Blame the Teachers

So goes the rallying cry for the US of A. Students are failing tests, and the only possible value a human could have is measured on said tests. Whose fault? Well, it can't be the fault of the tests. After all, they're composed by experts, and we paid a lot of money for them. They must be the very best tests money can buy.

It can't possibly be poverty. Bill Gates has already decided that poverty is too complex to address, and if Bill's given up on it, we have to show him respect and give up on it too. It must be coincidence that students in Roslyn all do well on the tests and students in the Bronx don't. Sure, there is a correlation with high income and high test scores, and sure, this is true all over the country. But if Bill Gates says poverty is impossible to fix, he should know. After all, Bill has tried to fix many things in education and has succeeded in none whatsoever. So if there's a person who knows about not fixing things, it's Bill Gates.

It couldn't be homelessness. After all, only ten percent of NYC's students are homeless. We've already decided we aren't dealing with poverty. The fact is, these people likely wouldn't be homeless if they had the money to rent or buy a home. Obviously, poverty involves a similar lack of funds. Once we start to get these people homes we'll be addressing poverty. Bill Gates has already declared that off limits, and he must know something. Otherwise, why would he have all that money? So let's cross homelessness off our list.

It couldn't be lack of health care. After all, poor people in the United States should be used to not having health care by now. In fact, if Trump has his way, there'll be tens of millions more without it. So health care must not have anything to do with it. After all, it's all about grit. If you have grit you won't miss school. You'll hitch or crawl and do whatever's necessary to get to school and take that test. When Donald Trump was a kid, his chauffeur had to drive him 20 miles to school every day, and it didn't matter if there were two inches of snow on the ground.

In fact I'm sure it isn't health care. Otherwise, why would a children's health care program be in imminent danger? The important thing, according to the honorable members of Congress, is to reduce the corporate tax rate from 35 to 20%. Also, gazillionaires really need a substantive tax break. So what if the children have to medicate themselves with Robitussion and there are massive cuts to Medicare and Medicaid? Because priorities.

It must be those lazy shiftless teachers and their unions working once again to subvert the test scores of our most vulnerable children. All they care about is themselves. Surely that's why Congress wants to kill the tax deduction for supplies. If they really cared about the children, they'd pay for supplies out of their pockets. After all, golf vacations at Trump properties don't grow on trees, and we have to save a whole lot of money to pay for them every single weekend.

No we have to place the blame where it's due. Thank goodness the GOP blocked the Democratic nomination for Supreme Court and changed the rules to push their guy through. Soon we can Right to Work the whole country, deprive unions of funds, and pay teachers the same as McDonald's fry cooks. They can have the same benefits too.

Because in the US of A, that's how we put children first.

UFT Executive Board March 27th, 2017

Note--Most of the Executive Board was in Albany for Lobby Day. Meeting lasted 26 minutes.

Howard Schoor welcomes us, points out many members are in Albany or on way back.

Minutes—approved.

President’s Report—Mulgrew not here.

Staff Director’s Report—LeRoy Barr—Education forum successful. In Rye, CL training Part 3. Next Monday Exec. Board again. Today is Lobby Day, most members are there. Over 800 members there for second go round. Spring recess April 10-18. When we return, we have DA.

Questions

Arthur Goldstein—MORE—-CEC voted to keep JHS 145 open, while PEP voted to close it. What are our next steps to support our brothers and sisters in JHS 145?

Schoor—Lawyers will check. Not sure it is illegal, but we prevented 19 schools from being closed. We will not allow them to violate law. Will keep you updated.

Jonathan Halabi—New Action—When people are brought up on charges sometimes they can return to teach, but are placed in ATR pool. How can we stop this?

Schoor—Big issue for UFT. One way is they get fined and become ATRs. We are in negotiations with DOE. That is part of our discussions but we don’t have an agreement yet. Went back to 2011 agreement. Was lawsuit lost that said any kind of discipline and person can be moved. We are trying to change that.

Ashraya Gupta—MORE—Colleague has son with IEP. Also at public school. We cover for her so she can make it to IEP meetings. Do we have any way so staff can attend IEP meetings?

Schoor—School by school decision. We do have personal business days. A-601 says principal may allow people to come late but doesn’t have to. Bring it up in consultation.

Carmen Alvarez—There is no right by law. You have to negotiate with your school.

Marcus McArthur—MORE—Re: CPE and AFT campaign against Right to Work. Randi Weingarten just sent a petition against this. CPE is progressive school fighting abusive admin. I feel strongly about this, having experience. Great teachers and unionists protected me and that’s why I can stand here. Randi said pols have to make economy work for working people, respect voice. Made me think of CPE. Two parts—what do we know about AFT campaign around RTW, and second, what does UFT leadership think about organizing around CPE as a way to actively demonstrate what Randi is talking about, voice in workplace, and fighting unions.

Schoor—RTW already in majority of states. We’ve gone to states to organize. Several people sitting here have helped people sign up. Not sure about AFT campaign but I will make sure we do what we have to do here. We will bring that school up to chancellor to see what they are going to do. Watched video, is compelling. We will bring it up and report back.

Report from districts

Schoor—Working on professional conciliation, article 24. Not just in teacher contract, but also in several others. Way to try and resolve matters. Had two high schools with issues in choosing a novel. We are trying to make this a more professional situation where we have voice. We did a survey and 72 schools reported no curriculum whatsoever. Board used to have a division, for every subject. Board had experts. Bloomberg did away with that. There are now funds, but not mandated curriculum.

Legislative report—Paul Egan absent

Schoor—Demonstrations around city against GOP Senators who support charters. Around state were demos against other GOP Senators. Very close to charter folks. Many uncertified teachers in charters. Budget due on Friday, may be extended

Arthur Goldstein—MORE—Doesn’t Cuomo take money from them too?

Schoor—Sure he does. Many pols do. We have to make sure people we support get elected.

LeRoy Barr—In support of health care for all—Our President is giving a lesson in politics. He thinks his political situation is like business, that he decrees and it is so. Glad he is getting his comeuppance. Glad to see town halls with people raising voice. They didn’t realize they would take health care away from 24 million people. We want to make sure whatever they go forward with, that it’s responsive to people’s needs. We oppose GOP act, want to improve safety net. Most sensible course is single payer. Want to mobilize members to fight for all people having affordable health care. Either they have access or you will have other issues. Please support.

Passes unanimously.

We are adjourned.

