Stake In The Union Part II

      Our children are an important part of our growing nation and must not be overlooked. Every year we ignore our education system is a set back in 4 years. The current crisis in America's education goes back to 1978 when the invasion of the portables invaded the elementary school campuses across our nation. It was the sign of a lack of classroom space and classroom over crowding. As students marched in the 80's there was hope that someone would hear them as project 2000 began. Across the nation communities launched programs to start from the ground up with ambitious plans to get their local schools back on track with a 13 year plan. Starting with Kindergarten and advancing it one grade every year to the year 2000. Everyone applauded the effort, yet there seemed to be funding problems. Most programs went bust by the 5th grade and by the year 2000, news reports were left with only interviews of these students that they had followed for 13 years that lacked any substance of education reform. These failures belong to Reagan, Bush Sr, and Clinton. Nothing they did helped to bolster a dying education system or to prepare our nations children for a changing workforce that they knew was coming. This is criminal.

      Enter today and we are still with the same issues and an even bigger gap in education across the world. One thing that none of these presidents, including the current president Bush, seem to understand is that you need real money to fund these schools and the American people in overwhelming numbers support taxes for education. Above any other program in this country, American's are willing to sacrifice the most for the education system. So why is it that the government refuses to extend a helping hand in this area? We need to relieve state and local school boards of the burden of spending on the high price of school construction and encourage better use of space. Skyscrapers of education should scratch the sky instead of institutes of financial interests. If we want to raise future leaders and barons of industry, we must make the investment today. The result will be strong financial security for American's on a level that will relieve burdens of Social Security, Medicare, and Welfare in the future. If we had made the investment and sacrifice in the 80's, the painful part would be over and we would be starting on the path of pay back into the system and be prepared for the new world job market that we are struggling in today.

      I propose that we do not teach children to pass tests, but teach them to learn on their own and give the tools and ambition to learn. We must set basic standards that all states and communities must adhere to with realistic goals that are understood. We must implement these standards not in the schools first, but in the educational systems that train our teachers. We must teach our teachers in colleges first what is expected of them. Once that is established and we have the feedback needed to execute a successful program, we can then take those newly trained teachers and place these techniques into the system. We must also provide grants for teachers to be re-educated and kept up to current standards. Funding must be made available for longer school days and school years to further enable an environment where things can be learned and allow teachers a chance to earn a living wage they so deserve. It is time, my fellow American's, to raise our education leaders above those of stock brokers and hollywood stars. We need to give our future a chance and listen to those that are products of not only our success, but our failures. We need not gamble on the future when we can ensure it.