As a teacher I am pissed

[D_Master]

When I saw that education spending was cut 28% I honestly had to keep myself from throwing something at the TV. The thought of buying a new 1 being very persuassive. Anyways, I'm 24 and recently graduated from college and hope to be getting a job next fall. Every year this ba***d keeps talking about how important education is to him and how it's the future of our nation. At the same time then year after year his cronies get no bid contracts and suck money out of the gov't, the defense spending grows by the year to the point where it's getting out of control, yes it's important, but $500 billion??
Meanwhile they throw more and more legislation on the schools telling us it's our job to get EVERY kid to learn or the school loses funding. Let me tell you something, I taught at a semi- inner city school and there were a lot of kids there that coming to school was a battle in itself, they didn't care about learning. But hey if they can't pass a test it must be my fault right. Now we're also baby-sitters and social workers for parents when their kids have problems, if I don't notice the problem then I'm not doing my job either. If you want to make schools better pay teachers better. I'm not saying that either cause of myself but there's a lot of smart people that could do it, but are lured away by higher pay, I myself am almost scared away by the 30,000 a year pay. Sorry for the rant, but then today I find out there were cuts to drug free schools programs and poor family education help. Year after year there's been cuts there, wasn't it a year or 2 ago head start got cut? Cause I mean, who needs the poor people to learn right? Just as long as we can have elite aircraft carriers and F-16's and laser guided bombs our country will be fine. Mark my words, our country will reap the disaster of this President for years to come in the education field, not just in foreign policy and deficit spending. NCLB will actually set us back rather then push us forward, I know very few people in this profession that support it.

[Maat]

1. I hear you.

I was a social worker from '93 through 2000; I'm retired now.

[Kerrytravelers]

2. As an experienced teacher who took time off to go back to school,

let me tell you, you have a better shot than I do.

With 5 years and a Master's Degree, an uncredentialed teacher with no experience costs less than half of what I do. In fact, that is all my district hired this year. There are several of us in my position and the teacher's union is PISSED.

But, believe me, it still won't be easy. My district just closed down 5 SCHOOLS FOR NEXT YEAR!!!!

I am now making a career change and will no longer be teachng.

Best of luck. Always PM me if you need any advice or have questions! We teachers (current and former) have to stick together.

[caligirl]

6. Is that San Francisco?

[Kerrytravelers]

14. I live in the LA area.

[Name removed]

33. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[LWolf]

34. Yup. Straight from the ENAC playbook.

That's the "Education for the New American Century" (my term) that the right wing has been shoving down our throats for the last several years. Part of their ongoing efforts to privatize all public services and place all monies in corporate pockets.

It's been part of the rw agenda since Ronald Reagan wanted to abolish the Department of Education. They've gained momentum, and the destruction of public education is rolling along right on schedule. More kids are being "left behind" than ever before, just in time to provide large pools of cheap labor and cannon fodder.

I don't know why I didn't jump on this bandwagon myself. Maybe it's because I know better. I don't need to compete with other teachers or schools. For every school I "beat," that means some kids, somewhere, aren't getting what they need. I don't need to "win" that badly, thanks. I think we can serve all kids, and I don't think the business competition model is the way to do so. In fact, having worked in education for 23 years and taught under a variety of standard and non-standard systems, I KNOW it's not.

What an arrogant, elitist bunch of crap. So those middle class parents wouldn't mind, huh? Where, exactly, in your calculations, does that leave the rest of the population?

[proud2BlibKansan]

40. Nice Rush talking point there

1. Middle class parents can barely afford to survive these days. They don't have that extra income for private school tuition. If they did, we wouldn't be talking vouchers.

2. Most middle class families would have a hard time paying tuition that is often over $10,000 a year for a private school. The working poor in the lower class can't even begin to afford it. And even if we give them a voucher to cover tuition, there are many more costs not covered by tuition. Many private schools make kids buy their own books, require activity fees for extra curriculars and charge a lot more than public schools for lunch and breakfast. The private school I attended would not allow kids to bring their own lunch. That is not unusual.

3. See #2. The 'extras' can make a year in a private school cost $20,000 or more. No way is any state or the federal govt going to give out vouchers for $20,000. Until recently, the top amount mentioned was $1000. Now some states are considering $5000. That still places private schools way out of affordability range for most lower and middle class families.

4. Since teachers in private schools are not paid as well as public school teachers, parents are not paying extra for experienced teachers. The teachers who want to make a decent living don't work in private schools. I doubled my salary in one year when I quit working in a private school and went to a public school system.

