Department of Govt Efficiency (DOGE)

Halifax2TheMax · February 13

benjs said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

Gern Blansten said:

A lot of people say that about teachers too....probably not real accurate.

Yea, teachers have it so easy. Every summer off. Two weeks at Christmas. Plus all the other holidays. A week in February and April and thanksgiving is just about a week, plus those half days and “development” days. And a six hour day. Always complaining about benefits and class sizes. If college profs can teach classes of 150, why not teachers? Teach all kids science, math and history in the cafeteria and bam, you can reduce public teachers by a third, at least. Maybe more. Constant complaining about language barriers and too many kids from other places attending school, what do they care if the kid passes or graduates? It’s not like they have to house or feed them after they pass through, right?

I really hope this is sarcastic. Takes a special kind of person to educate children, especially these days. I have deep admiration for them. They get paid next to nothing here in Canada.

DOGE and COOTWH want to shut down the Department of Education immediately. Clearly S teachers get paid way too much and we don’t need as many we have. Imagine the savings if everyone homeschooled? It’d be huge for tax payers, particularly those without kids who are getting ripped off having to pay for a service they don’t use or benefit from.

Halifax2TheMax · February 13

And don’t get me going on “snow days.” Sign or prediction of one little flake, bam! Schools are closed. And busses? When I was a kid everyone walked to school so why not teachers? Kids and teachers can’t walk in snow? Lazy. Imagine the savings if we got rid of free rides?

Gern Blansten · February 13

Merkin Baller said:

mace1229 said:

tempo_n_groove said:

I had a talk w a coworker about this today. If indeed there are made up jobs or someone getting paid to do nothing like the mob did then I am all for cutting bait with those jobs.

What I do have a problem with is it is a direct assault on the middle class. The govt does keep people employed and there is waste. As long as it doesn't send the economy and people into homelessness I'm ok with it though.

Something I did bring up is if these jobs are removed and there aren't any new places they can fill with them then they will be using the system to help them sustain their bills. If they decide to cut that out then the US economy will surely go to shit.

There are always reactions to what happens and the markets will follow suit.

Something that puts my job in direct crosshairs is DEI. We are a WBE and get contracts based on that. We might have to shut doors if all this comes to fruition.

I know a lot of government/city workers who admit they work about actual 10-20 hours a week.
You know a lot of government and city workers who admit they work as little as 10 hours a week?

My magat bro in law works in a baby formula factory....he has complained about people just sitting around watching TV on the night shift. Not unionized.

Sometimes it's just necessary if you want to be fully staffed for full production or worse case scenario. A city is no different....if shit hits the fan in a maintenance emergency then you need the people there to do the job....no time to do a job search. Better to have some down time then an inefficient revolving door.

mace1229 · February 13

Halifax2TheMax said:

And don’t get me going on “snow days.” Sign or prediction of one little flake, bam! Schools are closed. And busses? When I was a kid everyone walked to school so why not teachers? Kids and teachers can’t walk in snow? Lazy. Imagine the savings if we got rid of free rides?

In most districts snow days aren't a real perk. They add extra days into the calendar, and if we don't use all our snow days, which we rarely do, we've worked extra days for free.
We're required to have school 180 days, so they have 188 school days so that we can have 8 snow days in the year We get maybe 2 or 3, so we've worked 5 extra days. It's basically slave labor.

Halifax2TheMax · February 13

mace1229 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

And don’t get me going on “snow days.” Sign or prediction of one little flake, bam! Schools are closed. And busses? When I was a kid everyone walked to school so why not teachers? Kids and teachers can’t walk in snow? Lazy. Imagine the savings if we got rid of free rides?

In most districts snow days aren't a real perk. They add extra days into the calendar, and if we don't use all our snow days, which we rarely do, we've worked extra days for free.
We're required to have school 180 days, so they have 188 school days so that we can have 8 snow days in the year We get maybe 2 or 3, so we've worked 5 extra days. It's basically slave labor.

Make teachers work year round and you could cut their ranks in almost half. Who else “works” 180 days per year?

mace1229 · February 13

Halifax2TheMax said:

mace1229 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

And don’t get me going on “snow days.” Sign or prediction of one little flake, bam! Schools are closed. And busses? When I was a kid everyone walked to school so why not teachers? Kids and teachers can’t walk in snow? Lazy. Imagine the savings if we got rid of free rides?

In most districts snow days aren't a real perk. They add extra days into the calendar, and if we don't use all our snow days, which we rarely do, we've worked extra days for free.
We're required to have school 180 days, so they have 188 school days so that we can have 8 snow days in the year We get maybe 2 or 3, so we've worked 5 extra days. It's basically slave labor.

