As regular readers know, this space has nurtured a minor obsession over the doings of Dennis Roddy, late of the Post-Gazette and long one of the city’s finest journalists. Roddy left the P-G a year ago, to join Gov. Tom Corbett’s communications team. And while evidence of Roddy’s handiwork has cropped up once or twice since then, his voice has scarcely been heard in Pittsburgh.
Until this week, when he waded into an online debate at a blog opposed to Corbett’s education spending.
The blog, Yinzercation, was recently launched by Dr. Jessie B. Ramey, a college instructor and Pittsburgh Public Schools parent. (In the spirit of full disclosure — and because this post will concern a debate over the need to disclose things — I should note that while reporting this story, I discovered that Dr. Ramey’s brothers are childhood friends of my brother and I, though none of us have seen each other in decades.) Ramey says the blog, and an associated Facebook page, is “a grassroots place to organize for the fight” for more education funding in the state budget. Ramey says about 300 people follow the site. While its first concern is with Pittsburgh schools, she says, it is attracting supporters — and linking up with similar efforts — from around the region.
It has also attracted the attention of Roddy, who has taken issue with its characterization of Corbett’s budget priorities … and with the growth of educators’ salaries and benefits.
Earlier this week, Roddy weighed in on one post decrying Corbett for not taxing Pennsylvania businesses more heavily. “Think of the Capitol as a long tube, lined with Velcro,” Roddy wrote. “Now, blow $160 million from one end to the other and see how much reaches its destination, be that destination roads, or schools, or mass transit.”
In another post — this one surveying letters published in the Post-Gazette — Roddy posted a pair of comments, which offer up a defense of Corbett’s budget cutting, and question the growth in teacher salaries and benefits:
Pennsylvania was $4.2 billion in the hole last year and nearly another billion this year. With education and welfare consuming more than 70 percent of the state’s budget, what would she have done? The increase necessary to cover these deficits would have hit the average, two income working family in Pennsylvania with an additional $1,200 in taxes. She also neglects to mention that an additional $300 million in state tax dollars had to be put toward a growing pension debt created by the Public School Employees Retirement system — a debt that will rise to $2.7 billion in another five years …
The hard truth is that educators have priced themselves to the point that no amount of money will be enough. And that pension bomb on the horizon is exacerbated by the fact that pensions increase with salary. Simply throwing another tax on corporations might feel good, but we tried that. Rockwell is now in California. Westinghouse is gone. The steel companies either collapsed, were bought, or bugged out … Listen closely at who is taking greatest offense at rising education costs and property taxes. They’re wearing blue collars and they understand that when you have less to spend the only sensible answer is to spend less.
Roddy confirmed his authorship of the comments to City Paper. “I came across this site and saw the usual misunderstandings and distortions about the education budget,” he says via e-mail. (As Corbett himself has noted, under former Gov. Ed Rendell, school funding was shored up by economic stimulus funds, provided by the Obama administration. The stimulus money ran out as Corbett took office. While Corbett’s first budget increased the state share of funding, it wasn’t enough to replenish some $840 million in lost federal money. In this year’s budget address, Corbett objected to the claim that he had cut spending, calling it an “urban legend was spread by those who have the most to gain from additional funding at taxpayer expense.”)
Roddy posted his comments under his own name, but without explicitly identifying himself as an employee of the Corbett Administration. “I figured they would know who I am, especially given that they seem to have organized a letter writing campaign to my old newspaper,” he says. “I didn’t list my work affiliation so as not to give the impression that my comments were some official, administration pronouncement.” He was, he says, commenting not as an administration employee, but as a taxpayer and a parent of two children in the public schools.
