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Surge in Homeless Pupils Strains Schools
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — In the small trailer her family rented over the summer, 9-year-old Charity Crowell picked out the green and purple outfit she would wear on the first day of school. She vowed to try harder and bring her grades back up from the C’s she got last spring — a dismal semester when her parents lost their jobs and car and the family was evicted and migrated through friends’ houses and a motel.
Her family is facing eviction, but Charity Crowell, 9, and her younger brother are enrolled in elementary school in Asheville, N.C. (Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times) Charity is one child in a national surge of homeless schoolchildren that is driven by relentless unemployment and foreclosures. The rise, to more than one million students without stable housing by last spring, has tested budget-battered school districts as they try to carry out their responsibilities — and the federal mandate — to salvage education for children whose lives are filled with insecurity and turmoil.
The instability can be ruinous to schooling, educators say, adding multiple moves and lost class time to the inherent distress of homelessness. And so in accord with federal law, the Buncombe County district, where Charity attends, provides special bus service to shelters, motels, doubled-up houses, trailer parks and RV campgrounds to help children stay in their familiar schools as the families move about.
Still, Charity said of her last semester, “I couldn’t go to sleep, I was worried about all the stuff,” and she often nodded off in class.
Charity and her brother, Elijah Carrington, 6, were among 239 children from homeless families in her district as of last June, an increase of 80 percent over the year before, with indications this semester that as many or more will be enrolled in the months ahead.
While current national data are not available, the number of schoolchildren in homeless families appears to have risen by 75 percent to 100 percent in many districts over the last two years, according to Barbara Duffield, policy director of the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth, an advocacy group.
There were 679,000 homeless students reported in 2006-7, a total that surpassed one million by last spring, Ms. Duffield said.
With schools just returning to session, initial reports point to further rises. In San Antonio, for example, the district has enrolled 1,000 homeless students in the first two weeks of school, twice as many as at the same point last year.
“It’s hard enough going to school and growing up, but these kids also have to worry where they’ll be staying that night and whether they’ll eat,” said Bill Murdock, chief executive of Eblen-Kimmel Charities, a private group in Asheville that helps needy families with anything from food baskets and money for utility bills to toiletries and a prom dress.
“We see 8-year-olds telling Mom not to worry, don’t cry,” Mr. Murdock said.
Since 2001, federal law has required every district to appoint a liaison to the homeless, charged with identifying and aiding families who meet a broad definition of homelessness — doubling up in the homes of relatives or friends or sleeping in motels or RV campgrounds as well as living in cars, shelters or on the streets. A small minority of districts, including Buncombe County, have used federal grants or local money to make the position full time.
The law lays out rights for homeless children, including immediate school placement without proof of residence and a right to stay in the same school as the family is displaced. Providing transportation to the original school is an expensive logistical challenge in a huge district like Buncombe County, covering 700 square miles.
While the law’s goals are widely praised, school superintendents lament that Congress has provided little money, adding to the fiscal woes of districts. “The protections are important, but Congress has passed the cost to state and local taxpayers,” said Bruce Hunter, associate director of the American Association of School Administrators.
Fairfax County, Va., where the number of homeless students climbed from 1,100 in June 2007 to 1,800 last spring, has three social workers dedicated to the homeless and is using a temporary stimulus grant to assign a full-time transportation coordinator to commandeer buses, issue gas cards and sometimes call taxis to get the children to their original schools.
Like Fairfax County, the Asheville area looks prosperous, drawing tourists and retirees, but manicured lawns, million-dollar homes and golf courses mask the struggles of many adults working at low-paying jobs in sales and food service.
Emily Walters, the liaison to the homeless for the Buncombe County schools, is busy as school begins, providing backpacks and other supplies and signing children up for free breakfasts and lunches. But her job continues through the school year as other families lose their footing and those who had concealed their status, because of the stigma or because they were not aware of the benefits, join the list.
Sometimes it includes driving families in crisis to look at prospective shelters — a temporary solution at best, Ms. Walters said. When the county receives a two-year stimulus grant next month, she said, she hopes there will be more money to help people avoid eviction or pay security deposits for new rentals.
