On My Mind

From An article in the Ames Tribune

The Ames Community School District budget advisory committee will recommend increasing class sizes, eliminating programs and classes and trimming staff positions to reach a goal of $3.5 million in budget cuts next year.

Charged with offering input to the school board and administration for a budget that must be trimmed by $5 million in the next two fiscal years, the voluntary team of teachers, administrators, staff and community members honed a list of items aimed at restructuring and eliminating programs at all levels of district education and administration.

And From The Des Moines Register.

Elementary and high school teachers in Des Moines' schools would have more students in their classrooms next fall and youngsters in kindergarten through fifth grades would spend less time in art, music and physical education, under budget proposals unveiled Friday.

The proposal calls for slashing an unprecedented $33 million from next year's budget and eliminates nearly 480 positions, most of them teachers.

We have just gone through (in my opinion) the worst administration ever in our government. They have led us to a recession and in the process of a "No Child Left Behind" Act (Which left all children behind and did nothing for the schools but rather made a lot of money for the Bush cronies who own the test making companies) sucked a lot of money away from the schools by its unfunded mandate.

My question is today is this:
"If the banks and the auto industry are so important that they " not be allowed to fail" and had to have boatloads of cash pumped into them why is it that the school system, which is arguably the most important industry in the nation because it is there to train and educate the next generation, being allowed to fail. Why are these school districts having to take a hit? Why is the government not pumping boatloads of cash into them?

At Firedog lake there is an essay "An Angry Mother's Take on the Firing of Central Falls Teachers." which asks why the parents aren't involved in this failing school.

As a former teacher I will say this that the most important ingredient in a child's education is an involved parent. Bar none. The most important. The next most important is the teacher who interacts with the students on the "front line" and those teachers deserve a living wage. It seems to me that if the Federal Government were doing its job the schools would not have to be making these cuts. But then perhaps the goal of those in government is to so diminish our schools so that they will not be able to educate the next generation of voters. Perhaps they do not want a thinking electorate but rather perhaps a group of Myrmadons who will follow blindly those in power. If there is to be a "bailout" it should go to the schools. Schools should not have to be making these cuts. And No Child Left Behind...put it in the trash and click "Empty Trash"