Barack Obama may promise you the world, but he doesn’t have the Constitutional authority to give you anything! The Department of Education was put into place by Jimmy Carter to gain the undying support of the nation’s teachers and to funnel money to the unions scattered throughout the nation. Schools, their curriculum, and their pay scales are to be determined by the locales that they serve, not by dictates from the federal government. The tax base is what is going to determine the number of teachers that a district can afford, not some mandate from Washington D.C. School districts are to be run by local school boards, consisting of mostly parents, with a teacher or a teacher’s supporter sprinkled in for good measure. The logic behind that is simple. Why would you allow union reps or teachers to dominate the very board that determines pay, working hours, class size, and benefits? That would be like appointing Al Capone as the Chairman of a bank.
Obama keeps saying that we need 100,000 more teachers! Who needs that many more teachers? Oh yeah, the teachers unions, so they can get more dues and in turn elect more Democrats, who in turn ask for more teachers, and on and on it goes. Taxpayers have invested over TWO TRILLION dollars in education since 1979, and what is there to show for that money? A 17th place showing in math and science compared to the rest of the world. The rest of the world does NOT spend what America spends per pupil yet gets a higher result for their money…Why? Maybe because they don’t have to deal with powerful unions that are more interested in furthering their agenda than teaching the children! It takes almost as long to get rid of a bad, tenured teacher as it does to carry out a death sentence in this country.
Teachers decide to go out on strike like they did in Chicago, when they are already among the highest-paid in the country, so what was their beef? They should have all been suspended without pay for violating state law against striking. Don’t like the hours, or the work? Then go find another career. Good to excellent teachers should be recipients of bonus pay, but the unions refuse to allow that. Bad teachers should be weeded out as they not only hurt the students whose parents are paying to learn (property taxes), but the school system as a whole!
Preparing our children for the future is a very important task to be handed, but it is a local task, not a federal one. Our kids and their parents and guardians are being short-changed by a payola system that benefits no one but the unions themselves. The parents need to become involved, vigilant, and demanding when it comes to their children’s education. Abdicating parental responsibility to a bunch of bureaucrats in Washington D. C. is simply wasting good money that has much better application locally.
Obama’s rhetoric is nothing more than pandering to a certain group of supporters and does nothing to enhance the educational experience of our children.
Photo Credit: kjarrett (Creative Commons)
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the parents dont say nothing , they are to busy smoking crack.
Well said! I live in a rural county in central Texas. I've talked to others in our area who say, "Why should I vote for the School Board? I have no children in school here." They then complain about the amount of property taxes they pay. They are woefully uninformed.Well said! I live in a rural county in central Texas. I've talked to others in our area who say, "Why should I vote for the School Board? I have no children in school here." They then complain about the amount of property taxes they pay. They are woefully uninformed.
Parents are also discouraged from being at the schools or knowing what their children are taught. In our school district, children were not allowed to take their text books home. The reason? Fear of losing them (no personal responsibility here!). Parents could get a book (for free) from the school to have at home if they wished to – but most didn't know this. Now the kids have laptops, iPads or whatever the latest electronics is (provided by the school of course) and these they are allowed to take home. Apparently there is no fear of the student losing these, although a parent paying for the replacement would be paying far more than a text book.
A lady from our Daughters of the Republic of Texas (DRT) chapter tried to go to a fourth grade class at a local elementary school where she was known. She couldn't even get in to see the principle to get permission to go to the classroom. A DRT essay contest about Texas history (which is taught in the 4th grade) isn't on the curriculum so they aren't interested in even handing out the information to the students who might be interested. It isn't a class project unless a teacher wants to do it. It's all in the name of "security" or "safety" that "unknown individuals" not be in the school – although the individual who went to the school has had children and grandchildren attend that school and is well-known there.
The unions are far more powerful than individual parents who don't have the organization, money or time to fight them. Perhaps it's time to form Parents Unions to fight the Teachers' Unions?
Perhaps, maybe, but FOR SURE, it is TIME TO GET THE GOVERNMENT, and THEIR COMRADES, OUT OF OUR LIVES AND OUT OF THE BUSINESS OF EDUCATING OUR CHILDREN! IT IS TIME TO FORM THE “UNION OF CONCERNED AMERICAN CITIZENS AGAINST GOVERNMENT INVASION OF OUR PRIVATE LIVES”!!! At one time, the unions were a good idea, but like so many “good ideas, they have become an entity that has overlived their usefulness, and should be either brought down to the proper size, and usefulness, or completely banned. I am no fan of unions, as they have become like the IRS, too powerful and greedy to serve any real purpose, other than to rob people, and threaten and abuse the privilage of being what they were originally intended to be and do. They have far and above any sense of decency and usefulness, lived too long on the working person’s dime, and dollar. As Billy said, “first, we kill all the lawyers”………..not that I am a big fan of killing anyone, but if the shoe fits………..wear it. The root of our problem is the government, and particularly right now, the current “administration” who has gotten so far out of hand that somehow it must be stopped, and gotten rid of. This “administration” is in bed with the unions, and most especially, the teacher’s unions, and American children are paying for their invasiveness, and interferance. Paying with a lack of real education, and the violation of their rights to be able to learn what they must learn in order to go on and live productive lives. This is wrong on every level that a thing can be wrong on. Thankfully, my own sons are grown now, and I do not have to deal with this personally, except for the taxes that are too high priced for what we get for our money. But as they are now, I would not send so much as a dog to one of these violence filled, and communistic centers for the downfall of America, by way of our children and their future, which is grim, if one looks at even half closely. Our children are not learning what should be taught in school, they are learning everything BUT what they should! And in the long and short run, America will be the loser of this unionized thuggery.