The evening before school began, Ms. Walters drove 45 minutes to an RV campground to deliver a scientific calculator and other essential school supplies to Cody Curry, 14, who lives with his mother, Dawn, and his brother, Zack, 11, in a camper. Mrs. Curry had to downsize from a trailer, she said, when her work as a sales clerk was cut to two days a week.
The first day of school, Ms. Walters drove to a men’s rescue shelter in the city to take Nate Fountain, 18, to high school. Nate said his parents kicked him out of the house last spring, during his senior year, because he was not doing his school work and was drinking and using drugs. With Ms. Walters’s help, he said, he expects to finish high school this semester and study culinary arts at a community college.
“I spend a lot of time just making sure the kids stay in school,” Ms. Walters said.
The busing service was especially valued by Leslie Laws, who was laid off from her job in customer service last year and lost her rental apartment.
Ms. Laws and her 12-year-old son are staying in a women’s shelter in Asheville, far from his former school. He is deeply involved with activities like chorus. Now he must catch the bus at 6:05 a.m. and ride one and a half hours each way.
Educators and advocates for the homeless across the country said that in the current recession, the law had made a difference, minimizing destructive gaps in schooling and linking schools with social welfare agencies.
Charity Crowell, despite her vow to bring up her grades, may be in store for another rough semester. Her stepfather works long hours delivering food on commission, but business is poor. Her mother, Katrina, wants to look for a job, but that is difficult without a car.
Food stamps help, but by the second half of each month the family is mostly eating “Beanee Weenees and noodles,” Ms. Crowell said. As school resumed in late August, the family was facing eviction from the $475-a-month trailer and uncertain about what to do next.
56 Comments so far
Show AllSeems an odd headline. Blaming the victims? Misidentified cause?
This is a case of Damn the costs. Its hard enough for students these days let alone having to deal with the constant worries that come with being homless. These are real "victims" not the pretend type.
I know that our teachers assign each of these children a volunteer student mentor. Something that seems to be working well.
Cut some of the fat from administrators pay if you need money to pay for help for these kids. cut some administrators for that matter. Its our communities and our states that are responsible for our kids not the Feds.
As far as funding goes, every year there is a struggle in Albany over the budget. The budget is unpredictable, and always late. The schools do not know what they have to work with. They cannot plan programs or hire staff beyond the bare bones until the very last minute. By then, many talented educators have had to go elsewhere, as they also have families to support.
Most advanced countries have a fairly stable and consistent national funding stream for the schools. We could easily have it too if we wanted. The money always appears from somewhere when it is for connected war contractors and for banksters. Why not for our children?
School can serve as a stabilizing force when there is poverty or unhappiness at home. This is especially true for homeless children.
"Homeless children" - what a disgraceful phrase for a rich country to need.
Joe
jclientelle
"Homeless children" - what a disgraceful phrase for a rich country to need.
Indeed it is. But there is no system that can eliminate homlesness. But we can by golly handle it better than we are. Its just a tsunami right now becausde of the deregulation and lack of oversight from government in the Bush years and continuing now unfortunately.
Luckily our State has a revenue sharing plan between more affluent and less fortunate schools. Our property taxes are much higher than most states because we don't have an income tax, so the bulk of our school funding is local and stops that problem. That said we can sure use some improvement.
"The money always appears from somewhere when it is for connected war contractors and for banksters. Why not for our children?"
Federal money? It is out of the question to give the Federal government control of education. Absolutely out of the question. If money comes from the Feds it comes with strings. The money for education should never leave the States.
"School can serve as a stabilizing force when there is poverty or unhappiness at home. This is especially true for homeless children."
ABSOLUTELY!!!!
Pax my friend
There is no system that can eliminate homelessness?
There is no Homelessness in Sweden. The Child poverty rate of the Scandanavian countries is too low to measure.
As to cutting the salaries of teachers or administrators.
Why? So they can become homeless? The issue of homlessness started because peoples Salaries are continualy cut or do not keep up with inflation.
Its that top few percent of Americans that have been the only ones to truly increase their share of the wealth over the past 30 years. Hitting the middle class folk is not going to help.
Cut military spending to a TENTH Of what it is today. Stop bailing out banks and privatizing Government so as to send taxpayer dollars to the Shareholders of the Halliburtins and the Blackwaters of the world.
You will have plenty of money for the homeless.
