Or - Is it just a democratic plot to keep building the base of their liberal constituency that makes the public education system in the US so woefully pathetic?
206643
sure. as taxpayers we pay for it. If you don't get what you pay for you should be able to sue or get your money back as with any other business.
542938
Apparently not. They are so gullible. The people in the White House are well-educated from the finest schools. They are not religious. Karl Rove is just playing Christians for fools. The Republican party is controlled by the very rich, who are using the Christians like pawns to get votes. Reagan said 26 years ago that he would get rid of abortion. He nominated the controlling Supreme Court justices. It hasn't happened, has it?
390640
It's just another Republican talking point.  They've lost power, now they're seeking to apply pressure to the Democrats to force them to make nice.  I think the rationale is, if they can spin the Democrat's efforts to reverse some of the harm that's been done as partisanship, they can hobble them to a degree.  Public opinion lost them this election, now they're going to try and use it to make the Dems appear to be every bit as bad for the country as 12 years of Republican dominance.\n\nAnd no, people may not realize how ridiculous it sounds.  The reason those tactics work as well as they do is because the general public has chronic memory loss, and is far too easily led.  If the Republicans embark on a sustained effort to hinder and deride Democrats for the next 2 years, they may well be able to use public opinion to regain some territory in 2008.  That's what they're aiming for. \n\n'Unity,' now that power has changed hands, is a nice, convenient sentiment, but I for one don't feel sentimental about my country's political landscape.  I can't afford to, and whether they know it or not, neither can anyone else.
314689
Absolutely, the media is bent on legitimizing their dream role as the "fourth branch of government" as they are portrayed in so many college classes.  They will try everything in their power to accomplish this goal.  Appealing to the most vocal, least experienced, and least likely to vote population is their focus these days.  Talk of Bush "stealing the election" and starting a "war for oil" fuels the misplaced anger of college students who eagerly absorb each word the media spews as gospel.  If the war effort fails, i.e. loss of US servicemen's lives, the media appears to have won and to have been right all along.  In the eyes of their consumers, the media was right all along and Americans should have voted according to what the media fed them.  \n\nIt's a good thing the gullible that follow the media and liberal college professors don't vote.
539605
I don't think so!!!! Just like the media, many schools are turning liberal and are teaching opinions and not history!!!
618382
The current system is as follows:\n\nThe federal and state governments set guidelines for program provisions (ELL, special ed, etc.) and student performance at a certain level, based on political expediency.\n\nWhen they decide funding for schools, they do not look at what these mandates require in order to have even a chance of success (much smaller student to teacher ratio, adequate time in the school day, a textbook in every subject for every student at every level that can be taken home and/or are consumable, adequate materials, etc.). They look at what the tax base can support, after other, "more important" areas are funded.\n\nEducation legislation today has nothing to do with educational ethics... Republicans are attempting to remove Education from the federal budget while scapegoating teachers to save their own political hides. State legislation is based on squeaky wheels and voter interest, not on real functional research-based policies.\n\nFunding decisions have nothing to do with educational ethics, only with expediency for legislators... what is the minimum that can be thrown at the schools (that fine balance between enough to keep people thinking that the funding sources are "doing their best," and minimizing cost as much as possible.
327763
Bush's own supporters on here have many times insulted America... \n\nThey constantly call the poor "lazy," even though what most of them consider poor makes up more than 50 percent of the population. They say they don't want to work, even though many poor have more than one job just to make it...\n\nThey call those that go to public schools stupid and say the public education system needs to be done away with and privatized...  they also want to take more money away for private school vouchers, which would only take money away from an already underfunded system...\n\nThey even don't seem to value our lives and send us to Iraq, the poor clearly make up the majority of the Army and Marines... and they don't even have a good reason... WMDs that aren't there?... Are our soldiers not worth knowing these kind of things for sure?... We haven't caught bin Laden yet, we focus on a nation that has nothing to do with terror?\n\nI'm getting really sick of them insulting the majority of America... which includes me...
