Something that has bothered me more and more over the last few years is education in the United States. While education is important, and should be, conservative lawmakers in the Republican party have tried to gut public education every chance they get.
I wrote an article for Examiner.com earlier this week about Republican Speaker of the House, John Boehner, and his attempt at extending and expanding a student voucher program in Washington, DC. You can read the entire story HERE.
“Using taxpayer money to send children to private schools is the same tactic that the Republican party plans to do with Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. While the government should be for “we the people,” conservatives in America are trying to turn the country into “we the corporations.” Using children and the elderly as an excuse to increase profits for private companies might be a harsh accusation, but Republicans and conservatives don’t seem to mind allegation.”
While getting children out of public school and into private and religious schools is an issue, local governments are trying their best to infiltrate public schools. Down in Florida, the Lake County School board was set to vote on whether public school students should have a dress code, but they were met by over 200 angry parents. Lucky for the parents and students, the school board voted 3-2 against the amendment. The Orlando Sentinel has the story HERE.
“More than 200 parents showed up Monday night to insist that Lake County School Board members scrap their plans to require children to wear uniforms in the fall.
As each parent addressed the board to express opposition, the crowd applauded and cheered, occasionally shouting,”Amen!”
Late in the evening, School Board members voted 3-2 against the new dress code, which would have required solid-color clothing and sleeved tops with collars.”
Public education is not where it needs to be, but the answer is not to cut more funding or force the children into the private sector. We need to invest more into education, from teacher pay to the quality of the curriculum, but if we continue to slash away at school budgets, it will only hurt the children in the long run.