An Eye for an iPhone

It's almost inconceivable that an ostensible public servant could introduce a health plan in which people were asked to choose between phones and health. And yet that's exactly what Congressman Jason Chaffetz of Utah managed to portray a few days ago. You see, to Chaffetz the issue isn't why people can't afford a $10,000 visit to their friendly local ER. The issue is that they're greedy, and that they'd rather have an iPhone than be alive.

Of course that's absolutely absurd, as is the GOP plan to replace Obamacare. The notion, obviously, is to pass on costs to those who can least afford them. Subsidizing insurance by age rather than need means that someone as wealthy as Bill Gates could be eligible for huge benefits while a single mom in Brooklyn will be more or less on her own. I'm sure that makes sense somehow, to someone, but who it is I have no idea. Of course Chaffetz himself has a government health care plan, and if it's good enough for him, why not offer it to all Americans? 

And how on earth can cutting Medicaid support help America? Medicaid is beneficial for states, and ultimately saves money. Clearly the priority of the GOP is not a healthy America, but rather a more wealthy insurance company. And don't forget the uber-rich, who will get a huge tax cut benefit even as our poorer friends and neighbors get cut.

I honestly don't know how Chaffetz or Ryan can get up in the morning and face themselves in a mirror. Were I the motivating factor for a plan like this, I'd take the first opportunity to leap from a tall building. Nonetheless, these guys suffer no such scruples.

If you feel like buying an iPhone, you can get one brand new for as little as $399. I'm not sure what drugs Chaffetz is taking, but I've yet to hear of the health plan you can buy for $400, even if you're the healthiest 22-year-old on God's green earth. In fact, I think you'd be fortunate if you could find a halfway decent plan for $800 a month. As a matter of fact, I have very good health insurance as a NY City employee, and there've been months when I paid $800 in co-pays. With $30 doctor visits and lab fees, $50 visits to Urgent Care, $150 to ER and $200 to hospital admission, those dollars can really mount up.

Despite that, I know how lucky I am. What I really don't understand is how anyone could vote for a lying sack of crap like Jason Chaffetz. I mean, I suppose he must have qualities other than his outright contempt for poor people, but what on earth can they be to remotely compensate for that? The man is a loathsome reptile.

It's disgusting that he insults poor people, as though they're greedy. This guy has a great medical plan, makes almost 200K a year, has a whole lot of his expenses paid by we, the people, and wants to begrudge poor people the small comfort of a phone. I don't understand for the life of me why people vote for these morally bankrupt windbags. I read a whole book called What's the Matter With Kansas and I still haven't got the slightest idea.

But the real sinners are the ones who write the propaganda to keep slugs like this one in office. I hope there's a special ring in hell for those people, because their job entails making life hellish for real working Americans here on earth.

I Don't Do This for My Health

We live in a funny place, but not many of us can afford to laugh. I may have had a disparaging word for the steep rise in co-pays we've faced this year, but relatively, they're not nearly as bad as they could be. I have to now think twice before spending 50 bucks at an urgent care, but usually when you or a family member need a place like that, 50 bucks is the last thing on your mind. The real issues are the fact that Mulgrew never presented this to us when selling the contract, and we have no idea how many more add-on costs will pop up these next few years.

We're the only wealthy nation that doesn't guarantee health care for its citizens. As if that isn't bad enough, the new GOP leadership is getting ready to roll back the few improvements Obamacare achieved. I've read a lot of complaints about it. There are high deductibles, for example, and high premiums. Nonetheless, there may be fewer bankruptcies over catastrophic medical emergency, and fewer homes being sold to pay crippling hospital bills. I learned that this was a thing decades ago, and it's remarkable that we've allowed it to continue.

When I was in college at SUNY New Paltz, I played weekends in a band. Most of our work was in Queens. I would hitchhike or take buses and trains on weekends, go to work, and come back. One of my band members was in Queens too. We would stay at his house sometimes. His mom had some issue, and lost first her leg and then her life as a result.

My friend's dad had to sell his house to pay doctor bills. He moved into the basement of the home of one of his sons. One Christmas he took a gun and blew his brains out. That was the first time I started to think our health system, to say the very least, was not all that good. In fact, it began to look unconscionable at that point, and time hasn't done much of anything to change my mind. While Obamacare was far from ideal, it was the first and only improvement on a system designed to enrich insurance companies rather than help working Americans.

The first time I got health insurance myself was when I became a teacher. I think at that time you had to wait six months before you took out insurance. Either that or no one told me I was eligible. In any case, I was at John F. Kennedy High School, and I asked my chapter leader what insurance I should get. He didn't want to tell me, saying he couldn't be responsible and this and that. I pressed him, though, and he told me to get GHI with CBP. I did, and I still have it.

Before I got this chapter leader job, I spent a lot of time playing music when I wasn't at school. To ensure I would never make any money at all doing this, I chose to play bluegrass fiddle. Another really cool thing about doing this is that almost no one in this area even wants to hear it, so I'd travel a lot to New Jersey and Pennsylvania. One Sunday I had a job playing in a historic theater in Pennsylvania. We were opening for the late James King and his band.

The folks who hired us sent us out to lunch down the block from the theater. I remember that I sat with his banjo player. He was the only person in his band who appeared to be in good physical shape. I'd brought my family, and I remember that the banjo player and I both ordered Reuben sandwiches.

Later in the week I got a call. The banjo player experienced chest pains on Monday. Knowing that a visit to the ER would've run him thousands of dollars, a number of dollars that not a whole lot of bluegrass musicians have, he decided to tough it out. The next day he died.

How could this happen? If he lived in Canada, in Europe, in any other wealthy country in the world he'd almost certainly be around today. But he isn't. Back when I was heavily into this bluegrass thing, I'd often hear news about a benefit somewhere for some professional musician or other. These were not weekend warriors like me, but rather folks who were out on the road doing this all the time. How could our country not support artists? In fact, how could we not support everyone?

Obamacare made some improvements. No one gets excluded for existing medical conditions. Kids were covered under parent plans until 26. It did away with plans that didn't meet a minimum standard. It helped some people who needed financial assistance. But it still relied on private insurance companies focused on profit rather than people. And the GOP refused to work toward improving it, focusing rather on killing it and moving us back toward the nothing we had earlier.

Now they pull all the levers of power and their plan appears to be to kill it and tell us all to sink or swim. While anyone with the option will choose the latter, not all will be able to afford it. As if that weren't enough, they want to roll back Social Security and Medicare. Me, I can't believe anyone would vote for these people. I can't believe they persuade anyone with a job they have their interests at heart. But Fox News is a thing, people watch it, and they believe what they say. Some people don't need no stinking facts and won't be swayed by them either.

