A short digression into politics

So wouldn't it be nice if school were it's own world and politics had nothing or very little to do with education.

Sadly, this doesn't seem to be the way it works nowadays.  Maybe it always was this way or maybe it's just now.

So here is a little stream of consciousness about politics and well, education is part of it.

What is left of the middle class is taking a huge hit.  I was just reading a story about who is currently buying up the houses that are for sale these days.  Investors, not some sweet young couple with good jobs who want their own yard. 

Banks have run rampant for almost a decade now in foreclosure heaven making money off the front, the fees and the back, with very little accountability and certainly no one in the government holding any proverbial gun to their head making sure they do the right thing for the masses.  Nope,  you are on your own middle class home owning folks,  no government protection these days against any banks and it doesn't matter what your story is.

Keep in mind that back in Jan of 2010 our supreme court said that a corporation was entitled to the same sort of privacy that an individual was and that lead the way for as much campaign funding (with all the cushions of privacy) as corporations could muster. 

Since there is not any such thing as election reform politicians even back as far as the 1980's knew that they had to be on the side of MONEY.  The bigger the money the more they were on the side of it.  Oh sure, many of them still gave lip service that they were for the masses and public interest but really if that was the case they knew they wouldn't get elected.  They had to have the money.

Since, without election reform,  elections are all about advertising and media coverage, and well, money.

And since there is so much less diversity in the world of media, well those mega media corporations also have a lot of pull over the politicians.   This is my explanation about why journalism just isn't.  It's fiction writing if it's written and if it's TV then it's entertainment to make someone feel like they are staying informed.  Real journalism is certainly hard to find and at an all time low.

There seems to be a sort of half baked effort at election reform but just like how Occupy Wall street was never given the hearing or the media coverage it should have been no one who is pulling the strings of government right now wants to really do anything to promote election reform.

The politicians apparently like the rules of the game as it is currently being played.  Or at least most of them seem to.  Make it about money,  they understand that.

Democrats,  my party only I consider myself a Progressive Democrat, not to be confused with "New" Democrat (which is all about sniffing out the money and to hell with ideals) are splitting off into fractions but even most on-the-street Democrats don't know this.

Republicans,  I'm not even going to waste my time. 

So what does this have to do with school?  Charter schools are a great way for people who already have money to make more of it.  These edu-business owners are going to get a big chunk of that juicy looking tax money pie and then they are going to share a bit of it with the politicians.  How nice for everyone involved only look out,  teaching school well is actually harder than it looks. 

Who knew?

Parents of children with learning struggles knew because we can tell from experience that not everyone who is a teacher with a Masters Degree or a trained tutor can do the job that needs to be done.  In fact,  those who can teach a child with learning struggles are rare, hard to find, and expensive.

So thinking that some 5 week Teach For America program was all anyone would ever need to teach was like thinking anyone with a knife could perform surgery. 

Wrong. 

That little oversight on the part of the greedy edu-business owners looking to make money was the big mistake that the pro-public school people (like myself) are going to exploit.