Some Daily News readers were polled as to whether Philadelphia school super, "Queen" Arlene Ackerman, should be fired, should resign, or should stay on board.
Most people are saying she should be fired, especially when stories came out like they did yesterday that she is covering up public information and doing things that would put any normal working stiff in the private sector in jail.
I agree, the State of Pennsylvania - who runs the School District here - should fire Arlene Ackerman. I think it makes total sense because she's stealing from us every day with her $350,000/year salary. The sad thing is, she'll be replaced by someone who wants to make "reforms" and just end up laundering the scam somewhere else where the media won't find it for a couple of years - and it'd better be a black person, else the idiots who still support public schools will cry "racism".
The point is, firing the school super won't end government handouts to its own people as well as to the poor people they use as political pawns. Look at Catherine Lucey's article in today's DN: there are plenty of other people living like kings while we budget ourselves out of Christmas presents and vacations and time away with the family this year:
These are the folks with the biggest base salaries.
* Medical Examiner Sam Gulino brings home the No. 1 city salary at $239,200. According to Health Department spokesman Jeff Moran, Gulino is one of about 700 people in the country who have the necessary qualifications for the job. The medical examiner has long been one of the highest-paid jobs in the city.
* No. 2 is Chief Technology Officer Allan Frank at $209,000. Officials have noted that Frank - who's trying to bring the city's infrastructure into the 21st century - has a specialized set of skills that could make him big bucks in the private sector.
* Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey makes $195,000, which Mayor Nutter has said is what he needed to pay to get the best. Nutter skirted a city ordinance that sets salary limits for key jobs and gave Ramsey an extra title of deputy mayor, so Nutter could pay him above the city maximum. By comparison, New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly makes $205,180 and Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck $307,000.
* Nutter's salary is set at $176,029, after taking a 10 percent pay cut to help address the city's financial problems. That salary puts him close to Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, who makes $169,750 after taking a 3 percent pay cut. Nutter makes less than L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who has taken a 16 percent pay cut to $231,535 or Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, who will earn $194,210 this year, after taking a $20,000 cut.
Members of Nutter's Cabinet have also taken recent pay cuts.
* Director of the Free Library Siobhan Reardon makes $192,500. Dubow said the city increased the compensation for that position because Philadelphia wasn't competitive with what other library systems were paying.
So, Arlene Ackerman isn't the only problem Philadelphia has in place. It's the entire lot of them at City Hall. Massive cutbacks need to be made to ensure that taxpayer dollars are put back into our wallets. We can't stimulate the employee paying someone $100,000 or more a year. It is apparent that there would be jobs lost - but these people are at the employ of us, the taxpayer, not a private sector business. It's amazing how this City vilifies private sector jobs - the Mayor doesn't want businesses coming into this City - and creates the illusion that the public sector knows what to do and knows how to handle things.
Even making cutbacks in City Hall is not enough. This City and this State needs to seriously crackdown on its welfare programs, beginning with food stamps (SNAP) - something written about right here in the Philadelphia Libertarian Examiner months ago:
SNAP is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the modern way Pennsylvania's Department of Public Welfare gives out food stamps.
It's also the biggest scam running in Pennsylvania to date.
A case of a (more than a) few rotten apples spoiling the whole barrel, go to the K-Mart the next time you're in Port Richmond. You'll see people buying LCD TV's, toys for their children and expensive video games that this writer on a very paltry salary wishes he could afford. Then they pull out their SNAP card, also known as their "Access card" and after a quick swipe, Pennsylvania taxpayers just bought these people some new toys.
The Department of Welfare claims to have severe investigations into welfare abuse but it's not uncommon to see this happening 2, 3, 4, 5 times a week at K-Mart, Pathmark, Shop Rite and any other number of low-end department stores and food chains around Philly.
The "policy handbook" for this program would gain the envy of Judd Apatow, as its easily the funniest comedy ever written.
No elected politician sitting on Philadelphia City Council or Mayor Michael Nutter or anyone in the Governor's seat has really ever addressed this. As political correctness has become the new tool of Socialism to make people feel racist and foolish for criticizing abuses of programs such as these, it's doubtful this will ever be fully examined.
As taxpayers in Philadelphia struggle to realize why in the world Councilmembers want to raise property taxes by at least 12%, the Access Card and the people scamming the system and horrendously misusing money by taxpayers makes one wonder. If this "program" were truly investigated and the frauds were righted and more severe restrictions were put on what users could actually buy, how much money would we save?
Oh, around $140 million.
These are the cuts that need to be made. The State needs to return the School District to the City's control which, in turn, needs to start selling off the schools to private businesses. Troubled schools could become, say, "Citizens Bank High School" and flourish. Massive firings and layoffs need to occur from City positions robbing taxpayers blind. The other handouts the government strives to continue doing, defiant of any Common Sense, need to stop. If we can audit a teacher's salary or a public employee's salary, we should be able to audit what people on welfare are doing with the money they get. After all, again, they are public employees, they work for me.
The opinions given here are said to be heartless and cold but the truth is sometimes heartless and cold. The next person that runs this City needs to pull a Chris Christie - just go in there and make cuts that make sense and not try to make any "friends" while doing it. Stop keeping public pools open all summer long while making Fire Department cutbacks. Stop rewarding people for being lazy and just living on the taxpayers dole.
The likeliness of any of this happening anytime soon would be delusions of grandeur. The sad truth - as made apparent when I interview the US Congressman from Southeastern Michigan, Thad McCotter, for an upcoming appearance on "The Aaron Proctor Show" - is that Philadelphia is going to be the next Detroit. We have 13.5% unemployment rates and ghost towns of business sectors to look forward to.
This is what happens when you have a six-decade-long Democrat machine. This is what Socialism is. This is a City bleeding from all orifices and nothing is been done to stop the crimson stains it is putting in balance books and in taxpayers financial lives.
- AP
Miss the Aaron Proctor Show this week? Tune into the archives at this link: http://bit.ly/byWHsM. Aaron sits down with 2011 GOP candidate for Philly Mayor, John Featherman. The AP Show airs every Tuesday night at 8pm eastern and ONLY on http://ftrradio.com.
At the end of this month, Aaron will be donating 10% of his earnings to http://dogrepair.org - a place that rescues, repairs and re-homes stray and abandoned dogs in Mebane, North Carolina. We encourage you to check out their website and learn more about how you can help.
Add "The Aaron Proctor Show" fan page on Facebook!
Comments
Best article yet!
-bill best and i'm the best
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!