604195
Should they? No. Will they? Yes. \n\nPoliticians are a breed of short term thinkers. They care about today, ignore the past, and are oblivious to the future. \n\nIf someone is going to wave a huge bundle of cash to a cash strapped government, then you'll see many things be privatized without consideration of the long term impacts.\n\nI work for a government agency, and there was talk of privatizing it. Nobody but the governor was in favor of the idea. Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, and many others in the community agreed that making the public service private would be worse for the community at large. \n\nThe governor has recanted his desire to privatize the institution. \n\nConsider for a moment what our lives would be like if every public service were privatized? We'd live in a very marginalized society with distinct differences between rich and poor. The middle class would be small, and almost non-existent. \n\nTake education. The GOP has been deliberately underfunding public schools so that they'll fail. As schools get worse, they begin to promote the idea of privatized schools. They'll sell us the notion that businesses are more efficient than government, and that businesses are not going to be pushed about by "liberal" politics. \n\nBottom line: they wish to create an expensive, class-based, tiered educational structure that panders to consumer interest at the expense of the public at large. \n\nProfit is the bottom line of businesses and private interests. Public welfare is no concern to the monied interests. \n\nJust image what kind of education poor Americans would receive if education was privatized. They'd get the McDonald's variant of education. Many middle income families would find themselves even further cash-strapped by having to pay for their child's education personally. \n\nNot to be rude, but there are things children need to learn away from the home beyond a watchful parent's eye. In particular, sex education. \n\nAs such, a privatized system would create a tailorized and custom made education instead of giving a broad and general education. \n\nSchools could teach their "preferred" method of teaching subjects like history, religion, and other humanities. \n\nWe'd lose cohesiveness and unity as a people if the system was privatized. \n\nLook at Indiana and other states that have privatized their tollway systems. Nobody is happy with the arrangements except the politicians that engineered the deal and the businesses that are raking in profits from the deal.\n\nPrivatization is basically a lose-lose situation for the public at large in a long-term context. It's a win-win for businesses and politicians of cash strapped governments. \n\nLastly, how do you hold a private business/group accountable. If they have millions of dollars and armies of lawyers and lobbyists, how do you compete with them if they do you or your community wrong? \n\nMoney corrupts. \n\nIt's our duty as citizens to safeguard our liberties. We need to stay informed, stay active, and keep our friends and family in the know. \n\nWe have to work against privatization if we wish to keep living in a free society.\n\nKeep in mind the purpose of having a government: to protect the public from each other, from private and secretive interests that have ambitions of power and control. \n\nGovernment is a tool that should provide protection of our civil liberties, our property, and our rights to pursue our own happiness. \n\nAs a tool, it's only as effective as the people running it. We need to put people in office that understand what government is, and how to use it. We need to stop putting people in government that use it for enhancing their business dealings and that have contempt for the government and its purpose. \n\nWe wouldn't hire a carpenter who hated tools. Why elect someone who hates government?
579179
It's amazing, isn't it? The conservatives have developed this method of using religion and phony patriotism to avoid criticism. Here's how it works:\n\nor.... "Arguing without Listening"\n\nLiberal Lie: "We rushed to war on false pretenses."\nEducated Response: "You Hate America!"\n\nLiberal Lie: "The Constitution isn't a political tool."\nEducated Response: "Read the Bible!"\n\nLiberal Lie: "The Clear Skies Initiative raises pollution."\nEducated Response: "America Hater!"\n\nLiberal Lie: "There is no link between Iraq and al-Qaeda."\nEducated Response: "Traitor!"\n\nLiberal Lie: "The tax cuts clearly benefit the wealthy."\nEducated Response: "Stop hating America!"\n\nLiberal Lie: "They turned a surplus into a deficit."\nEducated Response: "It's Clinton's fault!"\n\nLiberal Lie: "The 2000 Election was a sham."\nEducated Response: "You hate, Hate, HATE America!"\n\nLiberal Lie: "I don't hate America."\nEducated Response: "Flip-Flopper!"\n\nRemember, it's not about being right.... it's about winning!
