Fire the janitors, hire kids to clean schools

Good article on ll/18 in Politico on a Newt Gingrich speech at Harvard's Kennedy School; responding to an undergraduate's question about income inequality, he remarked:

"This is something that no liberal wants to deal with," Gingrich said. "Core policies of protecting unionization and bureaucratization against children in the poorest neighborhoods, crippling them by putting them in schools that fail has done more to create income inequality in the United States than any other single policy. It is tragic what we do in the poorest neighborhoods, entrapping children in, first of all, child laws, which are truly stupid.

"You say to somebody, you shouldn't go to work before you're what, 14, 16 years of age, fine. You're totally poor. You're in a school that is failing with a teacher that is failing. I've tried for years to have a very simple model," he said. "Most of these schools ought to get rid of the unionized janitors, have one master janitor and pay local students to take care of the school. The kids would actually do work, they would have cash, they would have pride in the schools, they'd begin the process of rising."

Newt further points out that most successful people started working, part time, at between 9 and 14 years of age.  Low end entry level is fine; get any job that teaches you to turn up on time, every day, and work until done.

Nothing wrong starting with janitorial, either.  Our most intelligent ignored president, James Garfield, grew up dirt poor.  His freshman year in college, he supported himself as a janitor.  His second year, he taught literature, math, and classical languages.  At 26, he was president of the university.  It is claimed that he not only spoke fluent Greek and Latin, but could write them - simultaneously - one with each hand.

Janitors can be upwardly mobile.

 

Comments

[Marla Hughes]

Again, you take politics and current events and show how they pertain to the janitorial industry.
Your brief and to the point articles are gems I look forward to reading.
Btw, I'm a Newt supporter in the upcoming election after watching a few debates. I was a Cain supporter, but Newt just blows everyone else away with his common sense intelligent on every issue.
heh

[Bob Croft]

Thanks much! Leaning in Newt's direction myself; just hope he doesn't implode like everyone else. Wonder if we might have an old-faqshioned brokered convention? If so, all bets are off.

[Mike]

I understand the value of work while young. Yet, far more than a few of the articles on this blog are about the health and safety danger encountered in janitorial work. Most of the safety and health protections now applicable to these occupations were the result of union efforts, not employers' efforts. Newt's message here is not so much the value of work at a young age, it's more an anti-union, anti-minimum wage, and anti-regulation message.

My "message": Be careful what you wish for with Gingo, he is not the working persons' friend. Do you really want most janitors fired? Do you want those who remain to receive much lower wages? (Don't kid yourselve here: Newt would not support paying the kid janitor assistants the minimum wage.) Is that in your readers' interests?

Thanks, Mike