5. There is absolutely no evidence that competition improves public schools. Some private schools appear to do a better job because they can be exclusive about who they accept as students and they have the liberty to kick anyone out who doesn't meet their standards. Public schools, on the other hand, have to admit anyone who walks in the door. So you are really comparing apples to oranges.

[donco6]

43. A better product for . . . ?

Special ed kids? How many private schools take a trach tube kid? An emotionally-disturbed? Hell, even a speech-language kid? Any?

And so you've created your little cadre of tuition schools and the people who can't pay the tuition (those lower than "middle class") are left to . . . what?

Sheesh.

[txindy]

47. And only families with money would get to have their kids educated.

Yeah, that'll work well. :eyes:

[Kerrytravelers]

49. Take it back to free republic.

Seriously, you have no understanding of the role of public education, do you?

:eyes:

[dsc]

58. a location change could help you

Many southern states pick up the cost of teachers so that locals will hire those with experience.

[Kerrytravelers]

61. No, I could never leave California.

[dsc]

63. I understand

I like where I live but I do miss the idea of having a majority political climate closer to my views.

[joemurphy]

3. No Republican Fat Cat Left Behind! n/t

[bbinacan]

4. The cuts are unbelievable.

I hope you're not an English teacher. Could it be the rant got the better of you?:hide:

[caligirl]

5. I actively discourage my son's from choosing this field until they

are finacially well off enoough to afford it. Bush is about evening the score for the 'wealthy' because they feel they need to take back what they view as rightfully theirs, whether it is or not. W is all about the poor fending for themselves, cause he knows in his christian little pip squeek heart that poor folk are lazy.

It could be along time before we see a true democracy in this country again. Fascism is what we have now.

[bbinacan]

7. I forgot to welcome you to DU. This is a great place.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

8. As a pissant, I am teached. I hear ya.... our priorities are screwed

beyond belief.

[Deja Q]

15. It's all about money. What else is new?

Prvailing circumstances change the target goals, but it's always BEEN about money.

And always will be until people grow up.

I've seen some grow up. And they're only 47...

[Matariki]

18. i'm not convinced that it's not about filling the military

with 'volunteers'

[HysteryDiagnosis]

20. When man understands that less is more, then he shall have more

but when people need bigger, faster, higher dollar, two of, three of, four of.... enough living space for hundreds.... well, if that is our god, then we will have to take what comes with it.

[HockeyMom]

9. Keyword in ALL of Bush's Domestic Agenda

is PRIVATIZATION; from retirement to health care to education. Read the writing on the wall. The agenda calls for the END of Public Education. Private schools for the rich and HOMESCHOOLING for everybody else. When poor AND middle class women are uneducated at higher levels, forced into early marriages due to unplanned pregnancies and lack of educational opportunities, their only choice will be to home school broods of unplanned, unwanted kids (no birth control or abortion), which the government will use for cannon fodder or slave labor for the corporations and/or rich.

It's the New World Order. Read about it. I really worry about my 22 year old Education Major daughter.

[EFerrari]

10. He's the education pResident, remember?

NCLB is a disaster, a Trojan Horse that we should ALL have been able to predict.

I taught mostly rich kids but my family is full of teachers and they all have stories about struggling to get their students on track. I don't know how you all do it.

:hi:

[Horse with no Name]

11. We are having some serious issues in our school district

Our school district is a chronically underperforming district.
This means that students (or parents) have an option to send their children to any other school that will accept them at our district's expense.
I feel that at this point our district will not recover.
All of the kids who have good TAKS scores are leaving the district and taking their scores with them, leaving the district is worse shape.
One of my close friends is an elementary school teacher. She says that what is happening is a mass exodus of the more affluent students--predominantly white. The black students (who are typically more economically disadvantaged in this town) cannot leave, regardless of how smart they are. They don't have the means to drive 30-40 miles a day to a different school.
So what is happening, the more advanced classes are being replaced by remedial classes and the poorer kids (regardless of color) are losing opportunities to learn at an advanced level.
The racial inequality in our town is becoming more pronounced. The same friend told me that the black to white ratio in her grade is approximately 14:2.
This poses some serious problems in that it is creating schools of similar racial inequality in our surrounding communities (where the kids leaving our district are attending) with white dominance.
This can't turn out well and it seems that the State Board of Education should do what needs to be done to assure that this type of segregation doesn't happen. If this continues, the black students coming out of this district will have a very hard time competing academically at a college level.
If it were up to me, I would consolidate the 4 school districts in our area. That would completely solve the problems.

