"California Couldn't Pay Our Education" by Roy Zimmerman

[ticks4ticks4]

Why the "Six" and "Nine" names?

[Zerafinel]

Brilliant song :D

[DontSigh]

I love this one, I can´t believe it´s not more well known!

[showaddy11]

what a humourise intelligent man. what a teacher.

[ponyryan]

Great points Roy! Any thoughts about the interaction of education with the exceedingly high prison population in CA? Anybody? Crime, addiction, poverty, et cetera, all interacting with education. Fund it people! Reform it people! Should we really be paying "superintendents" the salary of 4-5 teachers? Admin does not teach and teach is the basic goal of an educational system. I'm out.

[artdrawsyou]

Hats off to music teachers! This is why blackberries, i pods, video games, face book, malls, sports teams, entertainment, & war, are constantly being pushed by few elite at top. If public curriculum actually taught students to be self-thinkers, elite would have to deal with conscientious objectors thus making less $ on prisons wars. Our Constitution is being stolen right under our noses while the corporate government leads future generations into a more potent form of slavery & drug addiction.

[causmb]

@artdrawsyou outstanding!

[Drego642]

LOL, I wish Roy Zimmerman was my uncle...

[Wonderplant]

Roy Zimmerman knows my uncle. The used to play this song together as "the foremen."

[Drego642]

That is awesome.

[b4baby]

what a talented family!

[herb0001]

Basically, public education is failing everywhere. Government cannot be trusted to run schools. A school voucher system could be the answer perhaps?

[TheDcrat]

Government has done a great job at running the school system in most states.

[aqwiz]

yeah straight into the ground, have you looked at america's education statistics in comparison to the rest of the world? we're like 87th . .. or worse, in most everything

[TheDcrat]

So you'd rather pay $10,000 a year to go to school. I know it's not the best system, but it's better than paying that price tag.

[aqwiz]

uhh, I'm talking about public schools, honestly I'm pretty much self educated, and in high school I did a better job at it than my teachers could, slept through class most days and yet wound up answering most of the teachers' questions to the class, because everyone else was simply lost all I had to do was read the book once. But the public school system in this country sucks, and we still pay for it, just that the costs are offset onto the taxpayer. I'd rather the taxes were well spent. thanks

[scotths]

30 years ago the conservatives told us government doesn't work.. They then got themselves elected to office a made sure of it! Time to fix what they broke....

[bobbygnosis]

You people really ARE stupid! CA had the best public education sys in the US. Then the GOP decided they didn't like people being educated enough to question the GOP. So they started a fake "tax revolution" and killed CA's schools. Then they spread that crap to the rest of the US. Now, you are all paying the price of a dead "education." Yet, you bitch about dems, the ones who tried to stop this GOP insult. Well,all you suckers who follow the republican (and libertarian) parties-YOU LOSE!

[Porion491]

I've been in seven state's worth of public school, and i can say that nothing public school brings to the table can top tutelage by parents with master's degrees.

[Ploppy17]

So we just have to make sure that only those with masters degrees become parents, and problem solved?

...

I feel like there is a flaw there, but I just don't see it...

[Porion491]

Yes, because it's totally impossible to be an intelligent individual without a degree.

I keep forgetting people keep equating the two.

[ffcloud321]

I know so many people who went to college and can't even read a ruler and have to ask me about basic multiplication. I really don't see a link between degrees and intelligence. I think it's more about money. I have to pay 60,000 dollars to a school to learn summary's of things I can learn in detail on my own.

[aqwiz]

yeah I totally puh-0wn stupid n00bs with computer science degrees on a regular basis :p (they're the worst ones, because they've been wasting their time on getting an education while real life experience gives you an education right along the way, and it isn't even difficult to obtain)

[arachnophile01]

@aqwiz anyone who uses the word n00b, against the verry computer science that created the online games in which the phrase was poularized is a hypocrit

[aqwiz]

@arachnophile01 You obviously either A. don't understand sarcasm. or B. have no frickin clue what you are talking about. shezus this comment was what 4 months ago?