What we really need is single-payer, which seems to work better than our system everywhere it's used.  Most Americans agree. So how can we allow Donald Trump, Paul Ryan, and all their flying monkeys actively work against our interests?

More importantly, what can we do now to advance the agenda we actually prefer?

Dubious Advantages of Advantage Care

On Friday night my daughter complained of pain in her leg. She had done some sort of spectacular jump to get somewhere, and it somehow caught up with her. She thought she may have hurt herself somehow, and wanted to go to an urgent care. I decided to try out the Advantage Care facility even though it was about 15 minutes away from our home. Why not save fifty bucks?

So we drove over there, and it turned out to be in the second floor of an office building. There was no sign outside. I was glad we'd looked up the address. We had to get out of the car and look into the windows to even find it, but we did.

We walked into a room full of people waiting. It was pretty dark, but it reminded me very much of an ER. I got the same sense of impending dread I get in ERs, to wit, how many hours am I gonna be stuck here? The receptionist informed us that we would have to wait until all those people were seen before we'd be seen. She also told us they didn't have an x-ray machine, which is pretty much standard in every other urgent care facility I'd ever entered.

My daughter started asking questions, and the woman became exasperated and referred her to the nurse. The nurse was pretty friendly, and took my daughter to a room in the back, after which she came out and informed me that they couldn't help her very much and if we wanted their lack of help we'd have to wait a pretty long time for it.  The nurse again mentioned we'd have to wait for all those people.

I said let's go, and my daughter looked up nearby urgent care facilities on her phone. We found a CityMD facility, they had an X-ray machine, and we followed the GPS over there. It took about five minutes. We walked into a bright and clean facility, with several friendly receptionists. True, we had to fill out some paperwork. We also had to wait about five more minutes before she was seen.

But the doctor spent a lot of time with her. On the negative side, we had to actually pay the fifty bucks. But I got the distinct sense that you get what you pay for. The Advantage Care facility is not convenient to where we live. Were it more urgent, we couldn't have taken the time to go there. Is it worth waiting hours to save fifty bucks? Well, if they haven't got the tools for the job, it certainly isn't.

I'm not independently wealthy or anything, but I don't want to sit around for hours waiting for a doctor I don't even know. It's better than sitting around at an emergency room waiting for the same thing, I suppose. But if I can avoid that by paying, I will. Would you want to sit in a room full of people and wait to save fifty bucks?

NYPD is still paying fifteen bucks for a co-pay at urgent care. I saw a note to that effect behind the desk at CityMD. Of course, they haven't got crack negotiators like Michael Mulgrew and all the smart people he's always talking about working for them. I've been to events where UFT employees get up and tell us how lucky we are to have higher co-pays. You see, no money is deducted from our paychecks. Somehow, it's a great advantage to have the money deducted directly from our pockets.

But thanks to UFT leadership, we now have the right to seek insufficient care with long waits at lower prices.  Unless, of course, we live in the Bronx. People in the Bronx have to drive to other boroughs if they want to wait on long lines for poorly-equipped urgent care.

But there's always a silver lining. You can rest assured the UFT employees who preach to us about what a great deal the increased co-pays are make a whole lot more in salary than we do. So there's that. But there are also a few more years before Mulgrew keeps his promise to save all that money on health care, so co-pays can go up more, choices can become fewer, and the big claim that nothing more is deducted from our paycheck can go up in smoke pretty much any time.

This is what we gave up in exchange for getting what NYPD got in 2009, except we get it eleven years later. Oh, and for adding on the lowest pattern bargain I've seen in my life. You can be sure our brother and sister unionists will be thanking us for many years to come.

Stupid Stupid Stupid

This week I’ve been examining the new DOE grading protocols, which insist everything be fair and transparent. I’ve written about their notions about homework, which I deemed borderline clueless, but I’m learning even more about them.

In our school, we are semi-annualized. This means that most classes last a year, though they get one credit for each half. We have an understanding that if a student gets a 55 in January, it will be reversed if the teacher grants a 65 at year’s end. This, since it’s understood by staff, makes sense to me. But it doesn’t make sense to the geniuses at Tweed. You see, the average of 55 and 65 is 60, and if things aren’t properly averaged, it’s likely the world will stop turning. We can’t have that, can we?

So teacher discretion is a thing of the past because it’s all about the numbers. To me, that’s ironic because our esteemed chancellor made her bones by running a school. She was legendary. She turned the whole thing around. And she did so by turning down 6 out of 7 applicants, according to the New York Times. If that’s not juking the stats I don’t know what is.

In any case, God forbid some kid should rehabilitate herself, start attending, and actually learn what I have to teach. If her average does not rise to 65, screw her. Let her take the whole course over for no reason because fairness. After all, there should be no discretion whatsoever on the part of the teacher to help a child. Who the hell do these teachers think they are anyway? Why on earth should their individual subjective judgment or desire to help a child trump an average?

It’s funny how people in NYSED and the DOE who regularly mess with figures have no trust whatsoever for working teachers. People who aren’t trustworthy, for some reason. seem to assume other people aren’t trustworthy either. Now I have my bad qualities, and I could line up a lot of people who would characterize me as a pain in the ass, but my word is my bond.

Nonetheless, that’s not actually the stupidest thing I’ve seen this week. While I’d actually planned on saying it was, something happened this morning that made me reconsider. This morning, after a test, a girl in my class almost passed out. I called for a wheelchair. I was told that there was a directive that they not be used. It seems people have not been sufficiently trained in their usage and maintenance, and are therefore not only unqualified, but also liable in the case of anything untoward occurring.

I’m supposing that someone got hurt while using a wheelchair somewhere. What the geniuses at Tweed fail to consider is the number of people who will be hurt by not using wheelchairs. It must be good to sit around an office all day, come up with stupid ideas, force schools to use them, and blame the people who actually teach children for everything and anything that goes wrong.

Sure beats working.

Correction--Actually the document gives as an example that a student with a minimum grade of 75 in June will have her  January grade adjusted to 75 as well. I'm not sure this is minimum policy. 

Crawl Off That Slab and Call Blue Cross

Even those of us with relatively good insurance can be stunned by medical bills. My daughter had an interesting experience last summer. She was feeling achy one evening and I took her to an urgent care. Fifty bucks. The urgent care said they had to rule out meningitis and sent us to the ER. One hundred and fifty bucks.

