re: #51 marjoriemoon

The promise to kids is working out? How about an unemployment rate of 25% or more for those high schoolers and college trying to find jobs to make ends meet? That’s a direct result of the increased minimum wage that the Democrats pushed through. Instead of creating jobs, the higher minimum wage eliminates jobs and reduces new job opportunities.

The overall unemployment rate is now 9.8% or nearly 2 full points higher than the Administration claimed things would get with the stimulus package in place. And there’s little sign that things are going to get better; particularly as GM winds down Saturn and Pontiac and sheds Hummer and Saab. Sales are down huge for Ford and Chrysler in September as a hangover effect from cash for clunkers takes hold (I warned ya!).

Focusing on education is critical to future competitiveness, and the need to improve education around the nation must be a priority, but so too is the need to make sure that whatever money is spent on education actually ends up in the classroom and not in the massive bureaucracy that functionally inhibits education.

Case in point, I have relatives who are teachers in the NYC school system who get a curriculum from the Dept of Education, and they change the curriculum every few years, even if there’s no good reason to do so. It’s asinine and done so that the upper management can say that they’re doing their jobs, as opposed to improving the actual classroom experience. Besides, everything is geared to passing competency exams, not actually learning or critical thinking - skills necessary for life, let alone work.