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Maybe a lot of us are missing the point here?
As Democrats, don't most of us agree on the importance of our public school teachers?
Doesn't it make us angry to compare the exorbitant money blown on bogus military excursions to the money denied to our public education system?
How many times can Oprah Winfrey air a tearjerker program that exposes the miserable state of some of our poorer schools?
Indeed, our neglected and underfunded schools and teachers are discussed every election.
We Dems vote for candidates who seem to care about this issue.
The desire to improve rather than abandon public education is something that politically identifies us, as far as I've been led to believe.
So, if public education isn't "working" what's the deal?
Is it teachers?
Really?
Teachers are overpaid babysitters and they don't care about their students?
And because they have union-backed job security, they don't have to care?
Teachers are the problem with public education?
As Democrats, don't most of us agree that its getting harder and harder for the average family to just get by?
More and more people are living paycheck to paycheck.
This is why we want health care reform and living wage standards.
We applaud investments in affordable housing, affordable energy alternatives, better public transportation systems and access to the healthy food that for so long only wealthier people have been able to afford.
Until these things are addressed, families will continue to struggle.
In this struggle, many parents do not have the time nor the energy to properly monitor a child's homework much less supplement his or her education.
Are they bad parents?
Do they want to unleash their undisciplined "brats" onto the public school system so they don't have to pay for a babysitter?
Did they selfishly have children that they "can not afford?" WHAT THE HELL DOES IT MEAN TO BE ABLE TO AFFORD A CHILD TODAY? The same thing it meant ten years ago? Or thirty years ago when my parents had me?
Show me the parents who want an ignorant, uneducated child.
Show me the parents who scoff at education because they think their children are already perfect, gifted, brilliant, entitled or whatever adjective that has been used on DU this last week to describe the children of such "horrible" parents.
Many teachers justifiably feel unsupported, under appreciated and underpaid.
Many families are so overwhelmed with simply getting by that they can't make education the priority that it should be.
Who is surprised that poorer children are more likely to struggle in school?
Is it because the poorer children were cursed with bad teachers?
Is it because the poorer children were cursed with bad parents?
Maybe its because the poorer children go to poorer schools and have poorer parents who are struggling to get by?
When people say that simply throwing money at poorer schools won't fix the problem, they're partially right.
We need to invest in many other areas that will effect the schools.
Let the Republicans continue to be cynical and put the entire focus on some lazy, permissive parents or on a handful of scandals or mistakes on the part of teachers' unions or on a few inevitable, truly bad teachers.
We shouldn't let ourselves get caught up in this trap of focusing on the exceptions.
A lot of things aren't working out in this country right now. Of course education is suffering right along with them.
In my opinion, while things weren't perfect when he took office, Reagan took a big wrong turn that we still haven't recovered from.
BTW- I am writing this after falling into the trap myself last week. I need to eat my words!
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