Public Education and Politics

Public Education!  This read yesterday on Political Insider:

Your morning jolt: Democrats condemn end of limits on class size, Republicans split
9:46 am May 25, 2010, by Jim Galloway

The state Board of Education on Monday voted to gut its limits on class sizes over the next year in response to a deepening school budget crisis that has already forced thousands of teacher layoffs and shorter school years across the state.

The move prompted criticism among a majority of candidates for governor, especially Democrats in hot competition for the public school constituency.

But Republicans were decidedly split in their reactions — Karen Handel and John Oxendine called it was a bad idea, Nathan Deal described himself as “disappointed,” Jeff Chapman declared it “the best thing,” and Eric Johnson said “vouchers.”

Seriously.  What's wrong with this picture?  How important is education in this country?  Evidently, not very.  Future leaders of America get the shaft.  That's how it is.  Hmmm, could we cut some of that government waste instead of adding more students to an already over-packed classroom, where in lots of instances students are falling through the holes right now because they need more attention.

It comes down to this:  Where are our priorities?

It's not bad enough that our budget is about to bust and we could be called the" United States of Wall Street" because, hey, look and see whose really running this country.

I love the phrase I coined from Bill Cosby (also title of his book), "Come On, People!"

My youngest son Jeff was in special education in our school district.  He has Down syndrome.  As a parent, sometimes you really have to fight for rights your kid is entitled to by law.  But the fact is, when the schools let the special ed teachers go, who's going to teach the students that qualify?

I read news reports the last few days as well about this situation, removing special ed teachers.  Because of budget cuts.

We should NOT be cutting budgets on schools.  We are sending our children to schools for entire days, five days a week, People.  When states make these cuts that affect your child, is this not a personal affront to you?  Or are we all supposed to send our kids to private schools?  What about people who can't afford it?  I don't believe we should HAVE to have private schools.  This is supposed to be the greatest nation on earth.  And we are trashing our public school system.

And while we are letting it happen, we're paying more taxes to keep Wall Street alive.  This doesn't smell, it reeks!

I know this for sure:  If we continue to turn our backs on public education, we will live to regret it as a country.

There.  I got that off my back.  Let's see what else I find through my lens today.