At the ER, blood tests were negative. They went and did a spinal tap. This caused my daughter extreme pain and we returned to the ER, from which they admitted her. Three hundred bucks. Oddly, the only thing that was wrong with her, five hundred dollars later (not to mention what the insurance paid, which was way more), was that she suffered side effects from the treatment.

So I was a little surprised to get a bill from the hospital for $848.17. That took our adventure to over one thousand dollars out of pocket, all for checking out my kid, who had a virus. And yes, I understand they had to check, and it's certainly better being safe than sorry. So what was the problem?

Evidently, you are supposed to call Blue Cross when you are admitted to the hospital. They give you a 48-hour window to do this, which I guess is enough time to make a call. I gotta say, though, I've had this insurance for over thirty years and I've never made any such call, not for me, and not for anyone in my family. Well, Blue Cross has had enough of me and my shenanigans. I discovered this after waiting twenty-five minutes to speak to someone at the hospital billing department, which played the most awful piano music I've ever heard, over and over, along with messages about how important my call was to them. Of course, if it were really important, you'd think they'd answer it.

The woman told me that Blue Cross had penalized me for failing to call. Man, $548.17 for not thinking of the insurance company while my daughter was in pain. I am clearly a horrible human being. To their credit, Empire answered quickly. When I told them I had no idea I had to call them, the guy said, "It's right there on your card." But I wasn't looking at the card because I was too busy rushing my kid to the ER. He waived the charge.

I called back the hospital and listened to that awful piano tape for another 30 minutes or so. I paid my bill, and the woman gave me a ten percent discount for paying promptly. So it was not so bad.

I wonder, though, what about people with more dire issues? Are they expected to waken from their comas and let Blue Cross know they're gonna be in Intensive Care for a while? Should they crawl out of traction to get their fingers around that receiver? Should they wake from feverish delusions, fish their wallets out of the plastic bags in which they put their belongings, read the little numbers and then dial?

I found myself telling people more than once, "Well, we didn't go to the hospital just for fun." I wonder if that's what they think. What on earth is this phone call designed to do? Are the folks from Blue Cross gonna check whether you're just taking it easy and hanging around in a thin robe so you can freeze to death in some icy hospital? Are they gonna tell people on the spot that their telephone experts have determined that the doctors at the hospital are wrong and you should just go home?

Or is it absolutely vital to have yet one more layer of redundant bureaucracy in our already convoluted and incomprehensible health care system?

Health Costs Skyrocket, UFT Unity Wins Pencils

I had an interesting week. My daughter had a terrible headache, so I rushed her to an Urgent Care facility near our home. They thought she might have meningitis, so I took her to the ER. Thankfully, she didn't have meningitis and it was just a virus, but they had to rule it out.

The cost was $50 for visiting the urgent care plus $200 for the ER visit, for a total of $250. That's $185 more than this would've cost me last year. Now at 8:30 on a Friday night when the local urgent care closed at 9, I suppose I could've driven her to the Advantage Care facility in Valley Stream, 15 minutes farther away, and saved 50 bucks. I would've had to get on the laptop and check their hours and address. Then it would've been only $135 out of pocket. (I guess I'm just not smart enough to think like that when I see my daughter in pain.)

I can't imagine my story is that unique. Now this, of course, was a by-product of the most recent contract agreement, the one negotiated by Michael Mulgrew and his crack team of UFT Unity loyalty oath signers. Now I guess the $250 is just a drop in the bucket compared to the $40,000 I already lent the city but have to wait until 2020 to get (with no interest). Like everyone, I look forward to getting back a whopping zero percent of that back during the next school year. Thanks again, UFT Unity.

But surely the $250 is just one part of how much I'll pay this year as part of the 2014 contract that was not revealed to us as Mulgrew sold it to us via appeals to fear, like how retro was not a God-given right.  In any case, UFT Unity is on Twitter boasting about their latest victory:

Teacher's Choice:
We won a 27.5% overall increase in Teacher's Choice funding!

Remember to save your receipts! https://t.co/ABg8FCbkxF

— UFT Unity (@UFTUnity) August 2, 2016

That's pretty interesting. Now last year, Teacher's Choice was at $122. Though they haven't actually provided the precise figure, I'm guessing 27% more is another 30 bucks a year. Now I have to give them credit--that makes up for a small fraction of what their brilliant negotiations cost me last Friday night. In fact we have no idea what further givebacks are in store for us as a result of Mulgrew's yet incomplete negotition.

Regardless, it's a net loss. This silver lining is that with that thirty bucks, or whatever it turns out to be, I can invest in Ticonderoga, the acknowledged Cadillac of pencils. These pencils derive their name from Ticonderoga New York, where they were once made. That's back before someone discovered it was cheaper to outsource labor than pay American workers. But I digress.

The important thing to remember is UFT Unity is hard at work getting you 30 bucks a year, maybe. If you and your entire family see medical specialists less than twice a year, never go to a convenient and now ubiquitous Urgent Care facility, and never visit an ER, this could represent a jump in income sufficient to net yourself some sweet Ticonderoga pencils, possibly in bulk at Costco.

So thank you, UFT Unity, for looking out for us. You can imagine how grateful we must be. For those of us who've already been shelling out the big bucks for Ticonderoga, well, maybe we can go splurge and go see a movie or something, as long as we don't go crazy and buy popcorn. And no matter how many hundreds or thousands of dollars we lose as a result of your health care negotiations, no matter how many more losses we incur as a result of their not yet having been completed, we will have that (maybe) thirty bucks to console us.

Hillary Needs to Tread Carefully to Win in 2016

by special guest blogger Organizing Teacher

A Clinton presidency will put the Left on good footing for organizing after the election. A Trump presidency will put us all on the defensive and will kill the strides made in the national conversation about income inequality.

I supported Bernie with a vote and a small donation. I think a Bernie presidency would have put us on the road to another New Deal era. This would include some social democratic reforms that would improve the lives of the working class, but would also stave off the possibility of real structural change. The New Deal was effective at thwarting the specter of revolution in the U.S. This led to years of prosperity as the right wing worked tirelessly to upend any gains because the system itself was still dependent on capitalism.

So, this is where we’re at now. Sanders will not be president, but his campaign did accomplish some important things on his journey.

1. It organized and activated people new to the political process
2. It heightened the contradictions in the Democratic Party
3. It made people talk explicitly about the failures of capitalism

So now we have scores of new activists, not afraid of words like “socialism” and “revolution” who are willing to knock on doors, organize marches and protests, and do whatever it takes to get us out from the mess we’re in.