That explanation doesn’t satisfy Ramey. “You have every right to say these are your own opinions,” she says, “but when you are being paid by the administration to put out its message, I think it’s unfair to suggest that you get to be Joe Citizen, and decide when you are taking your ‘official’ hat on or off.” Though Roddy provided his own name — and though Ramey says she did recognize it — she says he should have identified his Corbett ties from the outset. “Identifying yourself in a public forum is only fair, she says. “Otherwise, you’re leaving it incumbent on the rest of us to figure out which hat you are wearing.”
Ramey took matters into her own hands. She e-mailed Roddy — at the address he provided — and asked him to confirm that he was that Dennis Roddy. Once he did, she posted a disclosure for him:
Before I reply, I’d like to point out that the above comment is from Dennis Roddy, former Post-Gazette columnist and now a paid member of Governor Corbett’s communication staff. I have confirmed this via email, and though Mr. Roddy says he is posting as a “father” and “taxpayer,” I believe his affiliation is highly relevant to this conversation so I am choosing to include it here.
In his conversation with me, Roddy complained that Ramey was posting such comments under her own online alias, “YinzerThing.”
“Call me a cynic,” he says, “but I’m beginning to think that’s not a real name.” (The site’s “about” page does identify Ramey as the site’s author, but the identity of “YinzerThing” would probably not be immediately clear to most visitors.)
In the best internet tradition, once Ramey posted his Corbett connections, Roddy fired back: “Aside from the preciousness of putting father and taxpayer in quotes, as if they are excuses rather than positions, I also object to the fact that someone posting as ‘Yinzer Thing’ insists on fuller disclosure as to my identity,” a comment posted this afternoon begins. After a discussion of property taxes and the part education costs play in the state’s budget problems, he added:
“Because you bring my employment into it, let me point out that the governor and Susan Corbett both began their working lives as teachers in public schools. They are products of public schools and sent their children to the same schools. They value education. That is why, in the face of these deficits, he still found a way to put back the state’s share of dollars in a Basic Education Formula that had been painfully distorted by the inclusion of one-time federal stimulus money that was never intended for year-to-year operating expenses.”
Could Roddy have avoided the controversy simply by saying, from the outset, “I work for the Corbett Administration, though the views I am expressing here are my own”? Perhaps not. While Ramey says, “I absolutely believe there’s room for open dialogue,” she also objects to Roddy diluting grassroots commentary with arguments that echo administration talking points. “I don’t look at this as an innocent attempt on his part.”
On the bright side, at least she knows someone in the Corbett Administration is listening.
This article appears in Feb 22-28, 2012.
The sideshow argument is mind-numbingly facile, amounting to so much “So’s your sister”, though I guess I side with Roddey on its merits. It’s not like he signed on as “OvertaxedWorkingFamilyGuy412” or something. It’s safe to assume every comment by everyone, on the Internet or in the meatosphere, is in some way self-interested.
I’d be more interested in whether any of the money saved by “reforming Harrisburg” can be reallocated to education, and what is the present state of those initiatives we heard so much about during the campaign. Also, why money waiting to be raised with the sort of significant fossil fuel extraction tax we see in Texas or Louisiana (mature energy producing states) can’t safely be forced down our evil, loathsome velcro hallway without undue harm to hardhat wearing 99%ers. Finally, and this might reveal my naivete, but I wonder how much money might be reprogrammed from the centralized command-economy, legalized vote purchasing department we call “Economic Development”.
*command-economy, legalized >campaign contribution redemption< department. My dudgeon is rusty.
In the interest of full disclosure, I must point out that Bram R is actually B-Money, formerly of the Ringers and BoP, and while he might insist he is not posting in his capacity as a currently semi-retired ultimate frisbee player, I think this bears heavily upon his remarks.
Roddy or no Roddy, a quick look at Corbett’s top eduction priorities suggests that all this budget talk is not the core issue. Corbett supports vouchers, charters school, tax credits to businesses that donate to schools and a harsher grading system for teachers. By gutting the public education system in places like Pittsburgh, Philly, etc., Corbett makes many of us public school parents feel more vulnerable and helpless. But we DO have another choice: keep fighting for the public schools we know were working and re-elect someone else for Governor in 2014. Here’s a good run down of Corbett’s core platform on education: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/12/t…
I agree that scare-quoting “father” and “taxpayer” was a little gratuitous, but it’s also true that Dennis is a very senior and public figure in the administration (his job description includes “giving advice to the governor”).
