Pencils and papers and teachers

The United States has it's priorities all wrong.  We send millions, if not billions of dollars to the Middle East to support countries that hate our guts ... but take our money.  Our excuse? Well if we don't give them the money, they'll hate our guts and maybe sell their nuclear weapons if they happen to be Pakistan.

In the meantime, a piece on the news tonight says that the city of Philadelphia has laid off teachers, assistant principals, counselors, school nurses and still doesn't know if they can keep the schools running.  Other large city school districts have been in the news recently as well for their lack of funding.  The problem with their funding is that they rely upon property tax for schools and the large cities, by and large have seen urban flight by the upper and middle classes and decreasing property tax revenues as a result.  So the students and teachers left in the city have seen dwindling funds available for their existence.

 Perhaps what we need to do is take back the money we send to Pakistan, Egypt, Afghanistan... and any other country that dares to bite the hand that feeds them - ours, and put it in the schools.  Don't give it to the city.  They have made miserable choices over the years, give it to the schools.  Demand that it be spent on books and pencils and papers.  Not on any special projects - just teachers with small classes - 30 kids per teacher no more, throw in some counselors (forget the assistant principals to start) books, pencils and papers.  As those who like to look back say, look what we did 100 years ago.  We educated all those kids with hardly anything -- except pencils and paper and teachers.