[jazzjunkysue]

27. When an oil venture fails, you sell off the assets, break it up. Isn't

that what you do with schools, too?

Oh, yeah. You let kids move the money around helter-skelter, so that the other neighboring schools that used to be doing well now have to deal with a constant parade of students moving in and out of the buildings at will, so no one knows how many students they're serving month to month.

Now THAT, sounds like a great way to spend tax dollars.

And the other schools now have to absorb the scores of the low performing students, putting themselves at risk. It all results in mediocre schools. But rich kids can always escape to the private schools.

[Deja Q]

12. But Bush said he was going to fix the education problem!

But when Bush says something, he proceeds to engage in acts that have the exact opposite effect.

:shrug:

[WritingIsMyReligion]

13. NCLB is shit, coming from a STUDENT.

:grr::grr::grr:

[liberalitch]

16. LCKB (let every child kiss my behind)... is what we call it where I teach

Lie and say you support education, but cut it deeply as quickly as possible.

Want to get really pissed off..... go here:
http://www.truemajority.org/oreos/

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. LOL That is wonderful

We call it No Child Left a Dime. But I think I like yours better.

[liberalitch]

29. Oh, but I'm springin' yours at lunch tomorrow.

should be a hit!

[proud2BlibKansan]

31. I am so jealous

I eat lunch with a bunch of twits this year. All they do is bitch. Or they talk about church or CSI. They NEVER want to talk politics. Last week one of them asked me 'what is a filibuster?'

So I have been eating at my desk, reading DU.

Sometimes I like to imagine a school staffed by DU teachers. Would that be awesome or what?

:hi:

[jab105]

70. me too:)

n/t

[MelissaB]

44. Every teacher, principal, and parent should see this.

Thanks! :hi:

[LSK]

17. i agree with you, the defense spending is completely out of control

I share you anger. Not only education is getting squeezed, but all domestic spending is getting squeezed. It is OUTRAGEOUS! We were attacked by 19 people with BOXCUTTERS!! I dont see the logic in having cold war era military spending.

[rodeodance]

19. and it comes from the 'educator -in- chief- as he calls himself.

[Posteritatis]

21. As an Ignorant Furriner(tm)...

How are educational responsibilities organized, in government terms, in the United States? How much control does the federal government have compared to state and local governments?

In the Canadian system, a lot of areas are only federal responsibilities, and a lot are only provincial responsibilities, with the twain never meeting. Education up here (aside from student loans and some other indirects) is completely outside of the hands of the federal government; it's strictly a provincial responsibility, and that's the level where curricula, hiring, funding, and so on are more or less wholly determined. This has its advantages and disadvantages, but that's another subject.

How's the system work in the US?

(Yes, yes, I know: "poorly" - I mean the technical organizational/constitutional answer.)

[donco6]

32. Here's how it works (from a school district CFO):

The feds have an "in" to the education world by claiming it's a component of "interstate commerce". (Otherwise the fed constitution would prohibit involvement at all).

They fund programs through certain sections of law (nicknamed "Title", as in Title I (low income), Title II (staff development), Title III (English literacy for non-English speakers), Title IV (school safety), Title V, (more literacy), and Title VI (mostly Special education). There are more titles, but those are the most critical to our funding.

Now, because the Feds fund us something (which in my district is less than 4% of our total funds), they make all kinds of rules by which we must abide, or we lose ALL federal funds. Enter NCLB.

NCLB was ushered in on the wings of conservative state govts with the implementation of statewide testing (in Colorado, the CSAP - other states have other tests). Once the statewide tests were in place, NCLB was passed nationwide (with Dem support, I might add).

Now, all school districts have to meet what's called Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). This is calculated using a straight-line progression with a path marked out between the year NCLB was passed and 10 years future. You have to make your progress on the line between where you were and 100% "proficiency", i.e., whatever the test says is proficient.

So, if your scores sucked on the first CSAP, you now have three years to make some progress, otherwise you're place on academic watch, then academic probation, then intervention. Intervention involves - basically - firing everyone in the school and starting with new staff (now THERE's a solution - replace all your teachers with brand new ones!) Other penalties involve forcing you to set aside funds to pay for transportation for kids in your district who want to go to a neighboring district.

These penalties also include special education students. So you may make AYP in all areas EXCEPT special education, but that doesn't help you. You're still on probation. You have to demonstrate that you're doing X (federally approved plan) to solve Y (poor test scores).

