Imagine.

Imagine $10m being spent on what really matters.

At $80k per, 125 desperately needed new school busses for the state.

A homeless shelter or three, or five, around the state.

A domestic violence shelter or three, or five, around the state.

Marriage counseling before marriage to lower the domestic violence statistics.

Mental health counseling clinics, to help people before they solve their little problems, with guns.

Imagine.

Imagine an educational facility built to educate students academically and vocationally, because not all want to nor should, go to college, at least not right away. 

Imagine students taking all on-line courses at home, and venturing out to apprentice jobs in the afternoon, learning a trade and earning school credits.

Imagine students who want to play sports, signing up for local teams and paying their own way.

Imagine students who to play an instrument, signing up for local lessons and paying their own way.

Imagine no public funds wasted on a school library for a generation who cannot read and cares not a whit about wanting to do so. 

Imagine an entire student body of athletes not put at death risk through CTE and other injury possibilities, by banning football (heresy in the South). Imagine the savings to taxpayers of not having to build another Friday night stadium for four home games annually, not having to foot the light bill, the insurance bill, the medical bills, the traveling bills, the equipment bills.

Imagine this state climbing out of the bottom ten of national education rankings, and becoming a shining example of progress and forward-thinking actions.

Imagine.

Nah....what's worked/damaged our kids in the past and present, is just fine with us.

Dori Garcia Mata I suppose you as a parent might do things to try and make a better life for you children and family, the fact that they cross to work to feed and support their families to give them better education and opportunities, these things help people, citizens or not who want a better life NOT become thugs and criminals...most of these people are forced into crime (crossing illegally)...to eat, or escape oppressive conditions...and then they come here, work, contribute, have families, and someone decides its a good idea to rip them from their families....heartless is the only way I can say..taking babies, children from their parents. Saddening, sickening, empathy, is gone.(A Facebook post on whether or not a law exists to allow separation of children from parents, 18 Jun 2018).
My reply, same day:Dear Bleeding Heart Mata, I have plenty of empathy for those deserving. I too am against the splitting up of families. Like every other country, we too have entry processes, procedures, and laws to qualify for and follow, when requesting to come here. I guarantee you many many countries are not nearly as pleasant as we are when people cross THEIR border without their permission. NK will lock your butt up, quite probably torture you, and sentence you to years of hard labor. None of this mamby-pamby migrant camp crap. Look, I don't know how to differentiate between the truly needy seeking aslyum from war in their country, the only reason I can think of for granting asylum, and those seeking work. If people want to work in America, we have procedures for them to do that, by bringing legal documents, not forged ones, by applying, by waiting for OUR approval, and leaving, when their permit expires. They're certainly not taking up "the jobs Americans don't want", that is for sure. And, too many of them have come illegally, to do deliberate or accidental harm, then dash back across our border to avoid our punishment laws. I lived 20 yrs in the SW and witnessed our police officers being killed by illegals, our citizens killed and injured by drunk driving illegals, who also dashed back across into Mexico to avoid prosecution. I taught their children for 12 years, while they refused to learn English and become citizens, and falsified forms to enroll their children in our schools, thus putting huge unfunded budget requirements on our school districts and taxpayers I watched their gangs terrorize entire city sections, trafficking in drugs, sex, murder. I understand. Most are truly needy, some are flat out criminals and will never change. I say, again and again, we should secure our 1500m southern border with our troops, round up those who cross, and send them back immediately. No more water stations in the desert, no more sympathy or empathy. If we run background checks and find some who were here illegally before, those are the ones we arrest and confine. Those are the ones we tell Mexico to come get, at Mexico's expense, and send the incarceration bill to Mexico. Come here legally. Do no harm. Live in peace. It really isn't difficult. What Trump and the other idiot Sessions and the BP assholes are doing, is against all known basic human rights, and it needs to stop, now. Personally, i put far more blame on the adults deliberately bringing pregnant women, and all the children, across illegally. They caused this mess. Let us not forget Mexico, who is allowing all of this to occur. Our govt is simply making it worse. Comprende? If not, read this again. Geez.

Manage

I think that if you are happy with the conditions around you, meaning you have the means to do more than just get by on a daily basis, you stick with the worthless incumbent.

