The educational game starts early and doesn’t end ‘til it’s too late

It has been my practice when something really bothers me to write a letter and then hold onto it for a few days and re-read the letter.  At that point I would decide whether to change it or send it.  That is how I am approaching this week’s column.  I am as mad and as disappointed as I have ever been with the educators and politicians in this area and North Carolina. I wrote this original column on Jun 3 and now on Jun 9 all that has happened is more information has come out to reinforce my point. 

I have reached the point where I think that schools should send a letter to every prospective student starting with pre-kindergarten and resend it each time the student changes schools. Thus, the letter will be new for a pre-kindergarten student and a reminder for students at the other levels of schooling. 

The letter should read, “Dear student, this is just to let you know that your education is important, to you.  We will do the best we feel we can but not guarantee a building to attend; the tools to help educate you; the teachers to show you how to use those tools; and transportation to allow you to go to and from this opportunity. At the end of your education opportunity we hope you will be able to find a way of supporting yourself and your loved ones in the working world.   We hope that all this will work out, but if it doesn’t we do have a system that provides three meals a day and a roof over your head if we fail you – it is called our prison system.”

Let’s face it educating our young ones to be able to enter their adult life in a position to earn a living above the minimum wage is, at best, a crap shoot in this area. We can provide role models on how not to do things.  We can show them how adults made it possible to over bill the state for students that never attended school.  This will allow you to learn how politicians do their best to keep pointing the finger at one another and blame other adults for their shortcomings, basically forgetting about the education of the young ones. 

We will show you how politicians get elected on an, “I will improve education” agenda and then take the money away from education the first time they need it for other reasons.  We can show you how to cut back on teachers’ salaries anytime money gets tight.

We can show how we keep talking about how important education is and then finding ways to keep unskilled teachers in the class rooms to insure you have an obstacle to overcome to learn.    

I was foolish enough to vote for Governor Perdue because she was supposedly high on education.  Funny thing, one of the first things she did in office was to re-route the money from the education lottery to the state’s coffers.    Then she followed that up by trying to change the name of the lottery to not reflect the only reason it was enacted, education.  Talk about ingenuous way to support education.    

I, like so many other people was so impressed that Judge Howard Manning was going to hold the Halifax County System accountable for providing some of the worst education in the state.  Then we find out that the money it will take to bring the system up to the standard required by the court, will have to come from the county school system, which is already broke. 

This reminds me of the debtors’ prison I read about in grade school.  People were put in prison to pay a debt they couldn’t pay because of lack of funds and a way to generate those funds.  The state tells the county school board they have to repay a debt caused by bookkeeping errors.  The board has no money to repay the debt unless they cut back on education needs.  The only local help could come from the county but the county commissioners sit back and say it is the schools problem. 

Then the courts tell the school system they must institute new policies to improve education, but they must pay for it themselves out of the money they don’t have.  The board says the only solution is to cut back on schools, increase class sizes, and discontinue programs thus providing less of the necessary educational opportunities.   They also announced that even with all this it might not be enough.

Just like being sent to jail to repay a debt that you have no way to earn the money to repay didn’t work in the 1800’s and earlier it will not work now.  

One of the boards’ solutions to the problem is to consolidate schools.  They seem not to have any concern for unraveling the fabric of a community that a school creates. Instead they tell the kids that they will spend more hours on a bus to go to school with larger classes and fewer opportunities other than the three R’s.

They are in advertently telling the students that we know that sleep and exercise (which they will now get less of) and other special interest classes help keep kids from becoming obese, which in this day is an epidemic, but we are going to cut those opportunities from the school day. 

We are in the process of guaranteeing that this county and this state will continue to produce young men and women who have to fight harder than anyone to even be able to get out of poverty. 

The problem with kids not getting a well rounded education is catastrophic for the individuals and the area as a whole.  Our young people move away because they can’t find jobs. They can’t find jobs because businesses cannot fine educated employees and the cycle goes on and on. It all comes down to education, and it continues to be more of a promise than a reality.

It was reported that Pete Deschenes, a former Lake Gaston Association President, and also holding other responsible volunteer positions around the area and a long time area resident told the Warren County Board of Commissioners that they were supposed to provide leadership.  Maybe he should go tell the Halifax County School Board the same thing.  It seems all they want to continue to provide are excuses.

In the end the future of our young ones is at stake and we are failing them more than they could fail themselves. It seems that educating our young is a game to some, but in reality it is a responsibility that we have as adults. It should be considered child abuse not to provide an educational opportunity that puts all young people on the same playing field to start their adult life.