Yes, one of the biggest challenges would be where to find the money to cover all those freebies once the Westminster hand out has gone.
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I agree, they don’t spend enough of your taxes.
as a taxpayer, I blame the government on spending BILLIONS of dollars in frivolous spending to their cronies in the form of over-priced service contracts, leaving a shortage of funding for programs the public actually needs like healthcare and education.
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Or sending foreign aid to countries with a space program 
Hello India.
True.
Also worth noting, and we’d probably agree on this, if Labour were to get into no. 10 then I couldn’t see the situation changing for the better in Scotland. They will try to weed votes off the SNP or even Tory areas however they can. That usually doesn’t at a local level.
Wales however might go the other way.
Cant see labour taking seats from the SNP,
People havent forgotten about 2014.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I think I’ve had 2-3 weeks to plan today. Emails went out, arrange to made. Maybe our schools are just super organised.
And on the alienating parents. School is not childcare. Teachers are there to educate your children, not free us up to go to work. Usually that works out synergistically, so the former means we can do the latter. But today is the teachers telling you, in clear terms we cannot continue to educate your children in these conditions. We need to listen to them and support them.
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This idea of alienating parents of school going age kids is just wierd and crazy. When you look at it it’s only a handfull of them that give a shit about education anyway. All those voters and tax payers without school age going children don’t give 2 hoots never have never will.
To come out with this sort of shit just because teachers are on strike is pretty low when you consider it in depth. Particularly as most of these fuckwits have voted for lower taxes even when they had kids going to school. Now they are seeing the conscequences of what they voted for.
Get off your high horses I say!
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Over to @Iftikhar …
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Yes, but it’s a nice cheap child minding service. In fact, that’s all the government treats it as.
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It really is amazing what people will get all precious about.
I know people who complain that they can not drink more than 2 beers if they go out in their car. Yet you know that that person when they go out, in this case for a meal as that’s all they go to a pub for, the drink orange juice. In fact they don’t drink alcohol at all. Wierdos!!!
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I know a school that didn’t know how many staff it would have till the day of the strike so didn’t know if it was open or not. Super organised? How can they be?
In truth no school knows how many staff there will be on any day until they turn up. All you need is a couple of people to go down with flu and you already have to be organising cover. If you know there are likely to be a large number of staff absences (for example there has been an Orange or higher weather warning) you can make contingencies in advance. Strikes are no different.
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Just had this part in a civil service email
“If a member of your team took industrial action on 01/02/2023, it is important to input the unauthorised absence on SOP”.
damn. is that what a strike means? wow. thanks for the education. pun intended.
FYI, my grandmother and grandfather met at the school they taught at. My sister has a masters in Ed from SFU. I know what the roles and responsibilities are in school, probably better than you do.
Not sure what your issues are on your side of the pond, but over here it’s a coin-toss between a lack of specialized support for special needs students which is on the rise. There’s more kids with ADHD, more kids on the autism spectrum, more kids who are not getting their basic needs met at home because their parents work too many hours or not enough hours or have substance abuse issues.
Classrooms are under-equipped and understaffed on the most basic levels. Too many children in the classroom and not enough training for teachers on how to deal with kids who are in situations with drugs/gangs/violent conduct.
you say “we cannot continue to educate your children in these conditions” but do you even know what those conditions are they’re striking against? Is it just pay, or is it more than that. What fixes it? Throw more “tax dollars” at it and hope it sticks? Does money even fix it?
Or is it an evolution of the system to match the trajectory of current state of society. do the kids need to learn cursive handwriting or will they even pick up a pen by the time they’re an adult?
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Pay, conditions, respect, impact of cuts on children.
Just to be clear I’m talking about the UK. You and I have a habit of talking cross purposes because you’re talking about the US, and I’m talking about the UK.
I think you have to see the teacher strikes in the context of the Nurses, Ambulance Drivers, Firefighters, Postal workers, Driving Examiners, Transport workers, all being on strike.
It’s near enough a general strike right now, and that tells you something about cost of living, widening inequality, levels of respect in society, and Governments attitude towards public services.
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jeezus Christ, I’m not fucking American.
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