I wasn't saying anything against computer science itself, I was poking fun at the degree system, which doesn't teach real-life application, just theory. I personally HAVE met quite a few computer science majors with degrees, who were completely incompetent, my point is, degrees don't mean shit.

[aqwiz]

@aqwiz So how does one, (aside from having a ridiculously small phallus) proclaim to be an arachno(spider)phile(lover[wit­h sexual connotations])

[ffcloud321]

but that's not say there aren't good schools, just good luck getting into them.

[Zaxser]

I'm from Georgia. Where are we in education? Forty fuckin' ninth bitches.

[Eternity29]

As someone who is the product of the Iowa school system (home of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills!) I can tell you it doesn't get much better.

[zacharyrock]

Nice key change, man!

[austenbosten]

Everyone's whining about their school system. Ohio is and has been nationally notorious for its abysmal education system, which I am a prodduckt [sic] of. the Ohhioo publick edyoukation sistem, has maid me. [sic]. :p

[Dyne77]

I'm a product of the Arizona public school system. From what I've heard, it's one of the worst (state superintendent on a crusade against Ethnic Studies classes, and a legislature that periodically guts the education budget).

[ArianneHermida]

ME TOO!

In terms of funding for public education, we're fifty-first in the nation, behing all fifty states and Puerto Rico.

If you're still in the state, I encourage you come down to the capitol the next time there is a rally protesting the budget cuts to education in our state. The last one was sponsored by AEA. They'll most likely sponsor the next big one as well.

[MsWanderer1]

Just light up a joint and pay more taxes; things will get much better then; at lease until all the companies and working people leave California.

[3rdconfederate]

California could have paid your damned education if it weren't  having to pay for all the freakin' illegals!!!

[foolsbetrippin]

took errr jobs

[ArianneHermida]

Woah. His kids are really tall too.

[singingnymph]

A very talented family! Bravo!

[PumpkinJoe999]

If you are dumb and uneducated your parents probably sucked hard.

People on an MSNBC morning show were talking about the economy and spending (near Christmas), and they were saying that the economy would be better if schools taught students how to manage a checkbook and personal finance. Why can't parents do that?!? Maybe if people weren't so lazy the schools could spend more time on education and less on raising the offspring of braindead nanny-state sheeple debt slaves.

[GagMeStudios]

Maybe the parents don't know how to balance their checkbooks either?

[Deshara218]

Which often explains why the children to going to public school in the first place.

[FiliusVeritatis]

"Our texts were first-rate, Back in 1958" is a funny line, but to be practical, much of the important information out there has been known not only since '58, but since long before. Take Euclidean geometry for example; it's been known for 2300 years. Writing in the modern English language has been around for about 500.

[vixdamom]

you are simply brilliant...

[szrgirl]

Cool video :-)

[bieber17]

People of Poland say - well done!! :)

[apace003]

1crow-do your "uncredentialed experts" metacogitate?

[1crow]

You're on the wrong side of history. The Dem Congress won't do it but maybe Obama will grow a pair and stand-up to the NEA.

Money is power. When the 'uninvolved' parents are 'empowered' (teachers love that term) with the $'s, their involvement and the student success rates improve dramatically.

The D.C. voucher program proves this so, of course, Durbin and the NEA-puppet Dems are intent on killing it for 2000 poor black kids and their parents. "Professional educators" should be ashamed.

[apace003]

1crow doesn't know the facts. Last year DC schools graduated 70 % of their students. Duh!

[hack451]

... cause 5 out of ten drop-outs is atrocious but 3 out of ten is perfectly acceptable?

[1crow]

This song is populist pablum. California spends about $8000/yr per student.  Education funding is 40% of the gross budget by proposition.

So the lament is we don't spend enough $'s? Maybe he should be asking where the money goes.

The public education system is a scam perpetrated by teachers' unions and bureaucrats who essentially buy and threaten politicians.

[apace003]

$8000 IS DOWN RIGHT PATHETIC. That's why we can't compete. Your cost should be north 0f 11,000 per year.

[1crow]

Here's what's needed:

A room, a blackboard, materials and a person who 1) knows and can organize the subject(s) 2) can present the material 'on stage' and 3) can motivate or maintain the interest of the audience. You don't need a teaching credential for this and and it doesn't require $160K for 20 kids. There are thousands of 'uncredentialed' experts who could do as well or better than the so-called professional educators.