These are people on the political left who don’t understand the need for realpolitik around universal healthcare or free higher education. They know what they want and don’t care if it’s not politically expedient. They don’t want another war. They are willing to go toe-to-toe with the establishment.

We need to organize these people. They will be the ones forcing the Democratic Party to do what’s right. They will fight the right wing zealots in the streets, instead of adopting their language to “seem serious” and win votes.

I'm thinking back to the anti-globalization movement that organized in the late 90s, largely in response to NAFTA and Bill’s other awful policies. It was a growing movement that was starting to be seen as a real threat to capital. In its last days, it had labor and other more established groups, like environment groups, on board.

This was the movement that made the race between Gore and W. far closer than it should have been, which made it easy for the GOP to outright steal it. Had the establishment Dems taken note from this movement, they could have won easily. The Dems lost the Left and could only regain large segments of it with a boogeyman like Bush.

Under W, the anti-globalization movement folded into the anti-war movement, which was a Left/liberal coalition. The tent got really big and with it, critiques of capital went to the wayside. It wasn't globalization that was bad, it was specific companies like Haliburton. Bush and the GOP were clearly the enemies of anyone left of center and he became the target, not so much his policies, but his personality and his party.

He made great fodder for the Daily Show, but the Daily show speaks in an echo chamber and didn’t move people who were unmoved by John Kerry’s run.

Kerry lost because merely not being Bush wasn't enough. Bush, for all his faults, had an agenda that was clear. Kerry had cobbled together positions that polled as inoffensive to “the middle” and OK by those left of middle, but did not inspire people to fight for him to win.

Obama won because he had a big tent behind him. The far Left was never for him, but progressives and activist groups were all for him. He skated through easily by not just being not a Republican, but because he was marketed to liberals and left-of-liberals. He had artists and activists and public intellectuals singing his praises to their diverse audiences.

After Obama won, the anti-War movement shrank to almost nothing because the liberal caucus of the anti-war movement did not want to harm Obama’s approval rating. We could end up with another Bush, they said.

A Trump presidency will force another big tent that will organize around getting rid of Trump. It'll be a coalition to get him to lose in 2020 and demand nothing more. I think this will only empower him because the Dems/establishment Left will take the reigns of this coalition and be completely uninspiring. He'll be re-elected. Bernie will be painted as the boogeyman (like Nader) who hurt Hillary. Many of his supporters will give up on politics or join the establishment.

In a Trump presidency, things will not get “worse before they get better,” things will get worse before they revert back to the status quo.

This is the reason why I want Hillary to win and why it’s painful for me to see the missteps her campaign is making trying to appeal to the center. This isn’t 1994. I see Kerry and Gore all over again.

Who Knew? Turns Out Michael Mulgrew Is the Purveyor of Myth After All

The more I think about Michael Mulgrew declaring bloggers to be purveyors of myth, the angrier I get. I mean, Mulgrew says he doesn't read blogs. I know he isn't on Facebook or Twitter (though he sees no contradiction in asking us to be), I know he can't be bothered answering email, and people tell me he carries a flip phone so as not to even have to consider it.

Nonetheless Mulgrew was horrified when those awful bloggers dared to question his health care plan. And yet, here we are, still standing. A lot of us are wondering what the contract vote would have looked like if our President, who so reviles myth makers, would have told us outright that our co-pays were doubling and tripling. Oh, and by the way, this is just the first year of money saving. We've got three more to go.

Now I'm as impressed as anyone when Arthur Pepper gets up at the DA and tells us how good we have it. After all, they aren't deducting money from your paycheck. Instead, you're paying triple when you go to the ER, and more than triple when you go to the urgent care. You know, those are the ubiquitous places where you go when you have an emergency and don't want to go to the ER. Those are the places that were pretty goshdarn convenient until Mike Mulgrew decided they would cost you fifty bucks a pop.

So what's next? We have no idea. And Mulgrew was certainly not forthcoming with details when selling the contract, or even now. I mean, since co-pays don't mean anything, why not double and triple them again? After all, as long as the money isn't coming from your paycheck, UFT leadership has decreed it must be OK. Unfortunately there is absolutely no guarantee that once the copays start to look too high, the money won't come from your paycheck anyway.

Women have been approaching me and saying this contract is discriminatory since they have to go to gynecologists. Things happen, and they have to pay extra simply because of their sex. Not only that, but there are not a whole lot of these advantage care joints around. There's only one close to me, and evidently it's a part-time doctor office and a part time urgent care. Are the urgent care doctors the same MDs that work there all day? Are they trained in emergency medicine like the great doctors who work the urgent care in my home town? Who knows?

Long Island is a big place, and there are just a handful of these joints. There are 10 OB/GYNs, my friend tells me, and if you live in the Bronx, she says, well, too bad for you. Drive over the bridge to Queens if you don't want to pay. And if you've retired and moved out of the area, well, too bad for you.  

One of the great things about GHI, the reason why my family and I have used it all these years, has been the wide choice of doctors you could have. However, by raising copays for doctors we've been seeing for years and removing them from the few in their preferred network, they're making you pay, and in some cases quite a bit, for exercising your choice.

In fact, they're pretty much urging you to restrict yourself in the same way HIP users have been restricted.  I don't know exactly how much choice HIP users had, but one of the reasons I've never opted my family into HIP was that I wanted to be able to change and choose doctors. Now of course we did get raises in this contract. But our raises, the ones we won't actually get until 2020, don't make me jump up and down. Why should our copays go up by 200% or more immediately when our raises are a fraction of that and don't kick in for years?

Michael Mulgrew makes several times our salaries and has never met a giveback he didn't like. When you get your ballot this week, be sure to let him know how much you like his work by voting MORE/ New Action and sending him back to a classroom. And by the way, Mike, I hope you engage your students a whole lot better than you engage your members.

Otherwise, the Danielson checklist mandates 24 months before 3020a dismissal charges, with the burden of proof on you, just like you negotiated for us.

Thanks to Wendy

Still Not Feeling the Love for Hillary

Lately I've been getting attacked pretty frequently on Facebook by a few people who insist I vote for Hillary Clinton. When they get really upset, they start telling me how stupid I am. I'm unfamiliar with high school civics. I don't understand how things work. What about 1972? Didn't we lose in 1972? Sanders is Ralph Nader. He's a spoiler.

When you tell them that Sanders has pledged to support the Democratic nominee, they are not happy. It doesn't matter. Sometimes they accuse me of supporting the Republicans. If I don't vote for Hillary, I'm supporting Donald Trump. How do I feel about that?

