Rush Limbaugh spoke about Apple CEO Steve Jobs take on U.S. public education and unions today with quotes from April Castro’s article for the Associated Press:
In Austin, Texas, last week, “Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs lambasted teacher unions Friday, claiming no amount of technology in the classroom would improve public schools until principals could fire bad teachers.” He compared skrools to businesses with principals serving as CEOs. “’What kind of person could you get to run a small business if you told them that when they came in they couldn’t get rid of people that they thought weren’t any good?’ he asked to loud applause during an education reform conference.”
The bottom line here is when he says, “I believe what’s wrong with our schools in this nation is that they’ve become unionized in the worst possible way,” conservatives and just plain people with any common sense have been saying this for decades, but could they get put into the headlines of a story? No. Only if you’re a big lib, only if you’re a big Democrat, do you get applauded for this kind of talk.
I am happy and proud to be on the same page with Steve Jobs. The way to put it is, I’m happy and proud he’s on the same page with me. If he finds out I agree with him, he might change his mind. But I mean this is classic. This is an AP story. Do you know how many average, ordinary American people have been saying this? Do you know how many political candidates on the Republican side have been saying this, and when they say it, they get tarred and feathered and the NEA comes after ’em? Jobs says it, “Wow, why, we must really think about this. Why, there might be something here that we haven’t considered before,” blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Full transcript here.
Related articles:
Apple CEO blasts teacher unions, says US schools are ‘unionized in the worst possible way’ – February 16, 2007
Apple CEO Steve Jobs: ‘I’m going to just stay away from all that political stuff’ – August 25, 2004
Rush Limbaugh and Apple Computer to intro new podcast service via iTunes – March 08, 2006
Rush Limbaugh announces video podcasts for Apple iPod starting December 12th – November 30, 2005
Rush Limbaugh: ‘I am the hottest thing in podcasting’ – June 09, 2005
Rush Limbaugh and Apple Computer working to bring podcasts of radio show to iTunes Music Store – May 17, 2005
Rush Limbaugh says ‘Mac OS X Tiger Rocks,’ posts link to free Rush advertisement for Mac – April 30, 2005
The Hill: Put Rush Limbaugh on Apple’s board of directors; he could sell tons of Macs – January 26, 2005
Rush Limbaugh calls for Apple iCal to Sidekick solution – November 12, 2004
Rush Limbaugh: Why does Apple put politics first? – June 27, 2003
Rush Limbaugh comments on Gored Apple – March 21, 2003
MikeK: …give me a definition of a “good” and “bad” teacher, and who gets to decide which is which.
dammit man, get your own nick … i was here first. If you insist on keeping it, how about going all caps or something. Also you should know that i’ve pissed off a few people here. You may not want to be confused with me.
now, to your point. The answer is a combination of supervisor, peer, and student review. Throw out the top and bottom scores (like in figure skating, to control for personal bias). In addition to this, we add mandatory teacher testing, with minimum score requirements to keep your job and financial incentives for scoring higher. With all of these things in place it will be a lot easier to pick out the teachers who are coasting on tenure and 20 year old teacher editions of text books.
No system of evaluation will be perfect but as taxpayers we have a vested interest in how well these people are doing their job.
Dittos!
Is those goddamn books. Burn the motherfsckers!
Those who start by burning books finish by burning men.
Never forget that.
Rush agrees with Jobs, now it must be true!
MDN why not get involved in your local school, spend some time there, volunteer, help out in the classroom, help a teacher, grade some school work, and learn about some of the real issues going on. Why do people think they are experts about schools and yet they never set foot in one (and I am not talking about when you were a adolescent or teenager going to school looking at the world through the mind of a kid) go as an adult get involved, learn something.
I come from a family with seven kids, all of us went to public school, have multiple degrees and/or advanced degrees in science and engineering with the exception of one brother who only has a bachelor degree. I believe we had opportunities people in other countries never had. The difference between the students in our school who succeeded and those who failed is that the successful ones took advantage of the opportunities provided by them!
Get back to talking about the Mac or shut down!
This should effectively wipe out any political aspirations Jobs may have had.
Wonder if there’s still enough room on Apple’s board for both Jobs and Gore…
Eric:
“Yeah, Rush, isn’t it funny that when you are a loudmouthed, arrogant, obnoxious blowhard that noone listens to you (except people who think exactly the same way you do) and when someone who is accomplished, respected and admired (Steve Jobs) speaks, people listen.”
You know Rush Limbaugh has the most-listened to radio show in the U.S. with something like 20 million listeners, don’t you? As for people listening to Steve Jobs, Rush did remark about how funny it was that the media reported what Jobs said when conservatives have been saying it for years.
Hmmmm…….. I would have totally thought MDN would use one of the much-less-than-flattering photos for someone like Rush… but I was apparently wrong.
A hint of MDN’s political allegiance?