On the other hand, if you are fed up with:

• a crumbled state-wide road system in near-universal dis-repair and ineffectiveness;
• crumbling bridges, a too-high percentage of which already have been designated as must-replace, but no such work has yet to be started and nothing is scheduled in our future;
• a far too-old inventory of un-safe school busses, not being replaced nearly fast enough;
• tax give-aways to corporations just to settle here and pay minimum, non-living wage salaries;
• near-total lack of sound, Common Sense ethics from just about every employee in the State House, representative or not;
• political lobbyist families with un-due influence throughout the state;
• a dismal and rapidly getting-worse public school system, in which under-paid professionals continue to teach out of sheer dedication until they burn out and quit from lack of financial, professional, and community support;
• the good old boy back-room dealing in Columbia and across the state, where the same old insanity is guaranteed to continue with winks and backslaps and handshakes; people to whom politics is just a game, the end point of which is to be remembered as having done something with their lives, rather than simply serve two hard-working terms and then permanently step down.
• the lack of internal controls within the State House that have allowed far far too much power to be concentrated in the hands of just a few at the head of too many critical committees, thus blocking any and all method and manner of progress this state desperately needs;
• a traditional adherence to an ancient tax code, in which owner-occupied homes pay almost nothing to support schools and services, while dumping that responsibility increasingly on business owners large and small;
• the same people having the audacity to continue to run for re-election, as if professional politician was ever supposed to be a career, and then watching numbskull voters proceed to do just that, vote for the incumbent without caring;

then it is time for you not vote for this incumbent governor, who as an individual is no doubt a fine human being. Nothing will change, unless we the people, we Deplorables, get off our collective duffs, put down our devices, and start paying attention to those we elect to represent us, to make our lives better.

Because what we have put in state-wide offices to this point, has proven by mis-guided actions, decisions, behaviors, to be an un-mitigated disaster. It doesn't have to be this way. 

(insert your state's name, and see if this is still accurate, overall. I bet it is.)

Instead of having junior high and high school varsity sports programs for a very select few, here's a thought.

Eliminate all such programs. They're expensive and cater to a few.

Replace them with mandatory four high school years of physical fitness programs. Running, cycling, sit-ups, push-ups, pull-ups, weight lifting, nutrition information, and intramural competition for EVERYONE. And everyone showers afterwards. It's a concept.

Sports are advertised as being great for school morale, spirit, pride, personal growth and character development. If true, then why are they limited to a small handful in multiple sports in both sexes?

Any teenager wanting to play sports at a different level can join local club teams. Same attitude goes for learning to play a musical instrument, cheerleading, whatever.

Short and long-term benefits are all good. Healthy, happy people turning into healthy happy adults with probably fewer expensive health issues as they pass through life. Good for all of them and all of us.

A public comment received in the local Summerville, SC newspaper, in reference to a discussion about the apprpriateness of high school students walking out to support the MSD H.S. students of Parkland, FL:


"John Schwendler um sir i don’t know you but you have the wrong idea. us students are not completely self absorbed in our phones that we can’t care about each other. our phones are what keep us connected and informed. i don’t know if you know this but what you said is incorrect. you can’t stereotype of as a typical teenagers who only care about our phones. most of us care and are trying to make a difference even if it is a small one and you saying, “i’m glad the students are putting their phones down long enough to care about each other” is making us out to be children who only care about our technology. don’t put us down."

My response on Saturday Mar 17, 2018:

Allow me to cue you in to reality. Are you ready? My perception:

I subbed in a high school classroom this week, as I usually do. I asked students in each class, all day long, to stand up and name each of their classmates. No one could do it, not all of their classmates. And it's March, not August....something is wrong, if  students don't know everyone in their classes by now. Could you do this? I don't expect them to know everyone in school, just to clarify. Five days weekly with the same students in all their classes, and no one knows each other?

I can't get students to put away their phones. I have watched you walk into each other, walls, doors, door posts, food carts, custodians, custodian carts, all while your head and eyes were down locked on your little phones. You stand outside the front doors awaiting entrance, and you are on your phones, not talking with each other. Check your student agenda for cell phone usage rules, because every last one of you violates those rules daily. Trust me.

I do know enough about you, from covering at various schools, and having taught awhile myself, to know this much. You are the most self-absorbed, close-minded, non-inquisitive generation to come along in America, ever. The majority of you have few inter-personal skills, can't carry on a conversation, nor write a paragraph on any subject, with correct grammar and spelling. Most of you don't read, in fact you hate to. Most of you don't hold doors for each other as you pass in and out of bldgs and hallways. Most of you rarely say Excuse Me, Please, Thanks, or simply, Hi. There are reasons many students feel alone and bullied. See the last sentence.