The union-controlled public education system is a fraud.

[Roselynde]

160k? teachers get paid about a fourth of that amount. and you DO need a teaching credential. You can be the smartest man in the world, but if you cant transfer knowledge, you will also be the worst teacher in the world.

[1crow]

Precisely. 75% of our ed. budget (40% of total expenditures in CA) goes to administration which, along with credentialing, has nothing to do with 'transfering knowledge.'

New teachers get $34K for nine months' work along with bene's and holidays unheard of in the private sector. They max. out at $60K/yr.

Zimmerman is hilarious none-the-less.

[Roselynde]

it may be "only" 9 months a year, but 75% of teachers (higher for new teachers) teach summers because THEY HAVE TO to pay their bills. Also unheard of in the private sector are 7 day workweeks, and 12 to 16 hour days. Have you ever tried teaching? It doesn't end at 3 oclock, that's for damn sure. Even the simplest assignment, if given to 2 classes of 35 students (the avg for high schools in CA) will take you upwards of two hours. Now imagine how long grading essays or math problems would take.

[1crow]

p.s: Washington, DC spends 'north of $11,000 per year.' This money buys: dangerous schools overrun by gangs and drugs, 50% dropout rates, rampant illiteracy and an ongoing cycle of dependence and mediocrity and failure. The $7,500(!) vouchers put in by Rhee are a roaring success so, of course, the union-puppet Dems. are trying to kill the program.

These people are selling-out poor black kids for selfish political control. They and anyone supporting this travesty are truly despicable.

[Roselynde]

Also, I don't believe the public school system (or any school system in the US) is perfect in anyway. I hate vouchers as much as you seem to, probably more. There are issues, but making it a free-for-all so that anyone or his mother could teach is downright dangerous and just plain foolish.

[1crow]

Are you a teacher? This sounds like NEA rhetoric because in one sentence you offered a fallacy combo of false-choice (either-or) and reductio absurdum (anyone could teach and that would be downright dangerous and foolish.)

[Roselynde]

I don't see the false choice you referred to. Also, the term is "reductio ad absurdum" and that has nothing to do with what I said. Nice try, but no. Do you disagree that allowing ANYONE to teach is foolish and dangerous? Or are you one of those free-thinkers who doesn't believe in standards?

And no, I am not a teacher. What do you do?

[1crow]

Yes, my bad; it is 'ad absurdum'.

So, either teachers are credentialed or just ANY 'foolish and dangerous person teaching foolish and dangerous ideas gets to teach; this is a false choice and an absurd reduction of the premise that there are qualified professional and trades people quite capable of imparting thinking skills and knowledge.

Not everybody can teach but you don't need a teaching credential to do this. A credential does not offer much quality control anyway.

[Koldkut09]

Where do you get the idea that you have a right to allow anything? Why don't you worry about educating your own children, and recognize the right of other free adults to choose for themselves how to educate their offspring?

[Koldkut09]

Ludicrous nonsense.

John Adams, the second president of the U.S. learned 4 languages, calculus, and the natural history of his era in an unheated one room schoolhouse, without paper, computers, or internet access.

Money is not the solution. Demanding excellence is.

[caelestis356]

Yeah, you don't need resources to teach anyone anything! That's the kinda thinking that will keep our workforce competitive on the international stage! YEAH!

[FiliusVeritatis]

Abraham Lincoln had very sparse resources, but I'll bet he was better educated and smarter than you'll ever be.

Who taught Einstein Relativity? Who taught Darwin evolution? Who taught Newton calculus? Who taught Edison to make incandescent light-bulbs? What text book and website did they use? They had no teachers, textbooks, classrooms, websites, etc. to learn those things: they taught themselves.

[caelestis356]

This isn't about whether someone can be educated without textbooks, computers, etc. It's about our up and coming laborers and thinkers being competitive with those of other countries. If you want to see more jobs leave this country, then by all means, blabber about Abraham Lincoln and other people who have no fucking relevance to today's world.

