12/31/09
To The Editor:
Three articles have appeared in the New Britain Herald (NBH) in the past r0ur days; one: by Herald Staff Writer James Craven 0n 12/24/09, [“Pricetag hampers ambitious child “Blueprint”] and two Opinion pieces on Sunday, 12/27/09; one by, Chris Powell, Managing Editor of the Journal Enquirer in Manchester, [“On the feast of Stephen, Connecticut eats the poor”]; also, one by, William A. Collins, Columnist for Minuteman Media, {“Children of color: Still separate and unequal in America”].
While coming from different points of view, all three articles/opinions address the same basic problem, namely helping poor urban children of the “cities” achieve parity in education with children of other districts, in particular, the suburbs.
Craven’s article refers to a recently released, “Blueprint for Improving the Lives of Children Birth through 3rd Grade”, a project of the New Britain Discovery Collaborative headed by Merrill Gay. That the “blueprint” is really a series of pie in the sky ideas –my opinion- is a reflection by Gay who says, “…it will be a challenge to bring it to fruition.” Gay says further that he believes the project would probably cost out at between $10 to 15 million!
Chris Powell takes a completely different tack; Powell points out why our do nothing State Legislature while acknowledging the problem created by poverty in hampering the education of Connecticut’s children must be addressed, there is no clue that it will find the wherewithal in any of their budgets to fund relief. The State legislators like their U.S. counterparts take care of themselves first while everyone else’s needs are put in the rumble seat.
Still, on another tack, William Collins points out - again, my interpretation – why the suburbs don’t care if educational parity is ever achieved. The poor pay for this wealthy and middle class attitude because it is the poor that are left with the, “bum schools, full jails, crummy housing… etc. Even the affluent that haven’t left the cities don’t care because they can pay the price for their children to attend private/parochial schools.
If the readers haven’t yet read these articles/columns, please try to find them. They are well worth the read!
Lou Salvio
103 Russwin Rd. New Britain 860-225-9992.
4 comments:
Alderman,
In my opinion, the best way to offer the children of poor parents the same opportunities as the rich is to offer them a school voucher system that would allow them the same opportunities to attend private schools just like the rich.
Washington DC had such a program, which was hailed by educators as a huge success, but soon after Obama was elected, he found a way to stop this program, in effect punishing these mostly poor black students by denying them the same opportunities to attend the same private school as Obama's children and the children of many Congressmen and Senators choose to attend. Obama showed he would not tolerate people proving that the private sector is better able to run schools over the government controlled union monopoly.
Obama was willing to punish these poor black children all in the name of paying off the teacher unions for their support of his campaign. Rewarding overpaid, under worked teachers is more important to Obama than providing a pathway to success for poor black children from the inner city.
This is the standard response of liberals and Democrats, to prevent anyone from ever succeeding because if they are able to elevate themselves out of the ghetto, they no longer need the government to run all aspects of their lives and the Democrats and their social programs will lose all their power over these poor people.
Why else do you think the Democrats have so strongly opposed every effort to give blacks equal rights throughout history. (In 1958 JFK himself voted against equal rights for blacks when he was a Senator). Throughout history Democrats have stood for making themselves powerful through the oppression of the masses. Their next power grab is going to be when you need to beg on your knees to an Obama Czar for permission to see a doctor, if in his infinite wisdom, he should decide you are worthy of such treatment.
We can only hope that through these bold moves as Obama forcing poor black children out of private schools and back into the dysfunctional public schools, the poor people are beginning to wake up to the fact that the Democratic Party is their largest oppressor.
That appears to be why so many blacks who made their way out of the ghetto now belong to the Republican Party--a party with 150 years of experience of fighting for civil rights for blacks and women--in most cases against huge opposition of Democrats
Wow! I wish I knew 'The Thorn"! He or she is on the button. The teachers' unions run the schools. All of the other four or five unions benefit from the success of the teachers' negotiations. The teachers negotiate with BOE members who are not all that savvy or have their own agendas. Binding arbitrators are a farce.
School administrators are on the side of the unions because they will generally make out even better than the teachers. Again, too many BOE members are not savvy!
On the national level, millions of dollars and other support are given to people like Obama who could care less about the kids.
Obama is all about pay back for those individuals or groups or unions who supported him.
Why else would we have Napolitano who is not qualified in a position of great importance?
Public versus Private: Which is better?
Public bathrooms or private bathrooms?
Public school or private school?
Public health care or private health care?
Public Hospital or Private Hospital?
Public transportation or private transportation?
Public phone or private phone?
Public housing or private housing?
Unless you are a left wing loon, who drank too much of the liberal kool-aid, PRIVATE IS ALWAYS BETTER!
I remember some of the liberals attacking The Thorn during the election for his support of Mayor Tim Stewart over that radical extremist who ran against the mayor.
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