yes I'm opening myself up here, but I'd appreciate leaving the political debate for another forum.    Teachers are striking in Washington State for salary and class size among other things.  2012 the people of Washington State voted to increase property taxes in support of teachers.   Here we are on what was supposed to be first day of school.  My wife is a teacher, she works more in a year than I do in my lucrative fortune 500 company job. 

On to the post.   Not enough time to take the appropriate finished pictures.  Two pork shoulders bone in.  One chuck roast.   A bunch of onions and peppers from the garden resulted not in pepper stout beef, but spicy bbq beef (I never did use stout beer, but beef broth, why waste a good beer?)!

Pulled pork was average, spicy BBQ beef was a hit.  The community outpouring was 98% positive.  Really fun to be part of the team and what a great way to build community support.  Power to the pellets!

DK

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still having trouble posting images from an iPhone.  One at a time it is.

two 8 lb bone in pork shoulders/butts. 

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I keep saying I'm a low and slow guy, which I am.  I think I'm going too low and slow.  I need to kick it up a notch.  On at 10:00 PM at 180 on the Gator.  I know now the Traeger ran hot, the Gator is dead on.  I should have run at 225. 

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Of course I missed the pulling and plating, there was no time, I didn't have an opportunity for rest on the pork!

This is about half of our group representing one of the 23 or so schools impacted.  Let alone the 265 districts impacted. 

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DK

There were so many doughnuts donated that the teachers were all full.  Nonetheless, they tackled the pork and beef sliders and shared with a nearby school that didn't have food support.    Nice show of support across the community. 

DK

 

Kudos to your wife for teaching.  My Mom was a teacher.  I thought about it as a career but decided being a litigator was a lot easier -- and I am deadly serious about that.  Nothing but admiration for those who have dedicated their lives to this profession.  I was a public school product until law school and thought I had the most fabulous education in the world.

Kudos to you for the cook.  Looks great and I am sure it was appreciated.

Having lived here all of my 61+ years, I've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly in our Public School system. My son went thru the system as well.

When I was in 8th grade algebra, I begged for help cuz I just wasn't getting it. None was offered. My son never set foot one day in school his Sr. year. He had enough credits already. I've seen kids run thru the system to graduate, when in reality, they shouldn't have come close.

Due to the Mccleary Act, public education in our state has been fully funded. 2 Billion $ has been dumped into the system to achieve this goal. It's against the law for public employees to strike in our state. Yet year after year, some district wants to strike for any number of reasons. It's illegal.

Those that strike aren't doing themselves any favors where the voters are concerned. We pay taxes to fund education. We pay property taxes to fund teacher salaries. The real issue has to do with how/where the money is spent. That's what folks are upset about. The teachers would be better served if they called the district and state officers on the carpet.

Teaching is a noble calling, if there is any sincerity in effort. Kudos to the wife for her efforts in and out of the class. She sounds wonderful. Same to you for serving them lunch.

Hope that wasn't too political. I could seriously go off on a tangent (something I learned in college). Get it? Tangent? Trig? 

Peace DK...

Peace Bob!

I think we all have anecdotal evidence of both public education failing us and inspiring us to greatness.    You're right, we're down to classroom size and distribution of allocated funds.  You'd be hard pressed to find a group of people more disappointed to not be in the classroom today than our teachers themselves.    I'm interested in your call for district and legislature to be taken to the mat/carpet.  I suppose my opinion is that is exactly what this strike is doing with the tenuous illegal designation.  Now I'm really close to breaking my own request.

Good luck to all.   Teachers, kids, taxpayers, school board, and even the bloated leadership    I had fun being part of the community today.   And pellets made it happen. 

DK

Full disclosure I am a member of local 677 AWPPW union. My wife works for the local school district and is a paying union member also.(even though her job does not require it)

I support your wife 100%. Like what has been said it is a way to spotlight issues that need to be taken care of.

Great looking cook and great job supporting a good cause. I also have been on strike and appropriated the overwhelming community support we received from the local community.

I also better stop.

Mudflap

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime"

Probably the biggest and best thing we can do as a country is to educate our neighbor. Unfortunately like everything else, once it becomes political one side will always try to find fault. 

Just my 

I did a research paper in an Econometrics class in college in the first ever such class in the history of my college where I was able to show a direct correlation between the government investment in education and the its ability to increase GDP.  Not sure why the knuckleheads in charge of state and federal government have not read research by others smarter than me who have similar thoughts.  Kudos to teachers for what they do and for their desire to want to be able to do more if they had more resources.  I don't have the patience to do what they do day in and day out.  Not sure why their salaries are close to the minimum wage of folks flipping burgers in some places.  Even more disturbing hearing stories where they spend money out of their own pockets for school supplies to teach their students....utterly disgraceful that they have to do that.  I challenge anyone to come up with a good reason why government investment in education is not one of the best investments our taxes could make.  Thanks for the efforts of you and your wife!

I challenge anyone to come up with a good reason why government investment in education is not one of the best investments our taxes could make. 

It seems to me that all anyone would have to do is look at the GI Bill after WWII.  All those men who could go to college and receive education and training -- it helped propel the US and the world to a better economic future.  Money can buy some good stuff!!

Education and teachers are important, but I am tired of the political football and the crowd runs around demonizing opposition who espouse a different view on spending or salaries. 

In my local school district where my wife works as a para, the average citizen salary is less than $35,000 with no summers off.  However that tax base supports teachers to the tune of an average salary from the last bargaining agreement proposal from the district of 72,446 for a contract time of a little over 200 days of work.  The union was walking out over this proposal.  This is how public entities go broke.  I will leave it at that and not put too many personal opinions in this, every area is different with different salaries and needs.

As far as throwing more money at the education system to increase the test scores.  This rarely is the case.  Too many variables exist for this theory to work.  The number one thing in improving test scores is the home life, not teacher salaries.  Stability, parents who are available, care, and have time to give to their children goes farther than any government funded program. You can look at Utah's expenditures per child in 2016 of a little over 6,500 with New Yorks of over 21,000 and the proficiency is higher than New York's.  New York is expensive though, so even compare it to Mississippi that has lower costs of living more in line with Utah.  Mississippi spends 2,000 more per student and are ranked #51 for proficiency out of all states while Utah is #14.

Just some thoughts to ponder.

I agree that home life substantially influences educational achievement. However, that does not mean that teachers do not bare some of the responsibility. When teachers are rewarded based on performance/achievement  and not seniority, I will be more sympathetic to their cause.