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This is just getting embarrassing. Steve should just stick to what he’s good at; this political crap is so dumb.
“Those who start by burning books finish by burning men.”
WOW. You are soooo right about that (and this is coming from one who has done extensive studying of such bloodbaths as the Inquisition and Reformation).
I come from a family with seven kids, all of us went to public school, have multiple degrees and/or advanced degrees in science and engineering with the exception of one brother who only has a bachelor degree.
All (or most) of you went through the public school system pre-Columbine, correct?
I’m a teen of the 80’s. The worse we’d have were kids smoking in the bathroom or sneaking a beer into the parking lot. The only time you saw a cop was for the occasional morning fender bender. Lock-downs were unheard of. Thank GOD I graduated when I did!
There are tremendous opportunities in schools today, but also equally tremendous distractions. Unions and protected-for-life teachers are just a sliver of the problem. A very broken society, psychotic PlayStation Generation kids, and anarchic classrooms, IMO, point to much more serious underlying problems.
Don’t forget that bad administrators need to go to. Administration consumes an enormous amount of school budgets. My parents are both teachers, highly respected by their student’s parents and fellow teachers, but they go through the most insane nightmares dealing with their school’s administrators.
MW=Carried. I’ll try to get carried away with this topic…
…or maybe I should try NOT to get too carried away with this topic?
I agree with Jobs. It starts because of laziness. I went to consult at a school district back in the early 90’s. A new superintendent just came on board. One of the first things they asked him was to do something about “Sylvia” who had been having excessive absences from her first day of her employment. He asked them, “How long has Sylvia been working here?” They answered, “35 years”.
It’s laziness. No one has evaluated education personnel effectively for years. So they get tenure and it’s tough to get rid of them. It takes patience, time, and dedication to evaluate teachers effectively. Two out of three won’t do. Teachers unions kick and scream if they are held to hard and quantifiable measures making excuses for parents, bad family situations, etc.
Don’t blame the teachers. Very few Administrators are able to manage the educational process in the school. Call me. I can help.
“I take it all back.” —Steve Jobs
Early one morning, a mother went in to wake up her son. “Wake up, son. It’s time to go to school!”
“But why, Mom? I don’t want to go.”
“Give me two reasons why you don’t want to go”, the mother said.
“Well, the kids hate me for one, and the teachers hate me, too!”
“Oh, that’s no reason not to go to school. Come on now and get ready.”
”Mom, then you give me two reasons why I should go to school.”
“Well, for one, you’re 52 years old.
And number two, you’re the Principal!”
Hmmmm…….. I would have totally thought MDN would use one of the much-less-than-flattering photos for someone like Rush… but I was apparently wrong.
A hint of MDN’s political allegiance?
MDN is renowned for its pro-bush stance. The fact that Rush is a Mac-head makes them giddy.
I love the site, but seeing that racist, draft-dodging, hate-spewing, hypocritical drug addict makes my large intestine want to leap up through my neck and throttle my brain*.
*All credit to Douglas Adams, another noted Mac-Head.
CounterCop
“It’s glib and fascile for both Jobs and Limbaugh (and the conservatives who commented above, and probably below) that the problem with education is “bad teachers”, and if we could just fire them, all of our problems will be solved.”
No, but it would be a start. Would you take that attitude if they were cops?
“The fact is that Limbaugh and other conservatives hate unions, no matter whether they do a good job or not”
I didn’t know that. Thanks for explaining me to myself. I thought I just hated the bad practices that SOME of them have.
“because you get most teachers working their asses off for very little pay, and doing a damned good job with little support.”
Well, then it shouldn’t matter if the bad ones are fired, and why aren’t they getting paid more? the union?
“I love the site, but seeing that racist, draft-dodging, hate-spewing, hypocritical drug addict makes my large intestine want to leap up through my neck and throttle my brain*.”
Who said anything about Bill Clinton?
Hey Ug,
Steve used to be a big drug user himself.
WTF are skrools????
Screwed up schools?
That Rush is such a wonderful man. Thank the lord for him exposing liberals for what they really stand for.
“WTF are skrools’
ebonics
I wonder when was the last time Steve or Rush spent extensive time in a school. You know, as a volunteer or as a parent of a student. Its pretty easy to make comments from a distance without any knowledge of what is really going on. Kinda of like us making comments on what is wrong with Apple’s upper management.
“That’s a nice picture of Rush.”
Yes, he does look rather dapper in that photograph.
I hear Bill Clinton is also a cigar man.
RMN
Actually school vouchers would solve the whole problem… (instead of private education being a priviledge of the rich)
Exactly how is it that private schools attract better, more highly qualified teachers and yet, ironically, offer LESS pay and FEWER benefits?
Maybe it’s not the pay folks! (the libs never seem to get this one right)…. I have attended both public & private schools (grammar & middle school public, high school private) and the difference in the quality of teachers was amazing in spite of the pay differential….