Bailout

Everyday, on my way to work, I listen to NPR talk about the bailout. Bailing out the insurance companies for making bad investments. Bailing out the car companies for making SUVs. And cutting education funding. It's frustrating to listen to the talking heads discuss the need to provide money to these companies to ensure that our society can continue. But, as a teacher, I feel like some of this is happening at the expense of our educational system. I am sure there is not a direct cause and effect relationship. But, we have and have had a failing educational system in this country for years. In our cities, the majority of freshman will not graduate high school. Our special education classes are underfunded and over crowded. Too many children are not meeting basic levels of proficiency. And, schools are not given the resources we need to catch the children who are falling through the cracks. These children will perpetuate our society, as an assembly line worker at Ford or the CEOs of Goldman Sacks. We need to solve many problems in our world. I wish that education was valued in a way that could generate news coverage day after day. That we could get a $700 billion bailout of our system. It could fix it all.