Make teachers work year round and you could cut their ranks in almost half. Who else “works” 180 days per year?

Congress,
And it's more like 195 days with all the inservice days.

OnWis97 · February 13

Even if these anecdotes are representative of the truth (mine as a government worker is that I shoot for 40 and average about 45) that's not the point of any of this; it's the PR. The real point is to consolidate money. "I know a guy who works 20 hours a week for the City of North Haverbrook" turns into Elon "The Walking Conflict of Interest" Musk unilaterally removing he Consumer Protection Bureau because it protects people like us from people like him. Congratulations at firing all those people, some of whom probably don't work as hard as you'd like them too an none of whom work the 80-hour-no-bathroom-break weeks Elon demands. But the real purpose of cutting this agency, which is a drop in the federal bucket is to make it easier for banks and robber barons to fuck the rest of us over.

DE4173 · February 13

🤷‍♂️

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1889979827987652957?t=l7w-PsVrgL-XUXdZpsJJkQ&s=19

Tim Simmons · February 13

OnWis97 said:

Even if these anecdotes are representative of the truth (mine as a government worker is that I shoot for 40 and average about 45) that's not the point of any of this; it's the PR. The real point is to consolidate money. "I know a guy who works 20 hours a week for the City of North Haverbrook" turns into Elon "The Walking Conflict of Interest" Musk unilaterally removing he Consumer Protection Bureau because it protects people like us from people like him. Congratulations at firing all those people, some of whom probably don't work as hard as you'd like them too an none of whom work the 80-hour-no-bathroom-break weeks Elon demands. But the real purpose of cutting this agency, which is a drop in the federal bucket is to make it easier for banks and robber barons to fuck the rest of us over.

they did the same thing in Ogdenville.

Merkin Baller · February 13

OnWis97 said:

Even if these anecdotes are representative of the truth (mine as a government worker is that I shoot for 40 and average about 45) that's not the point of any of this; it's the PR. The real point is to consolidate money. "I know a guy who works 20 hours a week for the City of North Haverbrook" turns into Elon "The Walking Conflict of Interest" Musk unilaterally removing he Consumer Protection Bureau because it protects people like us from people like him. Congratulations at firing all those people, some of whom probably don't work as hard as you'd like them too an none of whom work the 80-hour-no-bathroom-break weeks Elon demands. But the real purpose of cutting this agency, which is a drop in the federal bucket is to make it easier for banks and robber barons to fuck the rest of us over.

Agreed. The anecdotes are all well & good, but they're just that, anecdotes.

Everyone wants to see their tax dollars better allocated, I don't think there's anyone who can't get behind that, but I'm hard pressed to think that's what Elon & trump are trying to do here.

Why anyone would give them the benefit of the doubt defies logic.

Tim Simmons · February 13

Merkin Baller said:
Why anyone would give them the benefit of the doubt defies logic.

This is been the million dollar question for 10 years now.

tempo_n_groove · February 13

Gern Blansten said:

tempo_n_groove said:

mickeyrat said:

Musk's DOGE cuts based more on political ideology than real cost savings so far - https://www.reuters.com/world/us/musk-cuts-based-more-political-ideology-than-real-cost-savings-so-far-2025-02-12/

I would agree with this even before so. They see the spending like a company and can fix things. It's not going to work but the people that voted for it are actually seeing something done.

They might think they are seeing something but they aren't...I'll give them props once they start talking about "billions of fraud" at the DoD.

What they are looking at now is like less than 1% of the budget

Again I totally agree. One thing they said they'd do is look and they are looking. That is what people voted for so theyre getting it.

I don't think you will find billions of fraud. Maybe look into military spending and see where the trillion dollar contracts come into play?

tempo_n_groove · February 13

Halifax2TheMax said:

And don’t get me going on “snow days.” Sign or prediction of one little flake, bam! Schools are closed. And busses? When I was a kid everyone walked to school so why not teachers? Kids and teachers can’t walk in snow? Lazy. Imagine the savings if we got rid of free rides?

I know it was sarcastic though NYC doesn't do snow days. Reason being is they feed a lot of kids. If they don't have school those kids aren't getting their maybe only 2 meals a day.

The school system says it has "remote Learning" for actual snow days but the schools never call for them anyways.

Halifax2TheMax · February 13

mace1229 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

mace1229 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

And don’t get me going on “snow days.” Sign or prediction of one little flake, bam! Schools are closed. And busses? When I was a kid everyone walked to school so why not teachers? Kids and teachers can’t walk in snow? Lazy. Imagine the savings if we got rid of free rides?

