re: #1 Tiny Alien Kitties are Watching You

I retired from teaching high school in 2009, and now, I’m glad I did. I never saw the assault on public education by the Right coming. The teachers at the school from which I retired are miserable. They are having to deal with more demands that supposedly boost student achievement, and they’re dealing with pay cuts due to furloughs. Our state legislature is dominated by republicans and we have a republican governor. Their main goal seems to be the dismantling of public education. They’ve devised several schemes that funnel money from public education to private and charter schools. They passed a bill that allows citizens to take the money that would go toward public education and place it in a fund to support private schools and colleges. I fear a Romney/Ryan presidency because they would not adequately fund public education, leaving many states short of funds. This would lead to more furloughs for teachers and fewer resources for schools to buy textbooks, upgrade their facilities, and/or invest in much-needed technology. We’re already losing ground to schools in other nations in the areas of math, science, and reading. We’re also losing ground to other countries in regard to the number of people who graduate from college. This may be the GOP plan for America, but imo, a nation of poorly educated citizens is not an example of that “American Exceptional” that they love to talk about. A nation cannot be exceptional if it is producing high school graduates who can’t compete in critical areas with students in other countries.