A Discussion on Education-Why Our Kids Can't Read

Note from Sallyann: "Lono", a fellow blogger, and I have been corresponding on Red State/Blue State issues since the inception of the Red-StaterWisdoms blog. Go to the November Archives, "Red State morality confusing" title and read the "stream" in the comment section. I have pulled Lono's last comment to the front of the blog in order to engage the larger readership in the discussion. We are confronted with an "education crisis" that No Child Left Behind was designed to overcome. Of course, Red Staters differ with Blue Stater's solutions to this problem. In general, Blue Stater's believe it is the lack of money that has caused half the student population to graduate without being able to read and write proficiently. Red Staters believe, generally, "teaching methods" are at the root of the problem. To start the discussion, I asked Lono why he believed No Child Left Behind was unfunded. His response follows:


That it is almost entirely unfunded is a fact even the President doesn't deny. You say Dems have controlled education for the last 30 years. In my experience, that is far from the truth. Education is mostly state based, and I grew up in Arizona... which was militantly Republican all through my school years. I watched them chip at school money every single year. I watched classes and programs get cut every year. I watched fees and taxes rise with less and less services.The reality is that Republicans don't want to be in the business of subsidizing anything public. Look at social security same thing. It is ok. As I said, I understand the thinking... the thinking is that people need to be more self sufficient and rely less on the government.However, cutting funding for education and sex education especially only hurts America. Bush says he is pro-life... but he has gutted so many programs that his administration saw many many many more abortions during his term than during Clintons.Also, here is a quick Democratic look at why we think education is valuable to all of society. If you create (and subsidize, there it is I said it) better educational opportunities for people you have people with better jobs. This means less crime (because people won't have to steal to get by). This also means that you have more people working and more people making more money... this is good for the tax base.Look at our deficit, look at the problems in the schools, look at our image around the world... and the President wants to send us to Mars. Let's take care of the humans first, then worry about the martians.