Posted on 04/28/2010 3:28:09 PM PDT by seanmerc
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama needs to wake up to the fact that the nation’s school systems are going down the drain.
Thousands of teachers are facing a payless summer. Millions of school children are looking at a drop in educational standards and bigger classes.
We are depriving students of their right to a decent education.
Granted that school systems are under state control, the federal government needs to step up and help them overcome their financial woes.
Aren’t the schools too important to fail?
U.S. priorities are to spend billions every week for the unjustified and unexplained wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the maintenance of hundreds of U.S. military bases around the world. At the same time, we neglect the nation’s schools when teachers affect eternity. It’s a national disgrace.
As Lyndon B. Johnson, a former school teacher, used to say: “Education is the passport to a better life.”
Obama had a great education and presumably knows its worth. But what are our national priorities? What does it matter if we win the whole world militarily but lose our learning?
Obama promised change. But change from his predecessor’s policies and priorities required a giant leap, and he has not made it.
It takes great courage to turn a country around. The president has to be reminded that he has dug us into a Vietnam-style quagmire in Afghanistan. Nine years of killing and dying in Afghanistan are enough. The Russians were in Afghanistan for 10 years before departing. It took courage for them to leave.
It’s too bad Obama does not have knowledge of the Vietnam era. If he had, he would never have committed American troops to widen the war in Afghanistan.
Too many civilians are caught in the crossfire in Afghanistan between allied forces, the Taliban and al-Qaida.
Recently, four young Iraqis returning from a soccer game were killed, mistaken as “insurgents,” meaning the enemy. I’m sure that “regrets” were sent to the families for the “mistake.” Who is to blame? Normally when you invade and occupy a country, YOU are the enemy!
Unprovoked, preemptive war was the hallmark of former President George W. Bush, who yearned to be known as a “war president.”
Real “war presidents” like Dwight D. Eisenhower -- the hero of World War II -- knew better. When Eisenhower arranged a cease fire with North Korea and pulled most U.S. forces out of Korea after winning the presidency in 1952, there was a huge sense of relief in the country.
How many Americans and Koreans are still alive today because of that move?
Yes, breaking up is hard to do.
As for Vietnam, after widespread protests against the 15-year-long war and with North Vietnamese armies poised to overrun Saigon, President Gerald R. Ford withdrew the last U.S. forces. We’re friends now with Vietnam, with an amazing lack of bitterness on the Vietnamese side. American presidents should learn that winning the hearts and minds of people who have been occupied by U.S. forces is asking a lot.
The president and Congress need to stop spending the nation’s treasure on war while simultaneously neglecting children, our most important assets.
The Washington Post reported last week that “from coast to coast, public schools face the threat of thousands of layoffs this year in a fiscal crunch and fewer programs to help students in need.”
Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, has proposed a $23 billion federal bailout to help states avert teacher layoffs. This is a pittance compared to the cost of enforcing U.S. foreign policy around the world.
Of course they think the answer is more money.. lol.
What.... couldn’t make the pic large enough???? :)
Yoo-hoo, Helen Thomas ping list members! This is classic HT nonsense...
Of course schools and education is going down the drain, but it ain’t for lack of the government being involved...
They need to get the heck out, stop pushing their liberal indoctrination and regulating crap and I’m sure things will get much better.
I can work on making the picture bigger, if you like...
It is about getting $23 billion to bailout teachers unions. The Dems just keep bailing out union workers.
Curses for posting that.
I heard this morning that The Peoples Republic of NJ pays on the average of $19,000 per student.
Yes, the Teachers Unions suck and must be destroyed.
LOL! Nooooooo thanks. :)
Wait wait... let me guess this one:
The fix is MORE GOVERNMENT MONEY for schools!
How’d I do?
And Johnson, who was known to insist that most of his female clerks have sex with him, also said, "I need five minutes with you." Helen Thomas and Lyndon Johnson were both pigs.
In the late 50’s my classes at a Catholic school had 50+ kids in them..and just one nun. We behaved..and learned.
The more taxpayer dollar$ get thrown at public schrewl education the worse the end product becomes.
It’s demonstrable that the schools have been shoddy for years.
They produced her.
This is NOT about students.
IT IS ABOUT TEACHERS UNIONS AND THEIR PENSIONS.
America, you have been had.
Deal with it, or pay with uneducated indoctrinated morons reporting YOU to the authorities.
Right under her nose is the example of the Washington public school system. A lack of money is not the problem. The problem is the schools are in the hands of venal and/or stupid people.
Hey Helen! Thank your fellow Leftists for dumbing down America! You should be proud!
Sigh- I feel as though my childrens children will be listening to her drivel. I guess its true only the good die young......
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