And maybe let these homless stay in the HOMES repossessed by the banks. Those banks are sitting on these properties until real estate prices rebound while they use taxpayer dollars to speculate in Oil.
GW, the comparisons to Sweden are simply unreasonable and their system cannot be duplicated in a larger country with a diverse population. Their population is very little over a third the size of my State. It makes a real difference.
Don't be too hasty in becoming a Erophile, they have plenty of problems of their own. That said if I were forced to choose another country to go to, I believe it would be Sweden.
Don't recall saying anything about cutting Teachers pay, in fact I'd raise it and hire more. Our school administrators are overpaid and overstaffed in my state.
"Cut military spending to a TENTH Of what it is today. Stop bailing out banks and privatizing Government so as to send taxpayer dollars to the Shareholders of the Halliburtins and the Blackwaters of the world."
You've got my vote. In fact between 10 and 20% of todays budget is all we need to provide a stronger military.
"And maybe let these homless stay in the HOMES repossessed by the banks. Those banks are sitting on these properties until real estate prices rebound while they use taxpayer dollars to speculate in Oil."
Can't disagree. You should see the homes rotting on the air field in Hope Arkansas. I commented on it not long ago after seeing them in person. There are answers to these problems, our government just isn't interested.
This administration is looking worse than our last.
>>GW, the comparisons to Sweden are simply unreasonable and their system cannot be duplicated in a larger country with a diverse population. Their population is very little over a third the size of my State. It makes a real difference.
People always use this arguement and it an illogical rebuttal.
To Diversity. Sweden has the same population of foreign born Citizens as does the USA. These are immigrants from the world over.
To the SIZE.
Sweden is larger then many US states AND More Populous. You have already stated that the State is responsible in the USA for most of these programs.
There is not a SINGLE State in the USA even those smaller and less populated that have dealt with the issue of Homelessness and Child Poverty as has the country of Sweden.
It is the SYSTEM in the USA...not the SIZE of the Jurisdiction.
If you want to end poverty amongst Children you MUST better reditribute wealth. The size of the Jurisdiction or its population makes NO DIFFERENCE HERE. If you take the State of Michigan its population is the Same as Swedens. The Size of Michigan is 1/3rd that of Sweden.
By your arguement of size versus Population the State of Michigan should have an easier time adressing Poverty , education and all this other issues then Sweden.
I would point out JUST as example, Sweden has a greater percentage of Single Parent Households then does the US. This has nothing to do with the population size or the size of the country. Poverty is HIGHEST in the USA in single parent houses.
the DIFFERENCE is SOCIAL spending.
I'm sorry, but it is most definately not an illogical argument. It is quite true. Its elementary in fact. Size always imposes complexity. Swedens social and economic system would be a dismal failure if tried here.
While our states are responsible for many things, many states are far different. Their funding is different. Their cultures are different. Most states have different backgrounds too.
True, our system is different. We are not a Socialist Democracy. I would say again, Europe does not hold the answers for us...nor for Canada for that matter. Europes problems are going to be more than large enough to keep them busy.
"By your arguement of size versus Population the State of Michigan should have an easier time adressing Poverty , education and all this other issues then Sweden."
Not at all...because Michigan is not Sweden.
"There is not a SINGLE State in the USA even those smaller and less populated that have dealt with the issue of Homelessness and Child Poverty as has the country of Sweden."
Thats the truth. I know Texas hasn't.
"Poverty is HIGHEST in the USA in single parent houses."
True, but Sweden doesn't because of their welfare state. Not for any other reason. But you hit on a real problem for America....illegitmacy. Its at nightmare proportions as I'm sure you know.
"the DIFFERENCE is SOCIAL spending."
It is indeed. We spend more than enough....its going to the wrong places and the wrong people. There is a cottage industry in welfare in our country that we need to shed.
Is there any homelessness in Canada? Whats been the answer there?
There is plenty of Homelessness in Canda and this has gone UP since Social program spending cut.
You flounder on the issue of SIZE. It completely illogical unless you can demonstrate how a larger geography can lead to more poverty.
You might claim the issue a larger POPULATION but again this a red herring. Your Per capita income is higher then Swedens. You have a larger population thus greater wealth and a larger TAX BASE.
The issue is distribution of the wealth. Your mindset does not allow sharing the wealth or spreading it equitably. This is deemed "socialism" and is deemed an evil.
