If you ever thought that the public schools are run for any reason other than for the sake of their employee unions, think again: "Seattle tries to restrict vending near schools"
Hoping to discourage back-of-the-van pizza peddlers from luring school kids with their greasy but delicious wares, the Seattle City Council yesterday voted to ban mobile vendors within 1,000 feet of public schools.There's a reason why school kids choose to buy lunch from the pizza man:Though council members cited concerns about childhood obesity, the action came at the request of the union representing school-cafeteria workers, whose pay and benefits are linked to the number of meals served each day.
"The school lunch is cold. It's not that good," said Julie Mandefero, a junior munching on a bag of Doritos.David Westberg, business manager of the cafeteria union, gets the last word:
That's what they used to say in the Soviet Union after they criminalized free enterprise.
"We're not trying to stifle free enterprise, we're just trying to stop illegal activity," Westberg said.
If it were only a matter of protectionism for union cafeteria workers and union bus drivers, that would be one thing. But it also seems that satisfying the teacher union always takes precedence over satisfying the students' parents and the taxpayers.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at May 17, 2005 10:35 AM | Email ThisMight I suggest "Dumbing Us Down" by John Taylor Gatto (New York City and New York State, Teacher of the Year)? His writings suggest that compulsory schooling has nothing to do with education, it is about teaching young people to conform to the economy and the social order. Once you start reading it, you cannot put it down. After having recently read this book, I have no doubt at all that your points in this post are right on.
If that isn't straight out of a central-control-nut handbook what is? I'll give him a hint. How about improve the service and the quality? Serve food that is meant to be hot, hot. Their solution is get rid of the competition instead of competing.
Posted by: Fred on May 17, 2005 10:58 AMRiiiiigghhtttt......
Sometimes I think these people are so lost in the 'union mentality' that they forget reality and become a little too honest for their own good...
Posted by: Michele on May 17, 2005 11:08 AMHmmmmmmm - seems to me that if they really were interested in stopping illegal activity, they would have the police or the health department taking enforcement action against the non-licensed vendors rather than pass another law that no one is going to enforce. And for those vendors who do have a license - isn't stifling free enterprise exactly what this ordinance does?
Posted by: Jay on May 17, 2005 11:08 AM"At a minimum, they'll have to walk some of the calories off," said Councilman Richard Conlin."
What an arrogant bass turd!
They've made it a "gun free" zone (that fails to even slow school related violence), a "hate free" zone (guess where my kids learned what "queer" means), now a "carbo-free" zone?
Apparently the only thing you can count on with democrats is that they won't rest until it truly is a "common-sense-free" zone.....
Posted by: alphabet soup on May 17, 2005 11:33 AMBoth Manhas and SEA leaders agreed in principle last fall that closing schools and reducing bus service would free up funds that could be used to improve learning conditions for students.
So, are they really saying that closing schools and reducing bus service will improve learning conditions???
Hmmm...
Posted by: jmw on May 17, 2005 12:51 PMBTW, I read Gatto's book a few years ago. Very interesting. And yes, I do homeschool.
Posted by: Shannon K on May 17, 2005 01:04 PMFirst step: Get control of the legislature using the frustration generated over their complete ignorance of the electorate.
Second step: Gut unions, special programs, and all of the largesse in the current system so we can build a better educational system, that gives consumers choice and is competitive with other nations that take education seriously.
As long as we've got Democrats in Olympia, our kids are doomed.
I homeschool and private school. Anything less is child abuse, and puts my child in harms way both physically due to the gangs, violence, drugs and general thuggery in most public schools, and intellectually by being spoon fed an irrational leftist dogma from textbooks that aren't worth as much as a piece of firewood.
Posted by: Jeff B. on May 17, 2005 01:29 PMMention anything to do with Afghanistan or Bush or the economy...and the automatic Pavlovian response from the Soviet of WA is the cry "outsourcing!!!"