In most districts snow days aren't a real perk. They add extra days into the calendar, and if we don't use all our snow days, which we rarely do, we've worked extra days for free.
We're required to have school 180 days, so they have 188 school days so that we can have 8 snow days in the year We get maybe 2 or 3, so we've worked 5 extra days. It's basically slave labor.

Make teachers work year round and you could cut their ranks in almost half. Who else “works” 180 days per year?

Congress,
And it's more like 195 days with all the inservice days.

Unlike teachers, they can be fired, once every two or six years.

mace1229 · February 13

Halifax2TheMax said:

mace1229 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

mace1229 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

And don’t get me going on “snow days.” Sign or prediction of one little flake, bam! Schools are closed. And busses? When I was a kid everyone walked to school so why not teachers? Kids and teachers can’t walk in snow? Lazy. Imagine the savings if we got rid of free rides?

In most districts snow days aren't a real perk. They add extra days into the calendar, and if we don't use all our snow days, which we rarely do, we've worked extra days for free.
We're required to have school 180 days, so they have 188 school days so that we can have 8 snow days in the year We get maybe 2 or 3, so we've worked 5 extra days. It's basically slave labor.

Make teachers work year round and you could cut their ranks in almost half. Who else “works” 180 days per year?

Congress,
And it's more like 195 days with all the inservice days.

Unlike teachers, they can be fired, once every two or six years.

The myth that teachers can't be fired is only true in some states and districts. California it was probably the most true there. But other states don't offer tenure, or the pathway is difficult, or it can be removed. Teachers not on tenure (usually called probationary) can often be "non-renewed" for no reason given. Meaning around March or April (traditionally happens the week before spring break at the schools I've been at) the principal gives you a notice that you won't be needed next year, and that's all.
Even in states where it is difficult to fire a teacher, there are still ways to get ride of ineffective ones. I've seen it happen several times, they change up the schedule of a teacher to a nightmare scenario. Some teacher who has taught honors pre-calculus for the last 15 years is suddenly told they will be teaching 4 different levels of remedial math and one class of elective psychology or something random they've never taught before (some states allow teachers to teach 1 class outside of their certification to fill the needs of the school). The teacher will then decide they're close enough to retirement and retire, or apply somewhere else.

Halifax2TheMax · February 13

mace1229 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

mace1229 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

mace1229 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

And don’t get me going on “snow days.” Sign or prediction of one little flake, bam! Schools are closed. And busses? When I was a kid everyone walked to school so why not teachers? Kids and teachers can’t walk in snow? Lazy. Imagine the savings if we got rid of free rides?

In most districts snow days aren't a real perk. They add extra days into the calendar, and if we don't use all our snow days, which we rarely do, we've worked extra days for free.
We're required to have school 180 days, so they have 188 school days so that we can have 8 snow days in the year We get maybe 2 or 3, so we've worked 5 extra days. It's basically slave labor.

Make teachers work year round and you could cut their ranks in almost half. Who else “works” 180 days per year?

Congress,
And it's more like 195 days with all the inservice days.

Unlike teachers, they can be fired, once every two or six years.

The myth that teachers can't be fired is only true in some states and districts. California it was probably the most true there. But other states don't offer tenure, or the pathway is difficult, or it can be removed. Teachers not on tenure (usually called probationary) can often be "non-renewed" for no reason given. Meaning around March or April (traditionally happens the week before spring break at the schools I've been at) the principal gives you a notice that you won't be needed next year, and that's all.
Even in states where it is difficult to fire a teacher, there are still ways to get ride of ineffective ones. I've seen it happen several times, they change up the schedule of a teacher to a nightmare scenario. Some teacher who has taught honors pre-calculus for the last 15 years is suddenly told they will be teaching 4 different levels of remedial math and one class of elective psychology or something random they've never taught before (some states allow teachers to teach 1 class outside of their certification to fill the needs of the school). The teacher will then decide they're close enough to retirement and retire, or apply somewhere else.

If it’s true, is it not a myth? I’ve never met a teacher who was fired. Ever.

mace1229 · February 13

Halifax2TheMax said:

mace1229 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

mace1229 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

mace1229 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

And don’t get me going on “snow days.” Sign or prediction of one little flake, bam! Schools are closed. And busses? When I was a kid everyone walked to school so why not teachers? Kids and teachers can’t walk in snow? Lazy. Imagine the savings if we got rid of free rides?