It has EVERYTHING to do with your conditioning and how your society structured to distribute wealth. The attitude that the same policy could not work in America is once more your "we are special and different" which as you will know I consider a whole lot of hooey.
"There is plenty of Homelessness in Canda and this has gone UP since Social program spending cut."
I wasn't aware there had been cuts. Any different answers up there? Not that we have any.
"You flounder on the issue of SIZE. It completely illogical unless you can demonstrate how a larger geography can lead to more poverty."
I don't believe a larger area dictates "more" poverty, though it certainly can.
The economic system generally does that. Its why we don't have the same kind of poverty in the US as many countries do...nor Sweden for that matter. Though I believe their National Debt is Two Trillion dollars...could be Denmark though...you know my memory.
What I was talking about was the "Law of Large" we used to call it. Smaller entities in small areas can accomplish things that lage ones cant. Heck you could put Sweden in Texas and it would take us a week to find it.
There is no comparison between Sweden and the US in the instance of greater wealth etc...they have none of our obligations.
"The issue is distribution of the wealth. Your mindset does not allow sharing the wealth or spreading it equitably. This is deemed "socialism" and is deemed an evil."
There is no distribution of wealth or guarantee of outcome in the US, thats correct. It what acciounts for our wealth. I don't think Socialism is evil at all. Its just incompetent. Every single time its been tried its failed miserably. A bit of paraphrasing,Capitalism is the worst economic system around, except ALL the others.
But.....our distribution of wealth can be derailed when you get what we have and still have...a government that doesn't take care of its citizens. Doesn't carry out its main function...the welfare of all its citizens.
"It has EVERYTHING to do with your conditioning and how your society structured to distribute wealth. The attitude that the same policy could not work in America is once more your "we are special and different" which as you will know I consider a whole lot of hooey."
I know you do, but the fact is America has been exactly that. And our society was not structured or should it be to distribute wealth, it was and is structured to create wealth. When you try to redistribute wealth, wealth dries up.
So you think its Hooey and I think its real.....the important thing is that we both know its not working right at the moment.
And no kidding, any ideas about handling homelessness and kids in school in theat situation? Any at all? I can't think of anything that will help except getting jobs back on the street.
Happy Labor Day!
>>What I was talking about was the "Law of Large" we used to call it. Smaller entities in small areas can accomplish things that lage ones cant. Heck you could put Sweden in Texas and it would take us a week to find it.
If this the case then Texans must be VERY stupid. They can find a Football game on TV on any given Sunday but they could not find a Country that was 2/3rds the size of texas were said country inside the borders of Texas?
Again. You have states smaller then Sweden. Texas and Alaska are ONLY two states that are larger then Sweden.
You can fit Texas inside Ontario. Ontario has as diverse a population and a greater geography. They also have LESS homeless and Child poverty.
Your arguement is nonsensical.
And a by the way. The National debt of Sweden as a percentage of GDP is LOWER then The United States. Indeed it predicted it will be at 15 percent of GDP in 2011 when that in the USA will be pushing 100 percent.
This WITH all that Social spending.
Sweden doesn't waste much money on imperial conquest. They rightly think that security comes from having a healthy, economically secure and educated population.
Joe
If the US wasn't spending nearly a trillion dollars a year for its military, as much as the rest of the world combined, there'd be money for schools. This article just highlights the insanity and stupidity of current US policy. We're the best-protected society in the world, but the costs are so large that the society being protected is falling apart.
dfairley, while I agree wholeheartedly with your sentiment I feel compelled to question your "We're the best-protected society in the world" line.
Certainly the USA has the largest and most technologically superior armed forces in the world but I have to ask with what exactly are you protecting USA society and from whom are you being protected? It didn't help much on 9/11, did it?
Are you at risk from Iraq? No, that was all about adventurism and falsified intelligence. How about Afghanistan? Are the Taliban an actual threat to the USA? With no navy, air force or heavy weapons, let alone ICBM's, that doesn't seem to hold much water, but ah, you might say they gave terrorists safe harbour and all that.
Well, attacking them has only made them stronger it seems and if Afghanistan wasn't able to accommodate them, despite that accommodation being part of their culture to anyone, there are lots of other places in the world that could take up the slack. So that argument seems like a bit of a stretch.
