Education, National Debt.
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!
Education is 1.32% of the 2010 Budget.
Unless Mallard means that by spending 14 times as much on Defense as Education we are bankrupting our future, Mallard is an idiot with no math skills.
But it's not like that is a surprise.
14 comments:
I believe ducks is going for a metaphorical bankruptcy in this one. It's still asinine, though.
Another tired, Republican, "Been super concerned about spending since late 2008" tripe, mixed in with, "why aren't our children not learning?"
Gosh, maybe because a good chuck of America jerks off to sports (high school football is the most important thing our children can be exposed to, don'tcha know) and attacks people who know things as elitist snobs?
This sort of works...badly written but it sort of works. The only thing is that if people weren't screaming to cut the budget on everything but defense spending we might have better odds.
I live in Illinois and the government is actually stating that they can't give promised funds to schools, or if they do get them they are likely to be reduced. This has led to many districts in my area having to fire teachers and cut programs, no one wants to do it and the deadlock isn't helping. Some people are demanding we cut administrative personnel and salaries and leave the teachers be, others argue hiring freezes, but as it is things are not looking good.
So tell me, is the problem that education is underfunded Mallard? Hell, it would actually be interesting to see a conservative figure argue that we need to put more money into education, especially given the rate of population growth compared to the amount of funds per student and classroom sizes.
Not to mention the other issues that confront education, but hey, that would all get in the way of the 'American Schools are Bad' argument that has no qualifiers or suggestions for improvement.
Well, that is what it boils down to, isn't it?
As far back as 20 years ago at least, schools were already starting to get stingy. I come from one of the best public school systems in the nation (prolly part of why I'm such a east coast liberal elitist who hates America) and they were starting to ration paper when I was still in elementary school. Paper!
"Schools are bad. This is obviously liberal's fault. It's so obvious, we're not going to explain how."
Well, what's your solution, then?
"Fire teachers, because they're bad (cough liberal) and replace them with better teachers."
No one explains where these magical better teachers are supposed to come from, or why they would want to be teachers when they'll be punished for students worrying more about getting laid and high, then school.
Or a big crux, the lavish teachers salary of a barely livable wage. Why become a professional worker, when you can live the sweet glory of working with kids who;s main goal is to get into a party school, parents who treat you like the hired help, and a salary that would be laughed at by some of your better restaurant wait staff?
It comes down to funding; and in a society that is willing, eager, to spend billions to let guys run around with a ball, and to build useless aircraft carriers, but scoff at spending money to buy FUCKING PAPER FOR THEIR GODDAMN SCHOOLS, what do you expect?
/rant
"Don't raise taxes! Just cut education!"
"Don't raise taxes! Just cut education!"
"Don't raise taxes! Just cut education!"
"Don't raise taxes! Just cut education!"
"Don't raise taxes! Just cut education!"
"Don't raise taxes! Just cut education!"
"...Hey, why is kids so dum?"
"Never mind! AMERICA IS NUMBER ONE!!"
"EVEN ON DRUGS, RUSH IS RIGHT!!"
"Don't raise taxes! Just cut education!"
It's not hard to figure out. Facts have been long proven to have a liberal bias, and as Orwell so sagely taught us (from a right-wing point of view), ignorance is strength.
Tinsley knows that destroying the education system--while feigning concern for it*--will deliver greater numbers of morons into the service of his masters.
*cf: Social Security
With the crappy atittude neocons have towards education, it's never going to get any better. They snub "liberal elitists" and discourage people from higher education, they complain about taxes for public education which are much less than defense and war spending, they claim private systems can handle everything better when the countries we fall behind have public systems, and as the recent Texas board of education debacle indicates, they inflict partisan politics into education material and take pride in ignoring experts.
And they resent their children knowing more than them.
After years of sawing at the tree, conservatives are pointing and snickering about how small it is. Bless their pointed little heads.
