Thousands set to march for public education

"If pre-kindergarten isn't there for my little cousins, they won't be ready for school," the 13-year-old told reporters.

The only thing pre-schoolers need is to be read to, talked to by the loving adults in their lives, and shown their natural world. That takes TIME but not funding, so the educrats wouldn't be interested.

Our first two went to pre-school, the oldest because he missed the cut-off for kindergarten, and at the time, I thought he needed to get into the school routine. The second went because there were NO kids in our neighborhood with whom he could play, and I thought (wrongly) that he needed to be with other kids his age.

When it came time for the younger two, I didn't bother with pre-school. It cost over $2K a year for each one, and I didn't think they needed it. They did go to Kindergarten, and Catholic school, but the year they were entering 6th and 8th grades, respectively, we pulled them to homeschool them. It is the best decision we ever made, and I regret I didn't have the confidence in myself to have done it earlier!

They did go to Kindergarten, and Catholic school, but the year they were entering 6th and 8th grades, respectively, we pulled them to homeschool them.

Excellent decision!! Wish I could have done that.

My daughter is a junior in one of the "highest ranked" public high schools in NYS. It's remarkable how many juniors, by the end of this year, will have completed nearly all the course requirements for graduation. Senior year brings an opportunity to accrue "college credits" at the HS. At the time these kids began school, pre-K was not funded nor was it a requirement. This tells me that some of the public (perhaps many) schools are working at an accelerated pace. Do we, as taxpayers, need to fund that? Why can't the schools teach at a normal structured pace. And, as for the course offerings, seniors now do internships.

While the variety of course offerings is interesting, I have noticed that many students still have a poor command of the English language, especially spelling. Why aren't the taxpayers up in arms???

Keep us posted on how many tens of people show up for this one.

Attendance estimates put 45,000 at the Plaza. Neither Albany nor State Police were able to confirm the attendance figure. A head count was impossible, but bodies were packed cheek-by-jowl across half the concourse, facing the Governor's Mansion.

Educators go public at Empire State Plaza rally

What scares me is how these educator's views compare to the works of Gramsci, or Engels and Marx, and being passed down as ideological indoctrination to future generations.

Instead of a veiled call for greater socialism, and the rebellion of the proletariat, to achieve the self-discipline, self-restraint and moral strength we have lost to the ideology of the counter-culture baby boomer's irresponsible individualism and pleasuremongering - perhaps a more introspective approach is in order?

How will spending more on public schooling (and earlier, as in Pre-K) get your children away from the TV set and in front of their homework? How has doubling the education spending in Georgia over the last 10 years improved it's academic standing in the nation or the world? Georgia spends $6,900 per student, 27th highest in the nation. New York spends the highest per pupil, $10,922. Are our schools really under funded, even after increasing federal education spending 132 percent since 1996? How is it that states and homeschoolers, that spend significantly less per pupil, outperform these public school children? Social (non-military) spending accounts for over 82% of all federal spending. Social Security and Medicare fiscally threaten this country's security and future generations' ability to work. Aren't these the same people that were passing anti-war resolutions and demonstrating on the street?

Somehow, I don't think the security of our country is found in a nostalgia for flower painted VW's.

What scares me is how these educator's views compare to the works of Gramsci, or Engels and Marx, and being passed down as ideological indoctrination to future generations.
You're right about that! The Wolf of Socialism is hiding in the Sheepskin of Education!

Somehow, I don't think the security of our country is found in a nostalgia for flower painted VW's.
They would do away with the security of our country for being "jingositic."

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