Yet what have they done? The Soviet Union falls of it's own burdens of policy and miscalculation...and the export it to the US left...outsourcing.
And the elitist left here 'buys' it as if it is manna from heaven. Bringing in 'retired' statues of Lenin is only a symbol for their lack of wisdom.
Lord have mercy on us all.
Better yet, give me some viable alternatives to vote for/initiatives to sign and gather signatures for. I'm right there.
I expect law enforcement to enforce the laws at all levels. When a child is put into the custody of the state (school) I would expect the state to take responsibilty for the child's safety. The child should not be able to leave school premises without parents' permission for ANY reason.
If the school is concerned about the children's safety is this how you would try and ensure their safety by sending the pizza man 800 feet further away? Typical lib, instead of getting to the point make some useless law to tout at the next election "I passed the blah blah law to make your children safer".
...or are you just trying to divert the topic with more nonesense?
Posted by: Fred on May 17, 2005 03:53 PM"...and who would you be blaming if one of the free enterprise avatars of pizza turned out to be a child molester?"
I'd blame the molester...Wow...who'd think of blaming the perpetrator. Also, who's to say that a free enterprise vender has a greater chance of being a molester than someone who gets a job in the cafeteria at a school?? Check out the "Coaches who Prey" story in the Seattle Times a few months back.
Headless (what an appropriate name) continues:
"What about selling drugs to kids? Do you think that free enterprise should be stifled in that case? What if the pizza man sold pizza as a cover and drugs as well to the kids? Would you want school administrators to do something or would you send the EFF?"
Same answer as above. Further, when I was in school, other students/former students were much more likely to be "dealing" then some pizza guy trying to make a buck.
Pay no attention to the lady with no brain.
Posted by: RookieRick on May 17, 2005 07:00 PMThey have almost total control over you and your children and boy are they corrupted by it. There is nothing too picayune for them to attempt to control. Is the roach coach with it's greasy hotdogs getting too close to a re-education center? Why should the Commissars of Education think of anything other than banning them? They have the power. Why not use it?
Posted by: Bill K. on May 17, 2005 10:41 PMMeanwhile, Johnny can't read, nor make change, but simply points to the pizza image on the pizza truck menu to order and grunts some rap music babble under his breath to order.
Back at school, cafeteria napkins are recycled "100 greatest books" pages that students think are quaint fairy tales from their parents' pasts. Here we come, world--your American competitors! Sheesh.
Posted by: Jimmie-howya-doin on May 17, 2005 10:52 PMIIRC without looking it up again right now, last year India graduated about a million more kids from college than we did. China graduated about SIX TIMES as many scientists and engineers as we did.
Reference and recommended reading:
The latest by Tom Friedman:
"The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century".
Methow Ken
(let's get our priorities straight!)
Posted by: alphabet soup on May 18, 2005 06:49 AMPizza vendor is also using his operation for a "nooner" with consenting students. What action does the school take??
1) If it's a hetero act, file charges of course.
2) If it's a homo act, shrug and say it's "alternative livestyle.
3) Just make sure the kids get a condom before they order a pizza.
via www.drudgereport.com.
Favorite quote:
" Steve Ludwig, whose son is a senior and whose daughter will enter as a freshman next fall, made a point shared by many in attendance: Garfield does not allow organizations that promote illegal activities to recruit students to perform those activities, nor does it allow organizations that discriminate on the basis of race, gender, national origin, or sexual orientation to recruit on campus.
"Planned Parenthood, as far as I know, does not advocate or perform illegal acts. The US military does," Mr. Ludwig continued. "
ARGH!!!
Most of the main course selections in public schools, even at the elementary level, contain all sorts of artificial ingredients and are marginally nutritious at best. NYC public schools recently got a new head chef, and natural, healthy food was put in all over the city. Test scores and behavior improved dramatically. If they can do it in NYC, why not here???
Posted by: publicschoolsRsoviet on May 29, 2005 02:34 PM