[FiliusVeritatis]

Abraham Lincoln is more relavent to today's world than you will ever be. And don't blame me for going on about the ability of one to become educated without resources; you brought it up.

If you want competitive laborers, education will be useless to your purpose. It's about supply and demand, and there's no demand for people who know about parabolas and polysaccharides that isn't already supplied.

[caelestis356]

If you want to have a serious discussion about the education system, how about talking about people alive TODAY. Yes, I realize these people are relevant in history class. But this has no bearing on America's education system in today's world. Your second paragraph shows that you are incredibly naive about the way the world works. Education is the cornerstone of any advanced society and the fact that our education system has faltered has a lot to do with our current standing in the world.

[FiliusVeritatis]

The people who actually use their education, those whom you call the "cornerstone of any advanced society," are exceptionally rare. The real workforce (and real population) consists of normal people.

[caelestis356]

Even the "normal people" had to have some kind of job training. Tech schools are part of the education system as well. And those "normal people" do happen to need such things as, oh, I don't know... doctors, lawyers. But other than that, I mean, who needs those silly scientists and engineers who actually push the boundaries of what we are capable of as a society, right? Crazy educated people, they just sit around and twiddle their thumbs...

[FiliusVeritatis]

Lawyers are absolutely not needed; we should mercilessly kill them all. As for innovators, they occupy a small percentage of the population, and that is filled largely with people like Abraham Lincoln.

[caelestis356]

Haha. Methinks you need some of that fabled education... Let me know if you want to step out of your fantasy world and have a real discussion.

[caelestis356]

Not to mention that Abraham Lincoln WAS a lawyer... dumbass

[FiliusVeritatis]

I know. That was in the days long before billboards everywhere saying "ARE YOU HURT?"

[Rezsia]

because they had nothing better to do...

[FiliusVeritatis]

You can demand excellence till you die of hemorrhoids, but when you delude yourself into thinking "education is a right for all Americans!" and subsequently try to literally teach every retard from sea to shining sea, you expect lanam ab aninso.

[antinominianist]

So you think you can get people to make choices by demanding them to do it?

People will only make choices when they need to or feel like. Out of these two, need is one thing that is predictable. John Adams felt the need.. I guess modern students don't feel the need because life doesn't require us to reach the hard-to-reach anymore. Perhaps we should let them see the problems of this world that they can solve in return for resources they would love to have more of.

[BionicDance]

I like the Irish drinking song sound quite a bit... :)

[nodelusion64]

PLEASE COME TO MICHIGAN

[lushlars]

timely

[FrenchRevolution1789]

You could easily apply this to where I grew up...Massachusetts Couldn't Pay Our Education.

[strang3l]

This song made me laugh until I cried. I did not cry because I laughed hard; I cried because it really is a song about my education... woe is me.

[vixdamom]

great song, again ....

[jackotech]

hi roy i am form the uk and i am just hoping that could u get some cds sold over here because me and my mates like the songs and they complete r view that the us is a laugh

[NancythePatriot]

Please tell us why your sons are called

6 and 9 and what is your nephew famous for?

[rspkingdude]

his sons are called 6 and 9 because of something he said earlier it was just a joke i can't remeber it atm

[herb0001]

Lol, I'll laugh if his kids grow up to be hardcore conservatives!

[frayja1984]

Haha, Looks like Puerto Rico and California have a lot in common!

Great one.

[rspkingdude]

I am pretty sure this was in Lake port califonia. I went to his concert there and the backround looks like the next play that was coming up which was cinderella

[rspkingdude]

Well, im dumb its right in the description. So, I was there. =)

[FolkieKy]

Always a fan of Roy (and the boys' mom). So great to see the lads!

[wimscheers]

"If you suffer your people to be ill-educated and their manners corrupted from infancy, and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded, sire, but that you first make thieves and then punish them" Thomas More, Utopia, 1516. 1516 Think about it.

[wimscheers]

It must be hell to have a cool dad.

[mollificent]

Nice (but not surprising) to see that your sons are talented too! :D

[wutzernutzer]

The instrumental section makes the song!

[OeditpusRex]

Roy, this was one of my favorites from the first incarnation of "Folk Heroes." I sure would love to see the Foremen re-unite and do all those fabulous tunes in Santa Cruz again.