I think the problem here is just two different worldviews: Dennis uses his name as his handle but doesn’t give lots of details about himself (he’s a public figure), while Jessie uses a pseudonymous handle, but provides sufficient details to those who seek them. It’s all beautiful. Personally, I hide my identity — it’s the quality of the idea that matters, not who said it or what their bias might be (more important, it’s what my WPP case manager has ordered me to do.)
Like Chris I have a very good opinion of Dennis (he did some great work at the P-G, and it’s their loss that he’s gone), and I’m pleased that someone of his caliber is in the governor’s administration. I have a very good opinion of Jessie too — there are some useful and informative posts over at her blog.
I respectfully disagree with Jessie that “diluting grassroots commentary with administration talking points” is a bad thing. This budget is a hard problem to solve, and we need all points of view to do it. Having one from the governor’s office is good, even if it’s biased. Keeps us on our toes, and in a way, is kind of a compliment.
It appears that Dennis and Jessie agree on one thing: we need to find the money, and it’s a very good question where to look.
I respectfully disagree with Dennis though, that you can’t find $5B, or for that matter that health and welfare make up 70% of the state’s expenditures, but I’ll post about that over on Yinzercation, where the policy action is at (that’s http://yinzercation.wordpress.com — call before midnight tonight!).
OWFG412
Apparently obligatory full disclosure: not only have I never met Jessie’s brothers, I didn’t even know she had them! I haven’t met Dennis’s or Chris’s either. The only Bram I know is Stoker, and I’m pretty sure he’s (un?)dead.
I think in fairness that Jessie Ramey posting as YinzerThing gave readers a clear message that she is aligned with Yinzercation’s stance (and her name was available), while Roddey posting under his name without disclosing his position in the state administration was at the very least disingenuous (I didn’t know anything about him before this and just a name gave no clue that there was some pertinent info missing and no clue where I would find it if I knew to look, which I didn’t because as I said, I never heard of him before). Not at all the same thing.
My disclosure: I support no politician or political party, partly because I have yet to find any who/that has the integrity to command my respect and support, and partly because I prefer to use the limited wisdom I’ve managed to gain in my 48 years in viewing and reviewing any issue or decision before me.
I’m enjoying the debate between Dennis Roddy and Jessie Ramey on Yinzercation and the City Paper. I’m thankful that Mr. Roddy is now identified as a member of the governor’s staff, though in the City Paper he says he “figured they would know who I am.” I’m one of those rare, uninformed citizens who didn’t know. I moved to Pittsburgh only seven years ago, for no other reason than I always loved Pittsburgh as a kid and a younger man. That said, I’m glad to be acquainted with Dennis Roddy (and the governor, for that matter). I’m one of the many unemployed high school teachers in Allegheny County. Now that I know who Dennis Roddy is, I can finally put his point of view into context. At first reading, I figured Mr. Roddy must be a mouthpiece for some sort of angry political entity. Now that he’s been identified, I can see that he speaks as a concerned citizen and parent. As an unemployed father of three (one of whom is now applying for college and financial aid), I share his concern.
After years of minimum wage jobs, and finally after a stint as a low-level bureaucrat in a soul-sucking corporate cubicle, at forty years of age I went back to college for the second time, took out a new round of student loans, moved to Pittsburgh, bought a cheap cozy home in Bellevue, and generally enjoyed my new life despite the uncertainties. After school, I found a job at a private school, teaching high school English for four years, until the school hit an unrelated budget crisis of its own.