How about Iran? Well they have not invaded anybody in 300 years or more and have not even come close to getting the materials let alone building the dreaded nuke that has been "only 2 years away(from possibly being able to acquire the materials, but not a bomb -read the fine print)" for what seems like the last decade.
How about Venezuela and its dictator? Well, he is only a dictator to the US administration and its spoon fed MSM (Chez MSM, on parle collaborateur et le "boot licking", spécialement Le Fox). Chavez was democratically elected so he is only a threat to the MSM and governments that don't hold with socialism in other countries. So that threat is a bit of a stretch too.
But you have to have a miltary for defence you say. What about Costa Rica? They have not had a military since 1948 and they are not exactly surrounded by historically stable countries e.g. Nicaragua, Panama, Honduras etc. -and they have nowhere to run to except the sea on both sides.
So maybe all that protection is really a threat after all and maybe making enemies where none existed?
This is the sort of story that the dwellers of townships, barrios, and favelas know well and which was a part of the USA story as well before WW2. Unfortunately, it is reemerging again with a vengeance as the GOP plan (with the cooperation of corporate Democrats); the Great Lurch Backwards to a redux of the Robber Baron era is in full effect as the transformation of the USA into a Third world nation becomes harder to reverse. The USA is becoming more like Brazil, Mexico, & South Africa with every passing day.
NateW
Much too true for comfort.
Obama was lucky to win North Carolina last year and it was close but this kind of tragedy won't give him a second win. He had better consider bailing out these loving families instead of those cruel banks and Congress had better pay attention and fast.
The mounting evictions in the Northern Virginia exurbs are already translating into strong wins for Bob McDonnell, Republican candidate for governor of Virginia. Two months left until election day !
Very true!
I live not too far from the NC border and Northern NC ain't pretty. Forgive my madness by the way but maybe I've been watching too many classic natural disaster films like "Volcano" and "Dante's Peak" to name a couple and then associating early warning signs of the political climate like a mad man. The more I find out, the scarier it gets. God, I hope this is only a bad dream !
Care to guess the most often repeated advice in the whole Bible? "Don't be afraid"
Of course it is coming apart. Who knows what? But don't be afraid.
A teacher told me today that she had 36 students in each of her three classes. Moreover, she said her superiors had made it clear to everyone that their admittedly unreasonable workload could not be used as an excuse for poor performance.
Obama was right. It is change, and I definitely believe it.
The only time any politician mentions children is to stir up emotions for some scheme of his that has nothing to do with benefiting children.
You have kids Obama. Look at that kid in the picture. What gives you the right to deny her a chance in life?
Yep!!
And her "superiors" don't teach. Not at all. 36 kids are far too many.
I strongly believe our best and brightest teachers should teach in grades 1-6.
When kids graduate elementary school they should be self-learners with a desire to learn. They should have critical thinking skills and the ability to challenge the material crammed down their throat in the later grades by lesser teachers.
No child left behind huh?
Yep!!
Teaching is not like accounting or engineering, or farming. You can't just pick the best teachers from the whole lot and put them in grades 1-6.
It's hard as hell to match up a good teacher with the age group they can best serve, and the fit is never perfect.
Any teacher in any grade or system in the public schools teaching critical thinking skills can expect to continually be in trouble with the administration who have been told to turn out obedient , subservient workers.
But you are 100% right about the importance of grades1-6.
This is something very close to my heart, so if I go overboard please excuse me. I believe our children are being cheated of a good education. There is plenty of money being spent, it is just going to the wrong folks and in some cases the wrong places.
At every level it seems there are people that have an agenda that has nothing to do with education. They seem to care more about their selfish needs than equipping these kids to be sucessful after they get out of school.
As someone pointed out....no kid left behind is mostly sloganeering and BS for administrators to hide behind. Our TAKS test in Texas is a farce. Teachers waste time teaching to a damn test rather than teaching students how to think.
We actually have some teachers in upper grades telling students "what" to think, ratherr than teaching them to think for themselves and how to accomplish it.
These kids are paying for our mistakes, not us....and if I were them I'd be mad as hell at us.
The real crime is that they don't know anything is wrong. They think whatever they are told to think.