They don't seem to understand the meaning of democracy. If, in fact, I want to vote for Donald Trump, I can. I don't, but still I have reasons not to vote for Hillary. For one thing, I voted for Barack Obama the first time he ran. I was pretty horrified as he enacted the worst education policies I've ever seen. I regretted my vote, and when he ran for re-election chose Jill Stein from the Green Party. So when Hillary said she would close schools that weren't above average, I decided that was enough for me.

But she followed this up by saying we would never, ever get single payer. Evidently those of us who think America should have universal health coverage are wild-eyed dreamers. Now I've been sick, and even with excellent health insurance I recall wading through complicated, virtually incomprehensible bills, and spending hours calling my medical insurance company, and my hospital insurance company, and actually visiting the hospital to try and clear things up. This was a process that took months.

But that's nothing.

Sometimes I play fiddle in bluegrass bands. It's kind of my hobby. One Saturday night, I was playing in a Pennsylvania theater, in a band that opened for someone who was fairly well known in our circles. It was a pretty nice gig. We had a dressing room, and the theater sent us to a nearby restaurant for lunch and dinner.

I remember I ate with the banjo player from the main band. He ordered a Reuben sandwich, and so did I. I don't remember much of what we talked about. I do remember, though, that he was the only member of the other band who looked under 300 pounds. That's why I was pretty surprised to hear that he dropped dead the following Tuesday.

Evidently he'd been having chest pains and didn't want to go to the ER. After all, an ER visit can cost 3,000 bucks, and that's after the negotiated discounts your insurance company has. This banjo player had none of those discounts, and in case you didn't know, banjo playing is not generally a well-paying job. I'm not even sure if he was the regular banjo player. But banjo players, regular or not, like all Americans, deserve better than this.

.@HillaryClinton If you really believe this, it's time for you to support #FightFor15/hr min wage and #SinglePayer health care. #Talkischeap

— Danielle Muscato (@daniellemuscato) February 17, 2016

My friend's father had to sell his house to pay his wife's medical bills. He moved into the basement of his son's house, where one Christmas Eve he blew his brains out with a gun.

America needs universal health, not excuses from self-serving politicians who care about nothing but winning the election. And for those of you who want to lecture me about the Supreme Court, if Hillary needs my  vote in NY State so desperately it's that pivotal, she is toast anyway.

You vote for who you like. I'm voting for Bernie in the primary, and I'm not voting for a reformy politician who wants to fire me, or any of my brother and sister teachers.

Troglodytes

The United States Supreme Court made two important decisions yesterday. First, they decided that employers need not fund health care decisions that conflict with their religious views.

So if you want your health care to entail birth control but your employer doesn't believe in it, too bad for you. Some religions have other reservations about medicine. Let's say your employer doesn't believe in antibiotics or blood transfusions. Maybe he doesn't believe in surgery or routine medical checks. That would really be tough, wouldn't it?

I wouldn't be surprised if the CEO of Exxon Mobil were forming a new religion right now. Think of how economical it would be for a business required to insure the health of people whose boss didn't actually believe in health (for strictly religious reasons, of course).

But this court believes deeply in individual freedom. That's why it took up the case of some health care workers, who were apparently so offended by a raise of over 50% they went to federal court. They don't believe in union. How awful. I wonder why they didn't return their raise in protest. But as long as people believe in more work for less pay, they have the right to insist on it.

The court decided this decision was valid because the health workers were only "partial" public employees. Maybe it's because the public just pays their salary but doesn't actually fully participate in their services. Look for them to determine teachers are only partial public employees because they only teach some kids rather than all of them.

This is essentially the same court that gave us GW Bush in 2000, deeming it too dangerous to count votes. As long as it's 5-4 on the wrong side, they won't come out in favor of working people any time soon.

Of course I'm not a Supreme Court Justice, and I don't understand all the intricacies of rationalizing anti-woman and anti-union nonsense. I'm just a lowly teacher.

But I'm very proud to be one nonetheless.

To Serve You Better

Yesterday I got a letter from Arthur Pepper of the UFT Welfare Fund. Apparently, we teachers have got it too good. We've been overusing the privilege of patronizing our local pharmacies and must now send all long-term prescriptions to Medco. Medco, as you may know, is the mail-order pharmacy company the UFT does business with.

One of the great things Medco did was do away with the simple postpaid envelope the previous mail-order pharmacy had. On that envelope, you could fill out a few things, drop the scrip in the envelope, and mail it away. Medco prefers a long incomprehensible form that fits in a very particular way into some oddly shaped envelope. If you are frustrated by that you can always drop the scrip in your own envelope, include your name, address, phone and Medco ID, and send it off to:

Medco

PO Box 650322

Dallas, TX 72555

I find it easier than the one they provide, even if I have to use my own stamp. Considering they're forcing us to use Medco, though, the UFT ought to bring back the old simple envelope that could be used for any prescription, rather than just a renewal. I usually just pay extra to bring it to my local pharmacy, but that appears to be going the way of the dodo. Perish forbid we should support local business.

Also, copays are tripling and quadrupling on our dental plan. Actually dentists have been covering extra, to me at least, for the last few years. I can only hope that the copays don't come along with the extra payments I'm already compelled to make, but hope springeth eternal.

Regardless, our prescription gurus have dispensed a bitter pill for working people who haven't had a raise in almost four years. Cops and firefighters, who got the 8% pattern that lowly teachers do not merit, may respond better to something like this (or not). With a contract that expired over two years ago and no progress in sight, this will result in fewer happy campers of already demoralized union members.

I have nothing against dentists. But I presume they're better paid than we are, and I have to wonder why the UFT sees fit to better their contract before doing something worthwhile with ours.

Rethinking Teacher Contracts

The geniuses at Education Sector have come up with ways to economize on those wasteful teacher contracts. If only we could eliminate raises, sick days, pensions, class size restrictions, and those awful health and pension benefits, we'd have more money to lavish on the children we love.

Thanks to Education Sector, our children can look forward to even more opportunities to get jobs without raises, sick days, pensions, workload limits, and those awful health and pension benefits. This is a great way to sustain tax breaks for those who really need them, like Bill Gates and Eli Broad. But why should we limit such great ideas to teachers?

Couldn't we save money on restaurant bills if we got rid of this whole tipping nonsense?  I mean, if an entree costs 18 bucks, shouldn't it cost 18 bucks? And are we actually paying for those hairnets I see them using in the kitchen? And what about those long rubber gloves the dishwasher is using? How will he know how hot the water is? And are we actually paying to heat it?