Four years of teaching was just enough for me to (1) figure out that I’m exceptionally good at it, and (2) watch the whole profession tank in Pennsylvania. For the past year, I’ve been substituting at $80 a day and looking for another teaching job, either public or private. Understand, I’m not bitter at the governor. I realize that my problem is not mass layoffs and budget cuts aimed at education; it’s simply that I lack one or another of those qualities that define good Americans. For me, it’s a case of misguided aspirations. I wanted to be a teacher at a time when teachers have “priced themselves to the point where no amount of money will be enough.” Since I couldn’t bear to see myself among this country club set, I’m finally reassessing my priorities.
Foolishly, I even let my former students and fellow teachers reinforce my folly. When the kids would tell me I’m the only teacher who ever took the time to really get to “know” them, and my fellow teachers told me, “With kids, you’re an impact player,” I didn’t realize how deceptive they could be. They were simply trying to pull me away from my minimum wage roots and strip me of all claims to street credibility. In short, they were leading me down the path to avarice and sloth. Now, after a year of soul searching and substituting, I can finally see the truth. Therefore, in the future (and the future is now!), I’m going to refocus all my energies into getting a job with the governor’s office.
I’d like to thank Mr. Roddy for helping me see the light. I’d also like to dedicate a small piece of an old country song to him. I assume he’s familiar with it, since the jukeboxes in Mt. Lebanon are already loaded with Dwight Yoakum. It goes like this (with a little paraphrase): “I want to thank you, Dennis, for teaching me brand new ways to be cruel.” Thus, as soon as I land my plum blue-collar job with the governor, I’m going to finally give those public school teachers – with their damned full-time jobs, their salaries, their unions, pensions, health care and retirement plans – a taste of rough justice as sanctioned by the governor’s office on behalf of “the everyman,” the concerned citizen, taxpayer, and fathers everywhere. Onward and upward. Mr. Roddy, show us the way.
Sincerely,
“O.G.” (that’s what the kids used to call me) Amick
* In the interest of full disclosure, which, after all, is not unreasonable: (A) I have a recurring dream in which I’m kneeling at a 21st-century job-skills workshop, painting Jessie Ramey’s toenails – sometimes gold, sometimes lavender, sometimes shirtless (weather permitting); (B) I expect to have dreams in which Dennis Roddy holds the governor’s feet while he does sit-ups, and then snaps him with a wet towel (they both laugh); (C) having read this article, I’d never even dream there was a past, positive affiliation between Chris Potter and the Rameys.
Mr. Amick, aside from the puerile fantasies in your postscript — which should make any parent out there positively thrill at the idea of you in a classroom with their kids — let’s do some math.
In the past year, Pennsylvania schools graduated 12,000 people with the degrees necessary to be teachers. Last year, there were 3,000 openings. (One of my sons is among that number; he plans to move.)
In discussing costs (80 percent of school costs are personnel) I am not suggesting teachers are part of some country club set. I am saying their contracts have become decoupled from market economics. During the recession, only two fields saw actual salary rises: health care and education. I agree that we need both of these. And as a society, we find ourselves hard pressed to pay for eitherwithout fracturing state and local budgets.
The problem with revenues and rising ecucation costs is real, but trust me in this, nobody planned the recession around you. Even I had to change jobs. Dennis Roddy
C’mon guys, I know it’s hard not to indulge in rhetorical excess in a blog post (worse yet, commenting on a blog post! my pores must reek of loserdom), but let’s leave the Governor’s feet and Jessie’s nails out of this. And let’s not post under lame puns of Dennis’s name. The real Dennis can e-mail Chris, we’ll get an authentic Roddy post that we can trust (hint: it wouldn’t have the typos), and we can get back to the issues.
Or, better yet, head over to Yinzercation and elevate the discussion to where it ought to be. Some teacher salaries and benefits are too high, and pensions are a ticking time bomb that need to be addressed regardless of where you fall on the issue at hand. There are solutions if we seek them together! Let’s get to it!