Juxtaposed with the above article in the NY Times was this article:
Wall Street Pursues Profit in Bundles of Life Insurance – After the mortgage business imploded last year, Wall Street investment banks began searching for another big idea to make money. They think they may have found one. The bankers plan to buy “life settlements,” life insurance policies that ill and elderly people sell for cash…Then they plan to “securitize” these policies, in Wall Street jargon, by packaging hundreds or thousands together into bonds. They will then resell those bonds to investors, like big pension funds, who will receive the payouts when people with the insurance die…Wall Street would profit by pocketing sizable fees for creating the bonds, reselling them and subsequently trading them.
“Fleas dream of buying themselves a dog, and nobodies dream of escaping poverty: that one magical day good luck will suddenly rain down on them – will rain down in buckets. But good luck doesn’t rain yesterday, today, tomorrow, or ever. Good luck doesn’t even fall in a fine drizzle, no matter how hard the nobodies summon it…the nobodies, the no ones, the nobodied…dying through life, screwed every which way…” – Eduardo Galeano, The Nobodies
It is amazing. Same thing all over again. Where is the SEC? Where are the Attorneys General? After what we have just been through, anyone who participates in this scam should be shot.
Joe
The SEC is still gutted. The Attorney General is busy withbusy work.
The SEC was located in Building #7!
Charity Crowell, aged 9 is being deprived of her birthright so money will be available to drop bombs on 9 year olds in Iraq.
Jesus Christ, is this the best we can do?
No sir, it is not.
Rich white American men will no longer have to travel to poor countries to find hungry young girls willing to sell their bodies in despair. Another triumph of conservatism.
ezeflyer: Well said. In the 'developing' countries where I work, I see fat white U.S. men (usually after they've hit their 40s) with girls as young as 13 and these men think they are some studly guy (i.e. thinking, as usual for men, with their penis). It sickens me; it angers me; but sadly, it doesn't surprise me. If every man in the U.S. over the age of 30 had to spend two weeks as that 9-year-old girl, maybe then things would be different.
Federal law prohibits U.S. residents/citizens from engaging in sexual acts with persons under age 18 outside of the United States (18 USC 2423). Persons who commit this crime, or facilitate this crime, are subject to prosecution and prison penalties of up to 30 years.
Call 1-866-347-2423 or email operation.predator@DHS.gov to report.
If it angers and sickens you so much, report it.
1 Million homeless schoolkids, and that number is probably understated by half. None will have healthcare. Many will develop a severe case of anomie. I'm sure executives of the Prison Industrial Complex are licking their chops at the likelyhood that many will be imprisoned, just as Stormtrooper recruiters are. Many will become "Roxannes," as ezeflyer notes. Even henry8 finally seems to undrstand the wholesale unjustness of the American System. As an adult, I was homeless twice in my life, so far, but I was fortunate and could easilly be in a low-rent trailer park or in a tent. But I doubt if there was an editorial pointing to this problem as emblematic of the USA's dysfunctionality.
Feed the hungry. Clothe the naked. Shelter the homeless.
These are human values from the Toltec, also some Jew on a mountain.
What is going to reverse the general decline in USA social wealth?
This is not just a recession, nor a depression, although elements of these do ride on top of what seems to be a long term irreversible process.
It would seem that there are too many poor people and very little redistribution of wealth. Where have all the jobs and wealth gone? The wealth has been concentrated in massive quantities amoungst the stupidly rich people and corporations who run the nation and its wars for themselves. The rich have globalised your money in search of profit, and foreign nations are your creditors.
Billions are being squandered for unwinnable wars using strategies and goals that are geared to military-corporate profits.
It is a system designed to steal wealth from you.
What can be done to reverse it?
Stop the wars. Use progressive taxation to bring social inequality back to rational levels. Make defence, corporations and financials properly accountable. Bring back jobs and money into the country, by penalizing imports and out-sourcing. And there is the challenge of a massive change of lifestyle and jobs to be compatible with sustainability and reduced greenhouse emissions. These current human challanges are already monumental without the waste of war and systematically stupid venal politicians. The hardest challenge is to overcome the careerest individual and social mindsets of the corporate war profiteers. Without a social or global conscience, without both science and wisdom, the USA is on a suicidal path.
Stop the government being one gigantic rort.
Yes you do need a new commonwealth political party.
"Where have all the jobs and wealth gone?"
The jobs have gone overseas along with various complete industries with the help of our own government. The wealth has continued to concentrate in the upper tiers of our citizens because so many bought the line they were selling on Globalization, Free Trade, Illegal Immigration and H1B workers, etc.
>>It would seem that there are too many poor people and very little redistribution of wealth. Where have all the jobs and wealth gone? The wealth has been concentrated in massive quantities amoungst the stupidly rich people and corporations who run the nation and its wars for themselves. The rich have globalised your money in search of profit, and foreign nations are your creditors.
One of the problems here is the concept of property and Inheritance, and along with that the breaking down of borders allowing wealth to escape a nation to earn a better return elsewhere. This provides NADA in the way of Jobs.
Corporations and the Elite can concentrate ever more wealth in their hands and then pass it on to their children. This makes a mockery of a market based system where people are supposed to Compete with one another on an equal footing.
There is no way someone with ZERO dollars to his name at age 18 can compete with someone with 10 BILLION dollars to his name at age 18. This in virtually any facet that important to the generation of wealth, jobs , ideas. You have less access to Political Power, unequal access to the Legal system and the 10 billion dollar guy can drive any business you try and get off the ground under.
There is no money for US because there are nine-year-old children in Afghanistan to be killed.
no sh*t
these are the crimes of capitalism
If Cheney ever does get convicted I suggest he be placed under house arrest--in Charity Crowell's house.
This is an article that should make people weep. If all of the effects of the redistribution of the wealth in this country were outlined together in one article it would be a good indication of where this country is headed. When a few, very few, have accumulated all of the wealth what will the rest of the country look like? Empty factories (we already have that) Empty houses (we already have that) Empty storefronts (We already have that) Are empty schools the next? (It is already happening in our area.) Teaching about the Great American Society and the Big American Dream to homeless children will be a taxing job for those teachers who haven't lost their jobs yet. I hope that Obama plans to include some glimmer of hope for these kids, but I doubt it.
No such luck. Thirty eight kids in my grandson's first grade class. Well, war profiteers, banker ass holes, coal burning sons of bitches: fuck you and I'll see you in hell.
Nietzsche this is no real solution at all, but might help a few kids. My retired father-in-law went into my kids' classrooms as a volunteer sometimes to assist the teacher. It is like a Grandparent Peace Corps in our increasingly third world country. The teacher could use some help, Lord knows.
How does stacking a first grade class with 38 students fit in with calling for teacher excellence? Counterproductive I would say. Still, we can raise standards by more testing. Then the responsibility for raising educational standards is shifted from our legislators right onto those little six year old tadpoles. If the child has extra problems from homelessness or poverty or parental illness, they can consult the laid off guidance counsellor or the nurse that visits once in a blue moon.
And I like your plans for hell. However I would prefer if they (war profiteers, banker ass holes, coal burning sons of bitches) would experience hell on earth by having their money confiscated under RICO and having to get a regular job, do their own house-cleaning and laundry and other such horrors.
But if you go to help out in the classroom - you're going to have to watch your language. :)
Joe
I agree with everything you say...but, I was just remembering (and I hate it when people do that) the good old days..I went to a small school, went all the way through 13 years with pretty much the same group, we started kindergarten together and graduated together with a decent education and there were 42 of us in one room. One room, one teacher and she was always there..The big difference between now and then is the factors of proper student behavior and respect for authority. Back then if you screwed up at school disipline waited at home for you. I agree with smaller classrooms 100% but without children learning good basic behavior skills and respect at home there will be problems even if it were one on one student/teacher ratio.
Children without manners can be a big problem for the teacher. Most good teachers can change the atmosphere. But sometimes.... there are a few really disturbed kids and the teacher is stretched very thin, especially with a large class. Kids who are trying and need help can be short-changed.
Class management is one good reason to have small classes or a no-nonsense person from the community assisting in the classroom, either paid or volunteer. If you get the respect of most of the children, they will be allies in keeping a warm and positive feeling in the classroom. The badly behaved kids will benefit from a secure situation in the classroom
Joe
Obama is too busy calling Pelosi and the CEO's about what to do next to worry about kids. Have you forgotten those 1700 or so poor kids that no longer have vouchers in DC to go to better schools because of his decision? I have not.