Having had some limited experience in the custodial arts, we were interested to hear of former U.S. Speaker Newt Gingrich’s plan to put America’s poor black children to work as janitors.
The GOP frontrunner even went so far as to recommend the profession as an alternative to them becoming pimps, prostitutes or drug dealers.
Really …
“Young children who are poor ought to learn how to go to work,” Gingrich told ABC’s Jake Tapper. “What I’ve said is, for example, it would be great if inner city schools and poor neighborhood schools actually hired the children to do things. Some of the things they could do is work in the library, work in the front office. Some of them frankly, could be janitorial.”
Wow … can’t wait for Herman Cain to endorse this guy, right?
The “janitor plan” isn’t a new idea for Gingrich, though … he’s been pimping it out (sorry, bad metaphor) for several weeks as a way to get public schools to lower their custodial costs.
“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,” Gingrich said during a speech at Harvard last month decrying the stupidity of child labor laws.
In acknowledging the controversial nature of his views, Gingrich said that routing poor black kids into janitorial work is better than leaving them to their own devices.
“The first counter-attack is ‘do you realize how hard janitorial work is and do you realize how dangerous it is?’” Gingrich said. “So I come back and say, OK, what if they cleaned out the bathrooms and what if they mopped the floors? What if in the summer they repainted the school? What if in that process they were actually learning to work, learning to earn money, they had money on their own, they didn’t have to become a pimp or a prostitute or a drug dealer, they had money on their own? They had the dignity of work, and learned how to be around adults who actually wanted to mentor them and help them?”
Sheesh … putting Gingrich’s tone deafness aside for a moment, when you consider that Congressional approval is in single digits (with good reason), pimpin’ and slangin’ seem like honorable pursuits by comparison, don’t they? In fact the black market for sex and drugs is pretty much the only place where capitalism is alive and well these days in America.
Look, we’re not going to begrudge anybody for wanting to promote a little individual responsibility. Not even Gingrich – a candidate we otherwise loathe. And hell, with a $15 trillion (and climbing) national deficit that politicians like Gingrich, George W. Bush, Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama have saddled them with, the children of America had better get used to the notion of working their fingers to the bone.
Still, Gingrich’s desire for America to produce an army of impoverished child janitors to battle dust and grime in our government institutions isn’t likely to move many hearts and minds … although we would be remiss not to mention that there are the certain fringe benefits occasionally associated with a mastery of the custodial arts …
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By tomstickler December 7, 2011 at 9:59 am
I used to stay after school and clap the erasers. Does that count?
Maybe I can put in a claim if I develop “White Lung.”
By The Colonel December 7, 2011 at 10:17 am
I was a janitor once. I took a job with a guy who had the contract to provide janitorial services for a large electrical R&D firm in Atlanta. I had been working for him about six months when I learned about an RFP to provide janitorial services in some local elementary schools. With help from my employeer, I bid on and won that contract. I sold the business for $25,000 a year or so later when I graduated from high school at 17.
I learne da lot from being a janitor – the most important thing was that I didn’t want to be a janitor. I learned to show up on time and put in a full days work. I learend to hire good people and get out of their way. I learned to inspect what you expect (way before I became the Colonel). I also learned to fire slackers even if they happened to be friends.
You can learn (and earn) a lot from being a janitor
By BigT December 7, 2011 at 10:25 am
Great post…but the Hand-out, Gimme, Gimme crowd, like FITS, HATE people like you…
Anybody who wants to personally empower themselves, and keep their freedom in the process, is a threat to greedy Liberals and the politicians who manipulate them…
They just have not figured out (after 3-plus years of Obama, that slaying yo, and your spirit, will break them…
By The Colonel December 7, 2011 at 10:18 am
I’m still trying to learn to spell and grammar check before I post though…
By BigT December 7, 2011 at 10:41 am
Let the Leftist Rhetoric against the GOP Front-Runner begin…I expect it to piled-on for ANY Anti-Obama candidate…
But if you have any intelligence at all, it’s obvious that Newt made a good point…
Also: FITS bashes Tea Party people for their ‘slash and eliminate’ attitude (except when he is agreeing w/ them)…yet Gingrinch has very well-articulated, and doable solutions to fixing the mess we’re in…
Gingrich is actually what FITS Claims to be. He is a fiscal Conservative, but unlike FITS’ very Falied boss, Newt has a record of fiscal success…
By Ken E. December 7, 2011 at 4:59 pm
Fiscal Conservative. Ha. I have two words and a letter for you: Medicare Part D. No one can claim to be a fiscal conservative AND support Medicare Part D.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2011/11/18/newt_and_medicare_part_d.html
By lmao December 7, 2011 at 11:01 am
Nice clip, very funny.