OTFG412
ps: as far as I may have contributed to the degeneration of the discussion, apologies
“I know it’s hard not to indulge in rhetorical excess in a blog post”
>>> You should have seen the first draft!
Anyway, just to make clear: To the best of my knowledge and belief, “Donncha O Rodochain” IS the genuine Dennis Roddy. And I am, of course, me.
I’d like to thank Mr. Roddy for helping me see the light. I’d also like to dedicate a small piece of an old country song to him. I assume he’s familiar with it, since the jukeboxes in Mt. Lebanon are already loaded with Dwight Yoakum. It goes like this (with a little paraphrase): “I want to thank you, Dennis, for teaching me brand new ways to be cruel.” Thus, as soon as I land my plum blue-collar job with the governor, I’m going to finally give those public school teachers – with their damned full-time jobs, their salaries, their unions, pensions, health care and retirement plans – a taste of rough justice as sanctioned by the governor’s office on behalf of “the everyman,” the concerned citizen, taxpayer, and fathers everywhere. Onward and upward.
The entity which is somewhat convincingly purporting to be an appendage of the Governor’s administration said:
“In discussing costs (80 percent of school costs are personnel) I am not suggesting teachers are part of some country club set. I am saying their contracts have become decoupled from market economics.”
And I am saying market economics have been decoupled from reason long ago. The Pirates will pay A.J. Burnett $13 million to throw a ball over a plate (or at least towards it) not even because it will give the Pirates a chance at .500+ season but because his goatee and tattoos will keep a few consumers of bobbleheads and fireworks away from How I Met Your Mother reruns. If we can’t find ways to broadly provide excellence in education for our children however, China will eat our lunches and democracy’s lunches. We can complain about the market or we can dig in with our heels and work to change it. If we’re not laboring against the grain of entropy at that, and at getting people to work (public transit) and at a few aspects of the public health, I’m really not sure why we maintain a state government at all.
“I’m really not sure why we maintain a state government at all.”
>>>> For the lulz, Bram.
Governor Corbett here, education and transit are not top priorities. Guns, god, oil, and teddy bears are what’s important. As an aside, Barack Obama is doing an okay job, but we need a man like Mitchell Romney to really get our country back.
Hey Tom, its Mick Romney not Mitch.
Given the topic of this post, I feel obliged to state the obvious and point out that a previous post — ostensibly by Thomas W. Corbett — was actually not, you know, written by the governor himself.
I’m sort of tempted to remove the post entirely, since I generally frown on people posting under other people’s names. But I think it’s pretty obvious that this is riffing on the direction this thread has taken. So instead of removing the joke outright, I’ll just ruin it instead. Please knock it off in the future, though.
Also, for the record, Gov. Romney’s name isn’t Mitchell OR Mick. It’s “Mittens.” Don’t you people know ANYTHING about politics?
The last few recent posts show how grossly misinformed the electorate truly is. I’m very afraid that these people will be voting. Perhaps there should be some sort of intelligence test in order to vote. This would certainly hurt Republicans more than Democrats.
This comments thread just keeps on giving.
I’d be thrilled to know the opinion of Dennis or any reasonably good facscimile about the following letter:
Dear Legislator,
I’ve been reading the governor’s budget and have noticed that our state currently gives away more in special tax exemptions than we actually spend on education. I’m sure some of those exemptions are great public policy, but some seem stupid.
To keep it simple, I propose that you please choose one of the following two options. Either:
A) vote to cut $90 million from the education budget; or,
B) vote to repeal the sales tax exemptions for coal ($120M, p. D47) and candy ($90M, p. D43), eliminating roughly $100 – $200 million in stupid giveaways of state revenue, and use $90 million of this recovered revenue to restore this year’s education cuts.
It seems foolish that we take away our kids’ music teacher so that we can buy them candy tax free.
