Maslow and "it's for the kids" and Al Franken and Smaller Learning

[question everything]

Communities

I am reading Al Franken's Lies and the Lying Liars... in small portions because now what I read makes me angry rather amuses...

It used to be that every proposition - at least in California - would have its reason or its conclusion that it was "for the kids."

Now, after 9/11 and the recession we do not hear much about it and I was reminded of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs where our first attention is to survival and then to safety. So now our main concerns are our lives and the safety of our lives: food, clothing and shelters and no one has extra money, anyway, to earmark funds "for the kids."

But I read the chapter about Hannity's lies that he used the smaller schools in Harlem to promote school vouchers, even though, as Franken points out, this had nothing to do with vouchers but with the Federal "Smaller Learning Communities" program that meant to duplicate the "miracle of East Harlem" nationwide but that.. yes, was on Bush's hit list for his 2003 budget. I suppose the "no child left behind" that, as I understand it (don't have school age kids) is more words than action is getting a lot more attention.

So here is a proposal for our ticket: forget the NCLB, start talking about the SLC. Here is something that is working - still do, I hope - and that would even endear many of those who believe in small government, in letting the communities make the decision.

Comments, anyone?

[drkedjr]

1. No Lawyer Left Behind ...

For those of us in public education, NCLB is the final assault and the end of the public school system as we know it. The
not so hidden agenda of the rebuplican party, for years, has been to dismantle and privitize schools. This makes both big business and cottage industry involvement a reality. And, private schools can be taxed! How nice, how typically republican...

[AndyTiedye]

2. Now They Are Sending the Kids Off to Be Killed in Iraq Anyway

and they'll be grabbing everybody's kids for that after the election
if the usurper usurps again,

so why bother educating them?
:grr::grr::grr: