If You can read this, thank a teacher!

[firie]

Originally Posted by apocalipstic

With less money being spent there is less tax money to pay the teachers, I get that.

But when I think of the things we do spend money on like the 2 wars we are fighting for NOTHING and how much that money could do to help kids with their education and their health care it makes me want to scream.

Art and music programs being canceled/cut back way before sports makes me want to scream too.

I do wonder about the ups and down in numbers of students based on population booms, how some years we have a shortage of teachers and another a surplus...and I also question the media's love of stirring the pot and freaking us out. CNN has zero idea where Hawaii and Estonia are...grrrrrr and I wonder how anyone gets out of elementary school not knowing at least where the states are...and ends up as a newscaster.

I could go on....

Great thread Diva! I hold a special place in my heart for some of the great teachers I had who shaped my life more than they will ever know. Many of them music teachers.

Yeah, I think we tend to look at the logic of the funding behind two wars and then the move at slashing the school system this way, and automatically go wtf, but it's all about the genius of insuring American stupidity by bureaucratic budgets. We don't just throw one pile of cash into another budget and for good reason. Everything is so "complexly" allocated, I guess. Makes me think we don't really want a good education system. Why would we? We have had a better record at being so so in education and still manage to be the number one super power. That isn't because the masses in this country are rocket scientists. It's because most Americans are not critical thinkers. So those in power in this country are able to secure conquer and control of citizens, and then the terror (nice equation for world power) of fear internationally. Kinda like dick and balls idioacracy, you know? This benefits Americans in power because it keeps the pie tightly theirs. In order to truly ensure that, I think, you need a complacency among the masses that fuels stupid consumerism and thus the rich and their pockets. Hence, the rich don't really send their children to public schools. They also placate the masses (tossing out scraps is far easier when you are dealing with so many people than to fight them as hungry hordes) and with things such as television, new cars, cola, and well, public education.