is because while teacher’s unions make sure that teachers make more than bus drivers, the payscales they negotiate — that tie pay to showing up instead of skillset — fail to attract scientists who can easily make six-figures in the real world. (link to Philip Greenspun via Big Contrarian)

The current salary is much more than necessary to attract qualified social studies teachers. At current salaries, she could find qualified replacements for all of the non-math/science teachers in her school system within a week or two. People who understand math and science, however, find the current package of salary and working conditions unattractive and find work elsewhere, leaving America’s children to be taught math by the substantially innumerate.

I need an iPhone application that computes whether or not it is worth my while to use my points at the grocery store for discounts on certain items or if I’m better of just saving them and getting my $25/$50 gift card. I did the math once in the store to figure out if I should use my points (1,000) to reduce the per-pound cost of bananas from .79 to .19 and it just didn’t seem worth it.

So but anyway, if anyone has some quick mental algorithm that can be used to figure this out, let me know. At the end of the day 1,000 points = $1. Sort of. If you accumulate enough of them then 870 points = $1.

Also, if you shop at the foodtown in Red Bank (hempstead) you should subscribe to their e-circular. I’ve been doing it for the past few weeks and it’s great knowing ahead of time what’s going to be 1/2 price this week.