Often, I'll see restaurant staff sitting around doing nothing. Sometimes they'll even be eating. Is the price of their food reflected in my eighteen bucks? And if they have nothing to do, shouldn't they go out and make the world a better place? In fact, if they weren't wasting their time cleaning the restaurant, they could clean the streets and save us the expense of hiring sanitation workers. What the hell does Education Sector care if there's a little grease on their plates, or the odd rodent jumping into their soup? Maybe that 18-dollar entree could be ten bucks if we stopped throwing money at the problem.

Also, I've just about had it with these doctors. Why should they have health insurance? If they're so smart, can't they heal themselves? Why should they have professional associations lobbying for them? Are they socking money away for their retirement? Wouldn't it be better if they just stopped charging so much? And what's with these receptionists? Are we paying for them? Wouldn't it be better if the doctors came out, greeted you personally, filled out whatever forms need filling out, and took you into the office?

What really grinds my gears are those waiting rooms. If there are too many people, doctors ought to bring them all into the offices, and that way they'd be sufficiently motivated to get them out quickly. The more they treated, the more money they'd make. You know, like merit pay. Let's find ways to keep it moving and stop wasting time. As long as they're effective doctors, who gives a golly goshdarn how many patients they treat?

Forward-thinking Americans could apply the Education Sector method to many areas of society, save lots of money, and give it back to billionaires in tax cuts.

Because that's what our nation needs more of.

The Witch Hunt

I've been in and around Boston all week, and we just spent a day in Salem, Massachusetts, seeing the House of Seven Gables and listening to stories about the witch hysteria that caused the state-sanctioned murders of 20 people back in 1692.  This was largely due to the hysterical ravings of a few people who may or may not have known better.

But it's human nature to pick scapegoats and blame all the troubles of the universe on them.  After 9/11, of course we were angry.  We put unprecedented faith in our President, unelected galoot George W. Bush, and he repaid us by investing extraordinary powers in himself.  Thus, the government can now listen to us order pizza and keep records of our favorite toppings, to be used against us should it ever become necessary.  And hopey-changey Barack Obama supported more of the same.

GW let his good buds do whatever they liked.  Then he let us bail them out.  He took the disaster in New Orleans and let them supplant the school system with charters.  Barack Obama let his Education Secretary say Katrina was the best thing that ever happened to the school system, and I've yet to hear a reprimand, let along a contradiction. 

Now, due to the economic meltdown that was the legacy of GW Bush, we need someone to blame.  Is it GW himself?  The hopey-changey successor who continued his policies?  Is it the banks who benefited from our largess in making good their bad debts?  

Of course not.  That's so six months ago.  While the editorial writers haven't specifically called for unionized teachers to be hanged, their comments seem to suggest we deserve worse.  I doubt they'll call to burn us at the stake.  That's a European tradition, and I don't think they want us to focus too much on Europe.  Once we do that, we might notice Canada too. 

Look to places like that, and you'll see better options for working people.  Elsewhere people belong to real unions.  The unions demand better conditions for their members, and they strike when they don't get them.  People don't work 200-hour weeks in Europe.  Health care is for everyone, and no one pays $3,000 to visit an emergency room.  Retired working people can expect lives of dignity rather than scrounging.

Here, of course, that's vilified.  They call it "socialism" and spit on the ground.  With billionaires like Bill Gates setting the agenda, Americans don't demand European-style rights.  Instead, they demand teachers give up the few remaining perks of their profession.  Amazingly, in America, even union leaders participate, perhaps thinking they're protecting the dues money that pays for their parties and possessions.  Such thinking is counter-productive, and not only they, not only we, but all our children will pay for it.

It took about a quarter century before Salem repented of the witch hunt mentality for which it's remembered even now.  What will it take for us in America to come to our senses?

Public Enemy Number One

In 2008, I voted for Barack Obama as the last best hope to alter the destructive and decadent path piloted by George W. Bush and his band of thugs and liars. Obama promised change, and heralded a new day in America. He's not only failed to deliver, but, amazingly, seems to be following in the footsteps of his predecessor. Bail out the bigs, and forget about everyone else.

I've long marveled at our miserable health care system. Almost 3o years ago, a friend's father had to sell his home to pay for his deceased wife's medical bill. He moved into his son's basement, where he blew his brains out one Christmas Eve. Years later, I watched Bill Clinton fail to pass a plan because he refused to compromise. Obama, given that, bent back so far it was tough to remember what he, as a candidate, promised. I distinctly recall his proposing to marginally roll back the party the super-rich have been enjoying here since the 80s.

However, when he got the job, he pushed that promise back. Perish forbid the rich should have higher taxes. When he finally got around to health care, he liked the Senate proposal to place a 40% tax on health care plans over 24K a year, a short-sighted measure given the astronomical rises in health costs that occur as a matter of course. Among the many reasons I didn't vote for John McCain was his proposed tax on health insurance. I thought it was an unfair burden on the disappearing middle class--and never imagined the man for whom I voted would endorse such an idea.

Also, it appears a public option, for those who can't afford or prefer not to enrich predatory insurance companies, is dead in the water. A popular blogger I respect told me that without the public option, she'll have to soldier on without health insurance. That's unconscionable, and certainly not what we voted for.

As if that weren't enough, President Obama's appointee for Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, pushed an education program that looked like nothing more than a continuation of the disastrous Bush policies. Never mind the taxes NY State gives the government. If we want Federal aid for our schools, we'll have to compete in the "Race to the Top"--a pro-charter, anti-union, poorly thought out and ultimately counter-productive exercise in closing neighborhood schools and enriching private interests. Forget about what teachers think is right--Bill Gates has other ideas, and a lot more money than all of us.

The "Race to the Top," of course, is based on the programs Arne Duncan carried out in Chicago public schools, the ones that weren't good enough for Obama Barack's kids. The programs Duncan ran appear not to have been remotely as effective as Obama originally claimed. This is reminiscent of nothing more than the wholly fabricated "Texas Miracle" that GW Bush and his original Education Secretary, Rod Paige, began with. This phony program was the model for "No Child Left Behind," yet another brilliant national initiative.

Meanwhile, we're still at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, despite our vote to get the hell out.

I've never voted against a Democrat in my life, but I don't envision voting for Barack Obama again, at least not while I can still write in Mickey Mouse. Nor will I vote for NY Governor David Paterson (though I doubt he'll survive a primary). I've come to the point, well after some of my fellow bloggers, where I no longer think either political party serves the interests of my family, my community, or my profession. Democrats will no longer get my vote as a matter of course.

