I am told the Buddha died from a bit of bad pork. I suppose I lack enlightenment to understand why Buddha didn't know in advance the pork was bad. Maybe he did and ate it anyway.
But I direct the gentle reader to a couple of published news tidbits today. One article, from the Marion County Journal Record by Tracy Estes titled: State textbook funding falls by 90% over last 3 years and the other from a set of twits and tweets from my twenty five year democratic incumbent in the Senate Six race, that's if you give a toot.
In the first story, Tracy recounts the history of the Marion County School Board budget of $750,000 in fiscal 2008 and a current budget of $57,889 for textbooks for the upcoming school year.
The other story from the hand of the 'hard' working Senator himself titled: Roger Bedford Great Day in District and Handed out 14 different grants in Franklin tonight ! Headed to Kennedy and Fayette to give out more Grants in AM ! Gotta fight for your people !
Now gentle reader, therein lies the problem. Why are we allowing the blatant shorting schools money to buy textbooks and handing it out like water to people to buy votes? Do other States allow this?
One might suspect the books from last year would be fine. One might guess that second, third and fourth grade math books are the same and have been for a hundred years. One would guess wrong.
In the computer age kids are expected to learn how to to the three R's plus one. Radix. The little dot between the dollars and cents on your bank statement is no longer the decimal point. It is now the Radix Point. And among a lot of other things the State Board of Education expects your kid to know that. No child left behind expects your child to know that. And most importantly the people who design the test by which you school will be ranked for funding and possible takeover by the State expect your kids to know that.
Children as early as second grade are expected to know binary, hex and octal numbers. No Alice, this is not your fathers math book these kids don't have.
One of my campaign staffers has a dream.
A vision if you will, of a youtube video of the Russellville stadium Jumbotron and a bewildered candidate for State Senate looking at the expensive monitor, the expansive stands, pan to the underground bunkers for the massive baseball stadium, then to our twenty five year incumbent handing out grant checks to the un-needy and un-entitled. Cut to a group of tattered grammar school students in Marion County working around a table with one borrowed book.
And the Caption... Roger, you should be Ashamed!
This my friends and readers, is bad pork.
And now you can't say you weren't enlightened.
But I direct the gentle reader to a couple of published news tidbits today. One article, from the Marion County Journal Record by Tracy Estes titled: State textbook funding falls by 90% over last 3 years and the other from a set of twits and tweets from my twenty five year democratic incumbent in the Senate Six race, that's if you give a toot.
In the first story, Tracy recounts the history of the Marion County School Board budget of $750,000 in fiscal 2008 and a current budget of $57,889 for textbooks for the upcoming school year.
The other story from the hand of the 'hard' working Senator himself titled: Roger Bedford Great Day in District and Handed out 14 different grants in Franklin tonight ! Headed to Kennedy and Fayette to give out more Grants in AM ! Gotta fight for your people !
Now gentle reader, therein lies the problem. Why are we allowing the blatant shorting schools money to buy textbooks and handing it out like water to people to buy votes? Do other States allow this?
One might suspect the books from last year would be fine. One might guess that second, third and fourth grade math books are the same and have been for a hundred years. One would guess wrong.
In the computer age kids are expected to learn how to to the three R's plus one. Radix. The little dot between the dollars and cents on your bank statement is no longer the decimal point. It is now the Radix Point. And among a lot of other things the State Board of Education expects your kid to know that. No child left behind expects your child to know that. And most importantly the people who design the test by which you school will be ranked for funding and possible takeover by the State expect your kids to know that.
Children as early as second grade are expected to know binary, hex and octal numbers. No Alice, this is not your fathers math book these kids don't have.
One of my campaign staffers has a dream.
A vision if you will, of a youtube video of the Russellville stadium Jumbotron and a bewildered candidate for State Senate looking at the expensive monitor, the expansive stands, pan to the underground bunkers for the massive baseball stadium, then to our twenty five year incumbent handing out grant checks to the un-needy and un-entitled. Cut to a group of tattered grammar school students in Marion County working around a table with one borrowed book.
And the Caption... Roger, you should be Ashamed!
This my friends and readers, is bad pork.
And now you can't say you weren't enlightened.
No comments:
Post a Comment