In most districts snow days aren't a real perk. They add extra days into the calendar, and if we don't use all our snow days, which we rarely do, we've worked extra days for free.
We're required to have school 180 days, so they have 188 school days so that we can have 8 snow days in the year We get maybe 2 or 3, so we've worked 5 extra days. It's basically slave labor.

Make teachers work year round and you could cut their ranks in almost half. Who else “works” 180 days per year?

Congress,
And it's more like 195 days with all the inservice days.

Unlike teachers, they can be fired, once every two or six years.

The myth that teachers can't be fired is only true in some states and districts. California it was probably the most true there. But other states don't offer tenure, or the pathway is difficult, or it can be removed. Teachers not on tenure (usually called probationary) can often be "non-renewed" for no reason given. Meaning around March or April (traditionally happens the week before spring break at the schools I've been at) the principal gives you a notice that you won't be needed next year, and that's all.
Even in states where it is difficult to fire a teacher, there are still ways to get ride of ineffective ones. I've seen it happen several times, they change up the schedule of a teacher to a nightmare scenario. Some teacher who has taught honors pre-calculus for the last 15 years is suddenly told they will be teaching 4 different levels of remedial math and one class of elective psychology or something random they've never taught before (some states allow teachers to teach 1 class outside of their certification to fill the needs of the school). The teacher will then decide they're close enough to retirement and retire, or apply somewhere else.

If it’s true, is it not a myth? I’ve never met a teacher who was fired. Ever.

I said it's only true in some areas. And as you always point out in my comments, since you never experienced it, it must not be true? How many teachers do you know well enough that would just tell you they got fired at some point? Or tell you the reason they switched schools is because the principal let them go and not to seek a better opportunity? I'm sure most teachers I know that got fired probably told all but their closest friends and family they moved on to a better fit, better opportunity, better paying district, etc, instead of saying they just got fired.
Ironically, my current school has the least security, but I've seen the fewest teachers let go here. Teachers being let go in Colorado was actually pretty high by comparison, at least for the school I was in.
Each year we'd see several probationary teachers get non-renewed each year. And often a few veteran teachers to either be let go or forced to quit by one of the methods I described earlier.

Halifax2TheMax · February 13

mace1229 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

mace1229 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

mace1229 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

mace1229 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

And don’t get me going on “snow days.” Sign or prediction of one little flake, bam! Schools are closed. And busses? When I was a kid everyone walked to school so why not teachers? Kids and teachers can’t walk in snow? Lazy. Imagine the savings if we got rid of free rides?

In most districts snow days aren't a real perk. They add extra days into the calendar, and if we don't use all our snow days, which we rarely do, we've worked extra days for free.
We're required to have school 180 days, so they have 188 school days so that we can have 8 snow days in the year We get maybe 2 or 3, so we've worked 5 extra days. It's basically slave labor.

Make teachers work year round and you could cut their ranks in almost half. Who else “works” 180 days per year?

Congress,
And it's more like 195 days with all the inservice days.

Unlike teachers, they can be fired, once every two or six years.

The myth that teachers can't be fired is only true in some states and districts. California it was probably the most true there. But other states don't offer tenure, or the pathway is difficult, or it can be removed. Teachers not on tenure (usually called probationary) can often be "non-renewed" for no reason given. Meaning around March or April (traditionally happens the week before spring break at the schools I've been at) the principal gives you a notice that you won't be needed next year, and that's all.
Even in states where it is difficult to fire a teacher, there are still ways to get ride of ineffective ones. I've seen it happen several times, they change up the schedule of a teacher to a nightmare scenario. Some teacher who has taught honors pre-calculus for the last 15 years is suddenly told they will be teaching 4 different levels of remedial math and one class of elective psychology or something random they've never taught before (some states allow teachers to teach 1 class outside of their certification to fill the needs of the school). The teacher will then decide they're close enough to retirement and retire, or apply somewhere else.

If it’s true, is it not a myth? I’ve never met a teacher who was fired. Ever.

I said it's only true in some areas. And as you always point out in my comments, since you never experienced it, it must not be true? How many teachers do you know well enough that would just tell you they got fired at some point? Or tell you the reason they switched schools is because the principal let them go and not to seek a better opportunity? I'm sure most teachers I know that got fired probably told all but their closest friends and family they moved on to a better fit, better opportunity, better paying district, etc, instead of saying they just got fired.
Ironically, my current school has the least security, but I've seen the fewest teachers let go here. Teachers being let go in Colorado was actually pretty high by comparison, at least for the school I was in.
Each year we'd see several probationary teachers get non-renewed each year. And often a few veteran teachers to either be let go or forced to quit by one of the methods I described earlier.

