Need MORE Proof the Left Doesn't Care About Educating Poor Kids?

Teach for (Some of) America - WSJ.com:

"This is a tragic lost opportunity. Teach for America picks up the $20,000 tab for the recruitment and training of each teacher, which saves public money. More important, the program feeds high-energy, high-IQ talent into a teaching profession that desperately needs it. Unions claim the recent grads lack the proper experience and commitment to a teaching career. But the Urban Institute has studied the program and found that 'TFA status more than offsets any experience effects. Disadvantaged secondary students would be better off with TFA teachers, especially in math and science, than with fully licensed in-field teachers with three or more years of experience.'"

The big government folks love to demagogue on education and pass bills to shovel more money into existing failed school systems. Ask them, however, to cross their big contributors, the teacher unions, by supporting successful voucher programs, and they run for cover. This story is even more breathtaking however. Their cynicism extends so far as to be willing to impede the flow of idealistic Ivy League-trained recruits into underperforming public school systems. They can't bear the prospect of having to compete with young teachers with energy, brains, and a desire to put students first.

Pay No Attention to All Those Red Lines - After All I Inherited a Deficit

Projected Deficit - washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2009/03/21/GR2009032100104.html

At his press conference, the President repeatedly evaded answering questions about whether he was sticking our children with paying for our overspending. As I recall, his arguments were:

1) I inherited a big deficit. How that justifies going on to triple the deficit you inherited totally escapes me.

2) It's either do what I propose or do nothing. STRAW MAN ALERT. There really is no course of action somewhere between doing nothing and running up $9.3 TRILLION in deficits?

3) If we don't spend all this money on education and healthcare, there's no way our economy is going to grow at even 2% HUH? Which economy has been the growth engine of the world, the US, or the European socialist states Pres Obama wants to turn us into? And how does throwing more money at our woefully inefficient education system, without reforming it, promise to generate any return on our "investment?" Thus far, federal spending on education has been pretty much inversely related to the global competitiveness of our education system.

From the UK - Church Schools Losing Their Religious Freedom?

Church schools could be forced to promote Islam and homosexuality, Catholics fear - Telegraph:

"Church schools could be forced to promote Islam and homosexuality, Catholics fear"

From the Telegraph of London. The Left hates church schools - they threaten their goal of social indoctrination. This is England now - how long before it comes to America? We have already seen moves in California to ban home schooling. We have seen the Democrats shut down a very successful school voucher program in Washington, DC. Phasing out of charitable deductions will also put the financial squeeze on church schools. Expect to see greater scrutiny of the teacher credentials and curricula of religious schools on the horizon.

Is It Ignorance Of Or Antagonism To The Founding Principles?

George Will : A Lesson from the Framers - Townhall.com:

"Some governors have recently behaved badly in appointing people to fill U.S. Senate vacancies. Feingold's solution, of which John McCain is a co-sponsor, is to amend the 17th Amendment. It would be better to repeal it."

So many of the proposals from the left run counter to the intentions of our Framers. You wonder whether they are just ignorant, or if they consider themselves more evolved than those slave owning neanderthals that founded our nation. Unfortunately, I suspect 10% or less of graduating high school seniors today could explain the difference between a democratic and a republican form of government. The vast majority of Americans reading about Feingold's proposal will react, "yeah, more democracy, that has to be better, dude." Step one in pulling this nation back from the brink of European socialism is to start teaching our citizenry the principles upon which our nation was founded.