444735
This is an excellent question that would take me a few paragraphs to answer but it is late so I will try to summarize.\n\nIn brief, it has to do with being uneducated and easily manipulated by propaganda that targets their downcomings and prejudices.\n\nBelieve it or not, Rove has been quoted as using prejudices to manipulate votes of the poor. \n\nYou see, it is like this: if you can keep the poor ppl angry for being poor then they want to blame someone... then you convince them that the liberal socialist democrats just want to use all their hard earned tax dollars to pay for the 10 kid black family on welfare... things like that.\n\nReality is that more white poor on on welfare... it is because of the midwestern states.\n\nAnyways that is only one example but the bottom line is that their prejudices have been manipulated. Btw, I know this from first hand experience having been raised in a bigoted, Southern Repoublican family.\n\nI wish we could sit everybody down that makes under $250k per year and make them watch congressional debates of that past 15 years... they would see that it is the democratic party up there in Washington fighting for them, not the Republican party.
53137
I don't think all Americans are like that, but certainly many are.  Our public education system leaves a great deal to be desired, especially the last 30 years or so.  And the media's influence on everyday life in America has become so pervasive that it threatens to completely choke off any possibility of real rational thought.\n\nBut there are those who do think for themselves.  There are many Americans who care deeply about this nation and want it to continue to be a place where the freedoms our ancestors fought and died to earn will still live and breathe.  It's a shame that so many ignorant Americans don't understand what they risk when they just go along with what someone says--especially when it involves trading your freedoms for anything.
674332
Because the current administration has other ideas.  Bush is taking care of the people who he call his base...the have-mores!  You are right, we are becoming poorer and we are becoming less educated.   This is by plan.  Soon the only people who will be able to afford a college education will be the wealthy.  At the rate of 11% a year for the last 5 years college tuition has risen.  What middle income family will be able to educate their children beyond high school if that trend continues?  The fact that we are in this position is to the delight of Russia, China and North Korea.  China owns our debt and when they decide to cash in, we are all up a creek.
56326
diamond dave is wrong. studies do show a tendency of college educatoin level-or higher-to vote liberally; however, there are other studies that show the more wealthy an individual becomes, the higher the tendency is to vote republican. The republican party seems to help out the elites while running on moral platforms supported by uneducated bible belters who think-for some reason liberals can't figure out-that those issues are important matters for congress to discuss: these people usually vote against their self-interests. Diamond D was right about the part on asking the government for assistance, though. Democrats are more likely to ask for some kid of aid.
340719
yes, but it's not really punishment, it's more guilt. why? because they feel guilty about their own wealth and the fact that there are people in this country that don't have it (wealth). and don't have the opportunity to have it. are they willing to make changes in society that will change the dynamic? no. because they need the impoverished vote. what baffles me is that these people, these poor people who have nothing who keep voting in these democrats who do nothing to improve the situation of their voters have not learned yet that they are being tricked.
39958
yes, but only for those who are willing to help themselves.\n\npeople that rely on others all the time are known as democrats
424283
Because the path to power lies in the ability to claim that THEY did it, not some hayseed republican.\n\nYou'd think they'd love 'No Child Left Behind' (massive federal govt intrusion in education) and the medicare/medicaid overhaul (one multi-billion dollar step closer to socialized healthcare).\n\nBoth detestable programs grew government exponentially and are clearly load-bearing planks in the socialist platform.  \n\nThe sad truth is that, like anyone with the mentality of a 5-year old, they don't want the program for the program's sake, they want the CREDIT.
251046
They are putting their kids in the lottery to hopefully get their kids a decent education.\n\nShall we tell the rest of the story or will that not fit your biased bullsh*t agenda.\n\nWhat the hell, you had your tenure so now its mine - except mine will be the truth.\n\nBush has spent more on education that any other President in history - Reference the Congressional record if you doubt.\n\nWhat schools all over the nation have done is put themselves in a system which does not allow for accountability, prohibits terminations of its worst teacher via the teachers union and refuses to all competition with schools in the private sector.\n\nLets see - "competition among drug companies is good for getting the best for your money" is what democrats say in the health care argument - why doesn't that argument work in education.  \n\n2 reasons - Kids don't vote and Dims love scaring the sh*t out of old people with threats of losing there medicare.