Let it be known...I haven't yet decided for whom I will vote. I watched McCain last night and I wasn't too impressed with anything he had to say. In fact, he down right pissed me off at one point.
I am a bit sensitive when it comes to speaking about the education situation, especially from those who have little to do with it. Politicians like to spout off about the state of education and many haven't been inside a school in years. They also like to pass legislation that is highly demanding and severely underfunded thus tying the hands of even the best educators. But that is another blog.
I would like the opportunity to respond to what McCain said last night and ask a few questions in return. Of course I don't expect any answers...this is just an exercise in futility but maybe when I am finished I will feel better.
JM: When a public school fails to meet its obligations to students, parents deserve a choice in the education of their children. And I intend to give it to them.
Lucy: Mr. McCain...Do you intend to give those same public schools a choice of new students when the current students fail to meet their obligations to the school? Do I get a choice in the kids I get to educate? Oh that's right...I work for a PUBLIC school system.
JM: Some may choose a better public school. Some may choose a private one. Many will choose a charter school. But they will have that choice and their children will have that opportunity.
Lucy: Mr. McCain...Will you create schools for students who are constant disruptor's of the educational process. Will you create schools for students who do not want to learn? Will you create schools for students who are tired, hungry, abused, neglected, alone, unloved, angry, mentally ill? Because we need more charter schools for these kids so the kids who want to learn can get a public education. But then I don't think that would qualify as PUBLIC anymore would it?
JM: Senator Obama wants our schools to answer to unions and entrenched bureacracies. I want schools to answer to parents and students. And when I’m President, they will.
Lucy: Mr. McCain...While I don't disagree with you that the union is not the answer to all the problems, I am wondering if you have a problem with parents answering to teachers. You know the parents who don't make their kids do homework, or go to bed at a decent hour, or get to school on time every day or even once a week. Or how about the parent who divides his pound of marijuana on the kitchen table at dinner time? Who are these people accountable to? Not us teachers. Yet you want us to be accountable to them when little Susie doesn't do well on the state mandated test? You want me to be accountable to these people? Give me a FU&*ing break!
Just like most politicians...McCain, you don't have a clue as to what goes on in a public school.
3 comments:
Amen! I think you have posed very important questions that will, unfortunately, not be answered by Senator Mc Cain because all he needs to do is LOOK like a reformer in order to get elected. That, in itself, is ludicrous since his party has been in power for eight years without showing the least interest in reforming anything beyond the size of big business' pockets.
Lucy - I'm not a parent and I'm not a teacher, but I'm well aware that today's kids are tomorrow's adults, voters, and - sometimes I think G-d help us! - leaders. I always vote for every initiative for kids - schools, libraries, parks. But none of that will do any good if the Republicans don't recognize that you can't keep cutting and cutting and cutting, and then demand more. Every child gets left behind, one way or another.
That's exactly what i think when i hear that schools lose funding for having kids with low grades. Eventually, the kids have to be responsible for wanting to learn. No matter what the teacher does, there are kids who go to school just to be disruptive.
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