Maybe there’s something I’m missing here, I’ve never done this before and I’m not a lawyer or a tax accountant. If so, please explain why candy and coal are tax exempt.
Sincerely yours, etc.
OTWFG412
ps: I give you permission to let any extra $$$ stick somewhere to your Velcro wall.
Sorry Sorry Sorry, everybody. Yes, my postscript a couple days ago was puerile, but it was also an afterthought, written in the 40 seconds before hitting “send,” and everyone seemed to be goofing on the whole disclosure business at the time. I never meant it to be a focal point. I should have, but I didn’t give it a second thought at the time. Now, I check 2 days later and see there was a free-for-all. Again, that wasn’t my intention. I don’t know if anyone’s interested anymore, but I have a few final comments about Mr. Roddy’s reply to me, whether anyone’s listening or not. Then, I’m done.
Mr. Roddy,
Puerile fantasies or not, I still pose less threat to public school kids by being in the classroom than you and others do when you say “let’s do some math.”
First, what does this mean? – “Trust me in this, nobody planned the recession around you.” Is that a joke? “Trust me”? At the very least it’s a lot to ask. Is saying it wasn’t planned around me like saying the recession (or the “nobody” who planned it) doesn’t discriminate? That it’s like a black cloud or something that rolls in and soaks everyone equitably and arbitrarily, so that we all end up the same degree of drenched? Kind of a cool as hell idea, but I don’t think that’s the case. No, the “powers that be,” so to speak, didn’t plan the recession, or at least its aftermath, around me. They didn’t plan it around my son’s music program at high school. And they didn’t plan it around your son either, who isn’t the only one who has to leave the state to have any hope of working in education.
But somebody’s picking and choosing who pays for the damage and who doesn’t. They’re taking a real good look at people and programs that I care about, yet they don’t seem to mind that Marcellus Shale doesn’t have to pay much in tax, for example (somebody did plan this recession around Marcellus Shale, trust me in this). They’re somewhat OK on the Delaware loophole (a lot of people got planned around on that one). And they even kind of like that whole bonus depreciation scheme, which cost taxpayers somewhere around 250 million in the first half of this fiscal year. Yet, they downright hate the idea of buying 3 trombones for Northgate High School. (Then MY property taxes go up to try to recoup some of the money the state isn’t collecting on behalf of public schools.)
I know that 250 million dollars isn’t the billion dollar education cut that tidies up the budget, but I also know that politically-abetted greed (even in a recession) isn’t some kind of an isolated incident. If I’m going to do “some math,” it’s got to be simple, first off, and then I’m going to try to figure out how many loopholes and special favors are going to people and corporations who don’t need them at a time when we’re gutting the education system. Using the $250 million figure above as a starting point, I’d do something like this, maybe:
250,000,000(X) = 1 Billion; solve for X.
“X” is the number of 250 million dollar party favors we need to cut to reach a billion dollars. Then, that billion translates to “Y” number of teachers who can teach in Pennsylvania, with enough left over for my own puerile fantasies of doing what I want to do, what I’m best at, for a living.
I hate to see teachers go. I know a few of them myself. And I’ll hate to see me go, too. I especially hate to see them go when I have friends and family who work in Pittsburgh Public who say they could certainly use some help. Maybe, Mr. Roddy, you could just tell them, like you told me – “Even I had to change jobs.” They’ll like that. Just don’t tell them that corporate goodies are more important to the economy or the state than education. They won’t like that, though they can see for themselves. Better to tell them nobody planned the recession around them.
I wish them luck, though, because I know what they’re up against: People who see the lives of others as an equation and see themselves as mathematicians, yet who – due to politics, ideology, self-interest, or lack of imagination – choose to remain willfully, conveniently, ignorant of the variables involved in simple math.
Randy Amick
No disclosure
No more posts
Certainly no postscripts
Goodnight, Good luck
Just deleted another post under the name of a politician. Like I said before, please knock it off.
If u think transit n teachers got it bad . . .