Hey, I just thought — did you ever do anything in "tribute" to Howard Jarvis and Paul Gann?

[petitoeuf8]

well i'm a junior in the #1 public school in california. our school is really pretty shitty, we dont have crap for funding. next year apparently they're cutting $40 million from our district and are losing our counselors, possibly some AP classes and not "important" classes, and class sizes are going from 30 to 40 students per teacher. its pretty pitiful. somehow we manage a good education

[wutzernutzer]

Sorry to hear that. Funny how they want to cut classes for the highest acheivers that potentially could save them money by bypassing freshman intro courses. They just have to make sure the CA university system gets the most money out of its students.

[euterpe42]

Thank you so much for this! As a student myself, I was waiting for a song from you on our sham of an educational system.

[a2zdiy]

Wonderful!

[vizhnet]

is that a tanglewood?

[vigwig]

Great! Same thing in NY!

[Methelin]

greatgreatgreatgreat!!!

[soundofgeek]

Gotta love that last line...

[ghostmadlittlemiss]

Wow, his sons are really cute!

[harbeim]

And his nephew too!

[JoanManners]

This is the song that turned me on to Roy and the Foremen in the first place. Fun to see this performance!

[PaderWulf]

Instant Classic!

-Headbangs-

Did your sons purposely play that one section out of tune?

I've never played a trumpet or a saxophone in my life (Closest I got was a tuna) but if I remember right, those instruments are kinda hard to get out of tune once they've been tuned properly.

Or am I reading too much into that ?

[jlnotary]

the out of tune is intentional, their music teacher got laid off... pay attention, now.

[mrsmoose1478]

Things must be really fun at your house!

[stevenr21]

i thought the video was just going to be roy changing the key every couple of seconds.. lol

[Chick6517]

that was so funny i really cant believe you guys did that and have de guts to put that stuff out here for the public to see gotta give u props.

[scottmans]

Thumbs up

[RadicalWhig]

Unlike most of your songs, which have excellent lyrics but rather boring tunes, this one has both intelligent words and a tune that rocks!

[strylowskia90]

Wow! Well at least the Maryland School system isn't THAT bad.

[LynxChan]

heh, I escaped the CA system in time to mostly recover (though sadly my math skills were stunted for life).

You're son Joe looks just like you!

[kaburto1966]

I'm a product of the California school system. This is one of my favorite songs on the "best of" CD. It's nice to see your family singing together. Thanks so much for posting this.

[jorinde85]

Awesome! My husband is a product of the California public education and came out somehow knowing less about American history than me, a Belgian having had a couple of lessons in high school.

Also have to congratulate the boys, I know performing with your dad can be either really fun or the most embarrassing moment in your life.

[Paxmax]

HAhaaha funny and talanted as always!!

[walktheworld]

I've never seen anyone do a key change by moving the capo in the middle of a song before. Smoothly done. :)

[guitar2adam]

sweet key change at 3:55

[anmoose]

Hilarious! The instrumental break nearly put me on the floor. Good fun and so true all at once. I think Florida may be even worse...

[educatedidiot0]

love it!!! yeeesssss!!! i am also a product ofcalifornia's educational system!!! i learnd that you learn more when they let you free and stuff... dude... i now work at my local walmart... rollin back the prices.

[Zhiperser]

Awesome job guys!

[TheJollyReprobate]

Interesting, but... uh... shouldn't that be "California could pay FOR our education"?

Or is that part of the joke?

[BennyQuixote]

It's either part of the joke or poetic license for the pace.

[Desertphile]

The controller of Orange County, when I was living there, squandered the county's money on "investment tips" he got from astrologers, "psychics," and palm readers. The schools closed early that year, having run out of money.

But if California wanted to bomb brown people, I'm sure the government would have found hundreds of millions of dollars to give California to do that.

[Zekkron]

Awesome.

[jc8ward]

Nice quartet.

[CousinoMacul]

It seems that your sons can actually sing--or caaan they? :-P

[sharonheater]

and pay and pay and pay!

[AlmightySea]

lol, first view? first comment? first rating?