Which districts and areas? From listening to repubs attacking teachers, public schools and education unions, you have to believe that it’s a rare occurrence that teachers get fired. Probationary teachers don’t count, hence why they’re probationary.

tempo_n_groove · February 13

Halifax2TheMax said:

mace1229 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

mace1229 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

mace1229 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

And don’t get me going on “snow days.” Sign or prediction of one little flake, bam! Schools are closed. And busses? When I was a kid everyone walked to school so why not teachers? Kids and teachers can’t walk in snow? Lazy. Imagine the savings if we got rid of free rides?

In most districts snow days aren't a real perk. They add extra days into the calendar, and if we don't use all our snow days, which we rarely do, we've worked extra days for free.
We're required to have school 180 days, so they have 188 school days so that we can have 8 snow days in the year We get maybe 2 or 3, so we've worked 5 extra days. It's basically slave labor.

Make teachers work year round and you could cut their ranks in almost half. Who else “works” 180 days per year?

Congress,
And it's more like 195 days with all the inservice days.

Unlike teachers, they can be fired, once every two or six years.

The myth that teachers can't be fired is only true in some states and districts. California it was probably the most true there. But other states don't offer tenure, or the pathway is difficult, or it can be removed. Teachers not on tenure (usually called probationary) can often be "non-renewed" for no reason given. Meaning around March or April (traditionally happens the week before spring break at the schools I've been at) the principal gives you a notice that you won't be needed next year, and that's all.
Even in states where it is difficult to fire a teacher, there are still ways to get ride of ineffective ones. I've seen it happen several times, they change up the schedule of a teacher to a nightmare scenario. Some teacher who has taught honors pre-calculus for the last 15 years is suddenly told they will be teaching 4 different levels of remedial math and one class of elective psychology or something random they've never taught before (some states allow teachers to teach 1 class outside of their certification to fill the needs of the school). The teacher will then decide they're close enough to retirement and retire, or apply somewhere else.

If it’s true, is it not a myth? I’ve never met a teacher who was fired. Ever.

Teachers get "fired". They are not renewed contracts and are let go. It's the same as firing. How do i know that? I know plenty of teachers here in NY.

The Juggler · February 13

tempo_n_groove said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

mace1229 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

mace1229 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

mace1229 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

And don’t get me going on “snow days.” Sign or prediction of one little flake, bam! Schools are closed. And busses? When I was a kid everyone walked to school so why not teachers? Kids and teachers can’t walk in snow? Lazy. Imagine the savings if we got rid of free rides?

In most districts snow days aren't a real perk. They add extra days into the calendar, and if we don't use all our snow days, which we rarely do, we've worked extra days for free.
We're required to have school 180 days, so they have 188 school days so that we can have 8 snow days in the year We get maybe 2 or 3, so we've worked 5 extra days. It's basically slave labor.

Make teachers work year round and you could cut their ranks in almost half. Who else “works” 180 days per year?

Congress,
And it's more like 195 days with all the inservice days.

Unlike teachers, they can be fired, once every two or six years.

The myth that teachers can't be fired is only true in some states and districts. California it was probably the most true there. But other states don't offer tenure, or the pathway is difficult, or it can be removed. Teachers not on tenure (usually called probationary) can often be "non-renewed" for no reason given. Meaning around March or April (traditionally happens the week before spring break at the schools I've been at) the principal gives you a notice that you won't be needed next year, and that's all.
Even in states where it is difficult to fire a teacher, there are still ways to get ride of ineffective ones. I've seen it happen several times, they change up the schedule of a teacher to a nightmare scenario. Some teacher who has taught honors pre-calculus for the last 15 years is suddenly told they will be teaching 4 different levels of remedial math and one class of elective psychology or something random they've never taught before (some states allow teachers to teach 1 class outside of their certification to fill the needs of the school). The teacher will then decide they're close enough to retirement and retire, or apply somewhere else.

If it’s true, is it not a myth? I’ve never met a teacher who was fired. Ever.

Teachers get "fired". They are not renewed contracts and are let go. It's the same as firing. How do i know that? I know plenty of teachers here in NY.

Yep. My wife works for the county in education...she helps place kids with special needs in their proper classrooms. She is also active in the union. This shit has thrown their current contract negations right out the window. Budget cuts are likely going to cost people their jobs...not to mention a lot of kids with special needs not getting the care they deserve.

Department of Govt Efficiency (DOGE)

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