I can’t wait for the holy rollers to come on and start bashing pot.
By ceilidh09 December 7, 2011 at 11:17 am
Yassuh, Massah Gin rich, we sho does love our jannesorial work down heah in da south…between you and Muss Haley, we sho gotta us a real good life, praise da Lawd, yessuh!
By Petey December 7, 2011 at 11:35 am
Back in the 1980′s we had students who worked after school cleaning classrooms. Not everybody could do this you had to meet minimum income levels before you were considered. The kids who did it like it because it was an easy after school job.
By Crooner December 7, 2011 at 11:48 am
Newt thinks every idea that pops into his head is pure gold and, as the smartest man in the room, doesn’t need any pesky advisors.
He’s dangerous.
By BigT December 7, 2011 at 11:52 am
What?….Newt’s dangerous and Obama’s not….
Newt can deliver: a balanced budget, welfare reform, a prosperity-producing tax rate….I don’t think that’s dangerous at all…It’s actually what we desperately need.
Obama has wrought: Deplorable unemployment, massive spending, a dying economy and a government that works against its people…That’s Obama…and that’s dangerous…
By snodgrass December 7, 2011 at 12:09 pm
I see nothing unique about this proposal. Unless you’re factoring in Newt’s sudden concern for the downtrodden.
By inside the mind of the scgop collective December 7, 2011 at 12:52 pm
newt’s uncompromising personal, religious, moral, and ethical stances and lifelong righteous and selfless crusades will be the qualities that will have him leading the world to true prosperity, peace,and harmony.
By Godslayer December 7, 2011 at 1:37 pm
When was the last time Newt even talked to a poor person? Or even a young person? Not likely, since by definition they have no money to give him.
By Jennifer December 7, 2011 at 2:19 pm
Get paid: why aren’t they expected to help clean up already? At my school, all Upper and Middle School students took turns cleaning up (vacuuming/ taking out the trash) our home room and the hallway.
By Mickey Blue Eyes December 7, 2011 at 3:59 pm
I love ya, FITS, but opinions like this make my shake my head in disappointment.
I see nothing wrong with employing school kids to perform basic custodial work. Since it is now illegal for minors to work on a farm, it’s that or some other minimum wage grunt job. I hope you aren’t saying that is better for poor kids to be pimps, prostitutes, and drug dealers than to work part time as a school custodian?
Okay, exempt the kids from “dangerous” jobs, e.g., avoid working on a ladder or scaffold, avoid caustic chemicals (which would otherwise require breathing apparatus), and avoid bodily fluids (pathogens). But what’s to prevent them from emptying trash cans, vacuuming floors, mopping floors, washing windows and the like?
Do we WANT them to be a custodian all their life? No, but if one is a 99%-er, one has to start somewhere. And if circumstances prevent them from not being more than a custodian, they are still more honorable than a pimp, a whore, or a drug dealer.
I’m guessing you were born a 1%-er with a silver spoon in your mouth and never had to work a minimum wage grunt job.
By Adult in the Room December 7, 2011 at 4:40 pm
So the implication is that black children are all potential pimps, prostitutes or drug dealers but for the ready availability of menial labor.
Really? Thanks conservatives! The black vote is yours.
By Miss Daisy December 7, 2011 at 10:21 pm
I’m in need of a driver, or should I say a chauffeur. I would also expect my driver to assist in setting the table for all the meals and maybe help with polishing the silver, too. If this person has any chillren’ they could help with the yard work. I can give them plenty of healthy snacks and probably some old hand-me-down clothes as well. Of course, this person will need to bring some references and should come dressed and cleaned for the interview.
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