"I've tried for years to have a very simple model. 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."

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archiv...anitors/248837/

I'm glad to see the article didn't support Newt's belief.

Some school district union contracts base their wages/steps on how many years a custodian is in their district, rather than the quality of work performed. Each year a classified employee or custodian goes up a pay step automatically as long as there isn't some major complaint.

I've had students of different ages assigned to assist me in my work. Some as a behavior consequence & others as a positive incentive. I always try to be encouraging for the level of skill & abililty the students are able to do a task & you can't expect them to do as well as a trained custodian expert. In some cases, having a student helper just causes a custodian more work...especially if they must do the task again later or the student causes the need for other cleaning. One-on-one is the best, but I've been sacked with as many as 3 students & find it difficult to stay ahead of them with preparing new tasks to keep them busy.

One middle school I was a sub for the day custodian. Talk about frustrating! Each period the Special Ed class sent 3-5 different unsupervised students to assist the custodian in different ways. Some doing the same tasks again others did the previous period. A custodian may do a quick touch-up on door glass/entries & then the next thing you know...kids are messing them up with attempting to 'clean' them again. It's not help...it's babysiting. Administration thought it was such a wonderful thing to have students helping 'clean' the school. Wrong!

Yes - There is a difference between "doing work" and doing the job.

Yeah, I call it janitary inflation.

Yeah, I call it janitary inflation.

Good points that you have both made. I have worked in schools now for 30 years and I agree with everything you have said. I am from Canada but follow USA politics on CNN. Newt is a disgrace to the people of the USA. When he makes comments like this, he doesn't know what he is talking about.

Just so's de school system equips doze student janitors so's dey don't gotta hafta do nuthin', it could work out OK.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z9XzDcIDPU&feature=related

"A janitor's job is also about personal relationships. I will not pretend that my father's position as a janitor at a large Ivy League university was typical. He made sure that I met interesting people; I could take the day off of school, follow him around, and go to the library. He would leave me with different professors or graduate students so that I could talk to them about politics, history, or philosophy. Because my father worked there for many decades, he was part of the university community. My father took that role seriously."

http://open.salon.com/blog/chauncey_devega...on_of_a_janitor

Should janitors pay the same tax rate as jews?

'If asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a Jew, as a janitor, makes me a warrior for the working class, I wear that with a badge of honour. I have no problem with that. It's about time,' he said.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-20...l#ixzz1qodgXulj

"Newt Gingrich:
New York City pays their janitors an absurd amount of money because of the union. You could take one janitor and hire 30-some kids to work in the school for the price of one janitor, and those 30 kids would be a lot less likely to drop out."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/18/1...e-make-too-much