And I have to tell you, their failure to deliver is most certainly why they lost Ted Kennedy's seat in Massachusetts. In fact, I think if McCain had won, there's no way he'd have managed to pass a plan like Race to the Top, and there's no way we'd be looking at New York State insisting on closure of dozens of neighborhood schools. I don't know if the country would be better off, but the education system certainly would.

Democrats are going to take a bath next year. If they can't count on the likes of me, they are truly screwed. I don't see the Rush Limbaugh crowd warming to Obama anytime soon. There are a lot of people like me, and Democrats ignore us not only at their peril, but at that of the future of the United States of America.

Prove me wrong, Mr. President. If you care about the middle class, or even if you just want a second term, I suggest you get started right away.

Apathy Rules

I wish I were an editorial page writer for a city tabloid. I wouldn't have to reflect, or consider all the issues. I could simply think, "Union bad, status quo good," and proceed without giving any time to reality, which is admittedly troubling. The Daily News editorial yesterday pretty much says it all, vilifying union and glorifying charters. In the interests of being "fair and balanced," it points us to an anti-union, pro-charter op-ed.

I'm reminded of the few times I tried to watch Fox News. Once, when we were headed to Iraq, they balanced the viewpoint of a Republican Senator with that of ex-Republican Senator Fred Thompson. Another time, when Hillary Clinton was running against Rick Lazio, they balanced the viewpoint of a Republican Congressman who supported Lazio with that of Floyd Flake, a Democratic Congressman who supported Lazio.

Though our fair and balanced President, Barack Obama, didn't bother to suggest this when he was running, he now wants to drop the cap on charters. Charters can sometimes do better than public schools. Why they don't always do so is a mystery to me. After all, charter students have 100% proactive parents, and proactive parents are the no. 1 factor in student success. And when you drain the children of proactive parents from public schools, you demean them by just that much.

Another thing the News wants is for teachers to be judged on the test scores of their students. The fact that they'd be higher if we weren't moving our best prospects into charters does not even merit a mention. As usual, everything is the fault of unionized employees, and no one who controls the schools bears any responsibility whatsoever.

I could write this stuff myself. I'm amazed, though, that such superficial, unexamined, and unpersuasive stuff is so pervasive. The sad thing, for many Americans, is there's little or no exposure to the other side. You get an op-ed here and there, but nothing resembling the relentless drum beat that every newspaper editorial board, including the so-called liberal New York Times, feeds America on a fairly regular basis.

New York is a macrocosm for the rest of the country, where few know that President Obama never said he'd insist on lifting the charter cap. Not only that, but our new President has reneged on his promise to marginally diminish the party the uber-rich have been enjoying since the 80s, and has instead decided to fund his wimpy health plan on the backs of middle-class and unionized employees.

A very smart blogger with whom I'm friendly tells me that the lack of a public option will mean she will soldier on without health insurance, despite the 40% tax the President will be levying on programs that provide decent coverage. It's sad that you don't see that in the papers. But politicians like Bloomberg and Obama wouldn't be able to function in an environment where everyone actually knew what was going on.

It's going to be tough to wake up the public, but we can't stop trying.

Where Have All the Real Men Gone?

You know, a lot of people come up to me on the street and say, "Hey, NYC Educator, what's it like to be a real man?" I tell them it's hard work. For example, fter a long day of being a real man, I'm really tired.

Sometimes people ask me how they can show others what real men they are. I tell them the most important thing is to impress women. For example, before going out on a date with a woman, you might try driving into a brick wall a hundred miles an hour, then brushing yourself off and getting out of the car as though nothing happened. She won't soon forget a guy like you. Alternatively, why not take her to a nice restaurant, pour lighter fluid in your lap, and set yourself on fire? Then continue chatting nonchalantly, as though nothing of consequence is occurring. This will be a date to remember.

The GOP wants us all to be real men. That's why they keep blocking every piece of health care legislation that comes down the pike. Better tens of thousands should have no insurance, and join all the real men. Because real men don't care about stuff like that. They just jump into any situation head first, and if they fall on a block of cement, so be it.

And make no mistake, Republicans opposed Medicare using the same idiotic "socialism" attacks they're using to maintain the status quo today. A few years ago they wanted to privatize socail security, which in hindsight would've been an unmitigated disaster. Now they want to apply the privatization magic to schools. GW sponsored a windfall for corporations, for banks, for pointless wars, but we can't involve government in health care. First, we can't afford it. Second, government can't do anything right (which is why no one our age knows how to read and write). On the other hand, they now say private companies could not compete with a public option.

So--maybe deep inside those real Republican men beat hearts of chickens. I hope they have insurance. I've seen people die for lack of it, and I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times...

See the battling Glenn Becks over at Miss Cellania's place.

In Which I Face Down the Grim Socialist Machine

I'm in London, Ontario visiting family. Yesterday, my two-year-old nephew had an ear infection. I had to take him and his mom for help. In this terrible Canadian medical system, his doctor is closed on Saturday, so we tried to take him to a clinic located in a nearby drugstore. It being five o'clock, the clinic had closed, so we had to take him to an emergency room at the nearest hospital.

The scary Canadian receptionist sent us immediately to triage, where a nurse took his temperature. She told the boy she was checking to see if there were any monkeys in his ear. Can you imagine frightening a young boy like that? After this ordeal, we sat down for a full five minutes before being called into the pediatric examination area.

After that, we had to wait forty minutes before a medical student gave the kid an examination. The examination took another 15 minutes or so, and then he had to get an OK from a doctor, who showed up 15 minutes later. Not only that, but we had to wait another few minutes before we got the prescription, bringing our wait time in the ER to almost 90 minutes.

Now compare that to the American hospital where I took my mom a few weeks ago. We got in, signed up, and within 3 hours made it to triage. Let me state unequivocally that no one suggested she had monkeys in her ear. After they sent us our for another four hours in the waiting area, I recognized her doctor, who used to be my doctor too (When he became a "boutique" doctor and started charging 1500 bucks a year, I found another doctor, but my mom stayed on).

I told the doctor how long we'd been waiting, he gave some choice words to someone, and within one hour, we got in. Within another hour she saw a doctor. So while my nephew had to wait a full 90 minutes, my mom saw a doctor within a mere 9 hours. The second number, if I'm not mistaken, is a 90% reduction over the first.

More importantly, my mom was in the hospital for a week, but under our American system, she's fine now. My nephew though, under the socialist system, still has that ear infection.