Mathematically, it's impossible to stay out of probation. Special ed kids are special ed for a REASON. So now more and more schools are finding themselves on watch. That's not even talking about the schools that were on probation first thing.

Here in Denver, several schools have been "reconstituted" into charter schools - the panacea of all education ills. These are schools run by a group of parents. They start out with gusto, free from all constraints (including special education law, and most common sense). But over time, the charters lose their original parent involvement (as their kids leave, so do the founders), and the charters are left to flounder. We have a school here, for example, that is being investigated for paying the husband of the principal $50,000 to "monitor" the construction of a parking garage. They also purchased a dozen buses that did not meet state inspection standards (which is scary, because they are very minimal).

Also, if you compare charter salary schedules with regular salary schedules, they all top out at about $55,000 - whereas ours tops out at 71,000. They just don't keep people after that, and can use the extra money for - well, evidently whatever they want. They often don't accept high need special ed kids with the excuse, "We don't have the services your child needs."

And that's the state of things. I don't see any end in sight unless we get rid of this hideous bill.

[Posteritatis]

67. Thanks for the info, you two! (n/t)

[SlipperySlope]

46. Constitution and education spending breakdown

As the previous poster alluded, there is no constitutional authority for the Federal government to regulate education. Generally speaking, this means that the Federal government cannot compel a State to do anything with regards to education. The Federal government can't set binding standards, teacher qualifications, etc.

Despite the lack of authority to directly control education, nothing stops the Federal government from offering money to states that meet so-called "voluntary" standards. States are free to refuse to comply with the standards, but at the cost of not receiving the supplemental federal dollars.

For reference, here is a breakdown of K-12 education spending in the United States:

45.6% - State governments
37.1% - Local governments (city, county, or district)
8.3% - Federal government
8.9% - Private sources

[LisaL]

22. The new budget made me sick too. I work in research.

Need I say more?

[GreenPartyVoter]

23. I have a teaching degree but I have no intention of ever using it except

informally such as with my own kids. NCLB is a disaster and I plan to stay far away from it.

[proud2BlibKansan]

24. 26 year teacher here

First of all, welcome to the profession. And welcome to DU :hi:

The FIRST thing you absolutely have to accept is that you are not in it for the money. You will never get rich (in dollars) teaching school. You can eventually make enough to live comfortably but you can forget about spending summers in Europe.

I live in a comfortable - not fancy - home and drive a new car. I keep the lights turned on, the house warm and food in the cupboards. I can afford to go on a driving vacation every summer and I usually also go somewhere over spring break. I am now earning enough that I can afford to send $25 to a cause when I am hit up for a donation. For years, I couldn't even afford to do that. Anyway, I feel comfortable financially. So you do have that to look forward to.

But you are right on target about inadequately funding schools. Five years ago, when el pretzeldente first took over this country, my school was getting $300,000 a year in Title I funding. This year, we got $50,000. That isn't even enough to pay the salary of one teacher (you have to figure benefits and retirement so what it costs to hire a teacher is a lot more than what they actually make in salary). So we use Title I money to buy 'stuff' like supplies and library books. Title I for years was a lifeline for schools serving low income kids and now it is practically gone. It comes from the feds so I blame the current administration for these draconian cuts.

We used Title I money to pay for extra teachers and training. So losing it means larger class sizes and less professional development. We also have a whole bunch of kids who need one on one and lots of extra small group help and they aren't getting it anymore. They are being left behind.

NCLB really sucks. It is an unfunded and unrealistic mandate which does NOTHING to help kids learn. It is a joke.

The agenda of the right wing is to downgrade public schools so their consciences are clean when they strip education dollars from their state and federal budgets. They will do anything necessary to justify vouchers and private education. They change their vocabulary often as well. Vouchers are now called 'opportunity scholarships' and charter schools are merely privatized public schools.

You are right. We need smart people in our profession to fight the right wing and those who wish to shut us down. So please pay attention to the political scene and beware of elected leaders with grand ideas of reform. Also look out for millionaires (who are usually rich white men) who come swooping in with seemingly benevolent motives to help our schools improve. Bill Gates is on a roll lately to reform high school education and so far, he is not doing much of a job. Pouring money on education is not the answer we need. We need to be involved in these reforms and we need to demand that our voices be heard. We teachers are the only piece of the picture who really have the best interests of the kids in mind.

