his/her comments. Personal responsibility is a function of the parents teachign their children. If the children aren't finishing assignemnts, then it's up to the parents to see to it that they do. If the teacher isn't doing his/her job, then it's up to the parent to find out why. Other than that, the kids have to learn to do what they're supposed to do and then do it.

Finally, a column written about teachers that doesn't completely stereotype them. As a 22 yr. teacher, I've seen a lot. I know there are "bad" teachers, and I realize that everyone can improve in some way. However, in my experience, the vast majority of teachers are good at what they do. The most important brick in the foundation of good education is the family. Parents must demand that their child succeed. Failure cannot be acceptable to the family. Only holding teachers accountable is like only fixing one leg of a table in which 3 are broken; you did something but not enough. MOST children will rise to the expectations put on them by teachers, IF the parents back teachers. By parents excusing their child's behavior and lack of performance, THEY are lowering the bar of education. Most children are not self-motivated, they need that "fear" of repercussions at home if they don't behave or do well at school. When its missing in students I teach, its very obvious in their performance. I'm willing to accept accountability, but parents must too. As a parent, it's what I do, as did my parents. To save education, the family unit must also be saved. As a independent/conservative, I am not in a union, but they serve a purpose to a degree. In my view, the Wisconsin unions, like many public unions, have become a parasite of government. The leadership in many unions, similar to many politicians, has become more interested in perpetuating their term in office then genuinely representing interests of the people they represent.

Teaching is a noble profession, and NO ONE went in it to get rich. After 22 yrs of teaching, I'm making 55,000 dollars a yr.(LA). That is with almost 200 hrs of college credit. When I retire, I'll collect in retirement 2% per yr. served of my three highest salaried yrs. Think I can live on that? Think that's a lot? No fat cat teachers where I live; they must be in other states. Maybe other public servants are getting rich, but not us. Can someone point me to one of those jobs? (LOL)

I would argue that the decline of the compact between educators and parents began when we granted school districts the power to levy taxes. Once they were no longer fiscally answerable to taxpayers for their behavior, school districts became less senstive to parents' concerns.

The Silent Majority: I agree with a good part of your thesis, but that doesn't exonerate teachers such as we saw in Madison recently, acting like - you should excuse the expression - Union goons! I wouldn't want any of my children in any of their classrooms! That said, the bottom line truth is it's all about the dissolution of the American family unit. When parents, by their own example, demonstrate to their children an irresponsible lifestyle bereft of any semblance of morality what can you expect of the student? The solution is in the home, not in the classroom.

Clarence E. DeBarrows: And I agree with you!

Frankly, all these things are the best argument for school choice I can think of. Teachers blame parents, parents blame teachers, few are happy.

Politicians have been using schools to buy votes and funnel money for decades. The increased involvement has created an atmosphere where no one is responsible because everything is a policy now. As a result, yes parents are loosing respect. Schools don't want to hear from you unless you speak to them as a group like the PTA. The PTA is nothing but a child advocacy organization that seldom takes up educational topics of any meaning. Meanwhile, a select few are planning your child's education and you can't do a darn thing about it. Parent involvement is the equivalent of being told we want you to be involved in steering this ship and then being handed a broom.