likely to be in the stimulus package, in the form of rebuilding and
retrofitting decrepit and obsolete school buildings. There is well
over 100 billion in deferred maintenance just to bring school buildings
fully up to code. And that by itself will make something a difference
in the learning environment – it is hard to learn when it rains in the
classroom, or when there are not enough working toilets so they stink
and overflow, or when the HVAC is so obsolete it is either over 90 or
under 50 in the classroom.
All we do now, under the terms of the education debate as dictated by Republicans and Republican surrogates, is talk about how teachers’ unions are making outrageous pay demands and then sucking at teaching, or how parents in “some” communities don’t value education and therefore that’s why the schools fail, or how “some” kids don’t want to learn, and there’s nothing you can do about that, so … shrug, huff, back to your fireplace and your brandy and your cigar, Daddy Fuckin’ Warbucks, now you’ve given yourself an out, now you’re excused from giving a shit. Go you. Schmuck.
I’m absolutely certain that each of the above statements can be proven true in examples in schools around the country. Absolutely certain there are teachers who suck, and kids who are little assholes who’d rather be playing video games than learning, and parents who could give a shit less if their kids remember the multiplication tables. Absolutely certain. You simply cannot pay me to give a tinker’s damn is all, not whenthere’s a hole in the wall and the boiler is broken and there are chains on the doors and grates on the windows and the kids are wearing parkas in the classroom.
I mean, I’m sorry, I suppose I should be a serious person and demand that we punish and humiliate poor people before we “give” them anything (not like they pay taxes, after all, we’re the hard workers, they’re the shiftless layabouts). I suppose I should be serious like that but oh my god until you can no longer point to a single school that doesn’t look at least as nice or nicer than the average NFL practice facility I would like you to kindly shut the fuck up about what’s going on inside said school because I have no intention of listening to you and you’re just annoying the pets.
A.