[Heewack]

35. I blame the chimp and Kennedy for NCLB

The chimperor for not funding it and Kennedy for devising the plan to begin with.

[proud2BlibKansan]

37. It's really not that simple

Reagan commissioned a report named A Nation At Risk in the early 80s. It painted a dismal picture of education in America. It was dishonest in some respects, but much of it is hard to argue with.

From that report, the need for NCLB was brought about. Initially, NEA and AFT and other education groups were involved. Eventually, however, their ideas were ignored.

The work Kennedy did was also largely not included in the final version of NCLB. The biggest piece left out was the funding.

So bush took a law that actually may have been a positive thing for education and muddled it until it was a piece of crap.

Kennedy didn't do anything wrong, IMO.

[Heewack]

38. I may be wrong

"The work Kennedy did was also largely not included in the final version of NCLB. The biggest piece left out was the funding."


But I though it was Kennedy's proposal of the basic structure of NCLB as far as the means testing. Kennedy authored the bill. The underfunding was surely the chimps doing.

Again correct me if I'm wrong.

[Heewack]

39. Another question/

Would NCLB be a good program with appropriate funding? I keep hearing that it takes away from learning by focusing too much on tests.

[proud2BlibKansan]

42. I used to think it might be alright

if it was funded. But I don't anymore. The emphasis on testing is so bad it has resulted in so many valuable things about our schools being swept away like yesterday's garbage. Music and Art programs have been reduced or eliminated all over the country.

This year is the first year we have to test every kid in grades 3 thru 8 in Reading and Math. Guess what we are teaching in grades 3 thru 8? Guess what we are NOT teaching? Music, Art, PE, Science and Social Studies, Foreign Languages and anything that isn't directly related to improving those scores in Reading and Math.

[proud2BlibKansan]

41. Kennedy was just one of several lawmakers who worked on it

The law they recommended and the one bush signed are very different.

[bbinacan]

48. We've been throwing money at education

with little return on the buck. The bottom line is good teachers. Get the best and pay them well. The teacher is THE MOST important component. Here in Raleigh, NC people make a big deal about holding class in a trailer. The most influential teacher in my life taught me in that trailer. It's the TEACHER and not the money.

[Kerrytravelers]

50. It's the TEACHER and not the money.

But as you also said, you have to pay them well to keep them. I am moving on as soon as I can secure myself in a career change. I knew getting into teaching, I wouldn't get rich, but when I take the personal steps to better myself, I get penalized for it.

[bbinacan]

53. I wish you well,

I have an Aunt who teaches advanced math, but has one remedial class. She can't flunk a kid no matter their scores. The parents beat up the admin and they beat her up. Bottom line is that she can't give an F. This is BS. Now my other "Aunt" (great aunt by marriage) teaches English, yet she insists on saying, "I ain't got no"...). I confronted her about this and she said, "It don't matter none". Just boggles the mind.

[proud2BlibKansan]

65. Anything of quality costs money

Yes we have been throwing money at education, but not enough money and not in the right direction. And not for long enough.

[bbinacan]

66. I totally agree that the

money has not been thrown in the right direction.

[bridgit]

26. @ 51% our GNP being spent on defense, we are the world leaders...

in the R&D of death & destruction; the bush admin don't need us to get no book learn'n, all they need is cannon fodder & crony contracts

:nuke:

[ProdigalJunkMail]

30. um...what?

51% of GDP on defense? It isn't even 50% of the government's budget...

[Heewack]

36. It's about 4% of GDP.

n/t

[Nutmegger]

28. It sucks

I was actually thinking about going into teaching but my parents just asked me to seriously think about it. After doing so, I came to the conclusion that I would be happier not dealing with NCLB and all that.

Good luck to you and Welcome to DU!!! :toast:

[Yupster]

56. I taught for ten years and honestly

there are some good and bad things about teaching.

The worst parts to me were dealing withblockheaded adminiatrators. I finally quit when a mixed race principal came to our school. I think he was half human and half austrailopithicine.

Another frusration is that your frontline on the breakdown of the family in the USA. It's an ugly thing to see. Just in the ten years I taught there was a dramatic difference between how the students behaved between each other and with adults. There was a dramatic change for the worse and teachers tell me things have only gotten worse since I've left.

In our district the pay starts at 30k which is not bad since you can get a nice 3 bedroom, 2 bath home for 70 k here.

On the good side, the benefits are wonderful. Basically in today's world the only people who have defined benefit plans are government workers, and teachers have a very good one. In my district teachers do not contribute to social security. They put the same amount in TRS instead but they get three times the pension they would have gotten by contributing the same amount to social security. That's worth an awful lot.