Moving right along, considering that the violence they're now espousing pushes the envelope toward outright terrorism, I'm for calling the teabaggers by a new name that reflects their commitment to toleration of racism and violent rhetoric, their ignorance, and the way they're funny until they start hurting people: "Terror Tactic Teabaggers," or TTT, whose triple initials call to mind another group of fierce nativists who they resemble more and more closely.
Glad to see Mallard cares about the natl debt, now that the greatest offender is out of office.
John Sexton, president of NYU, in an interview with Bill Moyer, described the problem of this type of behavior (along with global warming deniers, birthers, etc.) as the result of "[a]n allergy to thought, an allergy to complexity, nuance. A kind of collapse into an intellectual relativism where opinions become fact and even knowledge and wisdom".
Unfortunately, I would say he is absolutely correct.
Link to video and transcript at PBS.org of Sexton's appearance (lots of good stuff besides the above):
http://tinyurl.com/yar7was
Jumping back to the subject of Health Care Reform for a moment, this Onion article captures the lunacy perfectly.
There's even a "cram down throat" bit.
But why should I care? I'm not going to have kids, I'm out of that system (and damn. Why doesn't the U of M have X? because we're effing broke! and what money we get is earmarked for things that look pretty - the new university center - and not things that will help, like better security), and I am a legal adult, so I don't have to care about my mother who works in public schools.
FFS, why can't somebody go on TV and say "if you want public goods, you will have to pay taxes." Our government isn't officially run by a bunch of rich people - if it was, we could be like one of those tiny oil rich countries (Dubai?) where no citizen pays taxes, because the country is so rich. Except we're not.
But we're individualists!
People tell me my ideals will change when I get my first pay check with chunks removed, I say if those chunks are going to the public good, then let them. I'd rather pay $500 towards universal health care and help somebody else than just towards my private insurance company, which only helps me until it decides not to.
Eff that.
My high school was so broke that they had to cut the German and Latin classes. No big deal, I mean, such a specialization for two not-so-useful languages in today's world, etc etc. Except they were taught by video. At another school IN THE SAME DAMN DISTRICT, they would tape the class, and we'd get the tape. A teacher (not even a foreign language one, just anyone) would supervise the class and grade things with the key from the other school.
The thing that pisses me off the most about school funding is what happens in school districts. We're all in the same district, right, so why do the schools in the poor part of the area get shit, while the rich ones get more and more? Why can't we even spread the wealth and opportunities within a district? (and then there's the transportation cost if you want to go to a rich school - if they let you)
I also hate that public universities are not standardized, not even across the state, which means that when you transfer back home, you have to retake classes you already got an A in. It also means my sister and I can't communicate and make sense, because they label classes differently and what's required is totally different.
Some days I really hate the anti-federalist movement, which gave states so much power. "Yay, Dad got a better paying job in a new state. Sorry, high school age child, you'll be completely behind and/or so ahead you'll be bored."
grr
For fun, I stock books at a thrift store. A lot of our kids' books end up in classrooms, as teachers know they can get reading material at our store very cheaply.
Price matters when you're a teacher paying out-of-pocket for what the school district won't provide.
I don't necessarily blame the school districts either. When jobs are flying overseas by the container load (thanks to Reagan/Bush/Clinton/Bush job export policies that enrich the likes of Mitt Romney) how is a community supposed to choose among police, fire and schools?
Bring jobs back from overseas, and we'll be able to afford better schools (or perhaps we could just tax the 2% who now own 50% of everything worth having?)
Here's a related cartoon that I like; it has a message more specific than "schools suck".
Of course Mallard's concern for our children's future goes right out the window when someone tries to sell him a fund raising candy bar.
Unregulated capitalism created the entire world panic. Unregulated capitalism put an entire nation - Iceland - into bankruptcy - real bankruptcy, as in.
Democrats and liberals created the Glass-Steagal Act. Republicans and conservatives got rid of it.
Mallard is historical toast.
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