It's also one of the few jobs that you can be off pretty much when your kids are through the summer vacation and during spring break and Christmas holidays. That's a very big deal to many teachers.

I quit so eventually I decided the negatives outweighed the positives, but it wasn't all negative by any means.

[Hissyspit]

45. Iraq War Cost heading toward HALF A TRILLION dollars!

These people who have kidnapped our government are nuts. But Americans are nuts for letting them get away with it.

[ClayZ]

54. War is costing $100,000 per minute!

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2002780385_spending03.html


Iraq war is costing $100,000 per minute
By Mark Mazzetti and Joel Havemann

Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — The White House said Thursday that it plans to ask Congress for an additional $70 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, driving the cost of military operations in the two countries to $120 billion this year, the highest ever.

Most of the new money would pay for the war in Iraq, which has cost an estimated $250 billion since the U.S. invasion in March 2003.

The additional spending, along with other war funding the Bush administration will seek separately in its regular budget next week, would push the price tag for combat and nation-building since Sept. 11, 2001, to nearly a half-trillion dollars, approaching the inflation-adjusted cost of the 13-year Vietnam War.

The cost of military operations in 2006 is $35 billion higher than what Congress had estimated a few months ago that the Defense Department would need this year. The higher costs are occurring even as the Pentagon is planning to reduce troop levels in Iraq in coming months, reflecting the continuing wear and damage to military equipment in desert combat, the need to upgrade protection for U.S. troops and the effort to train and equip Iraqi forces.

snip>

[savemefromdumbya]

51. When will people wake up

perhaps the PTAs around the country should do some sit ins and marches

[cry baby]

52. D_Master, ignorant people are much easier to control.

You don't really think * wants lots of really smart people running around, do you?

No Child Left Behind has always been underfunded. * just counts on no one noticing.

Thank you for choosing to try to educate our children, America would surely die without selfless people like yourself.

[OneBlueSky]

55. I still can't figure out what that half TRILLION in defense money . . .

is buying . . . since it doesn't even include Iraq and Afghanistan war expenditures (not to mention Iraq and/or Syria) . . . even allowing for HUGE black ops expenditures, missile defense, and everything else, this amount is just too huge to make any sense . . . so where is the money going? . . .

[Yupster]

57. When I was a teacher I used to wonder the same thing about education

We spent back then about 7 k per kid and maybe there were 25 kids in an average classroom. So that's about $ 175,000 per classroom per year. Well my pay and benefits was maybe 40 k of that. I always wondered where the heck the other $ 135,000 went.

I would look at the budget and the overwhelmingly large budget item was always salaries but it sure wasn't my salary.

I imagine the army is the same way. The biggest expense by far is just paying, feeding, transporting, clothing and housing a couple of million soldiers year after year.

[suziedemocrat]

59. I'm convinced Bush &Co. want a large lower class and smaller middle class.

It's easier to control the poor than the middle class. The middle class want options, rights, respect. They want dirt-poor people who they can manipulate. I'm not sure why, but from their policies that seems to be their goal. It's seems unusual because the very poor are not always good workers, and are more prone to crime. But if you pay attention - the bankruptcy laws, cutting education, etc. - they want more poor. Maybe that's because the poor join the army???

[laylah]

60. The Deliberate Dumbing Down

of America

Free download:

http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com/

Jenn

[KoKo]

62. Thanks for this post.! Money for Nation Building as we Bomb Kids over

"there" while shoveling suitcases of money to Private Contractors, meanwhile cutting programs for our own kids education, treating teachers like menial workers, allowing our infrastructure to rot, harassing our college professors and hoping that teaching "Creationism" will bring morality back into the classroom....I could go on.

The assault on the classroom teacher has been going on for almost two decades now with more and more medially needy kids being brought in without any proper funds allocated for their special needs, plus the funding cut for families in need whose kids aren't getting proper nutrition or home care means that teaching today is more about "maintaining" some kind of order and monotonously teaching to test and watching your back than it is about fulfilling work.

I hope you can you stay with it, though. What will happen when the truly dedicated all just can't take it anymore?

[eppur_se_muova]

64. If no child goes forward, then none is left behind, right?

Well, that's what ** promised, isn't it?

[Catherine Vincent]

68. And yet idiot republicans continue to vote for that bastard.

Sigh!

[leesa]

69. You need to make noise. Lots of it.