You are commenting, about the way you currently live your life, because it is the only style you have known. To me, it is an empty, soul-less existence. Most of you care little about the world, and those around you. Almost none of you ask questions, other than " do we put our names on our papers?" Most of you didn't want to participate in a simple walk-out because "we'll get in trouble". Dare I stereotype all teenagers? Of course not, just as you should not stereotype all adults. But my comments are based upon two year's exposure to high school students in multiple local schools, and in middle schools in another state across the country where subbing also appealed to me, so that I wouldn't have to deal with rude students and idiotic parents.

I stopped subbing in middle schools here, because the students are extremely rude and disruptive. Those are the same reasons their teachers are leaving the profession in droves (look that word up).

Nearly every classroom I cover, has signs posted within: No Cell Phones! No student pays attention to that rule whatsoever. Has it ever once occurred to any of you, how much more you could be learning, and would have learned, had you put your stupid little phones away? Cluess, absolutely clueless.

Your generation is rising, quickly, to move into society and one day be the majority. I shudder to think what you will do with your opportunity to improve the world, nation, state, community. Call each other?

One last thought: sentences begin with capital letters, sweetie.

Sen Orrin Hatch is delusional. He believes 40 years of "service" was a good thing, and that he was somebody, and that he accomplished something.

Nonsense.

It is one of the most self-centered do-nothing, alleged ruling bodies in the Western world, full of pompous self-satisfiers, mostly rich, over-whelmingly white, who prowl the halls making deals, cashing in from corps and lobbyists, all the while forgetting about who sent them there, if indeed they ever cared in the first place.

We Deplorables are to blame largely, for this mess. We don't care who we send to Washington, nor how many times we do so. Term limits are in our hands, people.

Two terms, and go home. No retirement, no lifetime medical, just go do your bit and come home. Representation was never supposed to be a profession. These windbags can't praise themselves enough.

Take a look around at the shape our beloved country is in.

Crumbling infrastructure: roads, trains, electrical grid, air traffic control, all in dire need of replacement for the 21st century.

Everyone seems to have a gun, but no impulse control.

Everyone seems to have a cell phone, but no social manners.

Someone look up, please, the last time Congress passed a budget on time. Their latest evil habit is to kick that can down the road every time they come around a curve. This is NOT why we overpay them, and over-benefit them.

The DEFENSE budget is two-thirds of one trillion dollars. Think about that while you drive on crumbling roads over rusted bridges to worn-out school buildings through delapidated neighborhoods, where hope was abandoned decades ago.

Our involvement in the Afghan war is now 16 years and no end in sight. Prepare to send your children off to war, because they will be going.

The nuclear clock is a half-second from midnight, the lessons of 72 years ago apparently forgotten.

Best news is, almost 4 dozen are stepping down this year.

It's a start.

Go home Hatch. And stay there.

Our education system is failing for several reasons.

1. Family structures aren't what they used to be. Then again, neither is the country. Respect for symbols, adults, each other, has gone the way of Common Sense. If it isn't on social media readily available on an electronic device, then why bother thinking about it, researching it, questioning it?

2. Apparently there isn't a lot of reading going on in a lot of families. If the parents don't read it is guaranteed the children won't, either. Good luck getting a child to curl up with a good book on a rainy or just-too-hot-day to be outdoors. They will play video games until their eyes dry up. No student should be allowed past 3rd and 8th grades without being able to read for understanding at those levels. This newspaper I believe, is written for an 11th grade level, if I am not mistaken. This means that ninth-graders should be able to handle it. Most adults read at 7th or 8th grade level. Most books are at this level. This literacy fact says a lot about us as a nation.

3. Our educational system structure is partially to blame. K-12 demands regular annual progress regardless of whether any material was learned for understanding and retained. There's another class coming along, and heaven forbid we hold any student back, at any age. Social promotion has been the standing order of the day, for DECADES. Teachers' hold-back recommendations are routinely ignored.

4. An overhaul of our educational structure is long past due. K-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-14. Students should start K at age 6, 1st grade at age 7. Middle school should run three years, grades 7-9. High school should be lengthened to 5 or 6 years. I don't make this recommendation lightly. To borrow a phrase, students are getting "a mile-wide education one inch deep." Look up SC (or any state) high school core subject standards. Read line by line what teachers are expected to teach. On too many facets, teachers could spend weeks, months, or an entire year on them, to insure learning for understanding. They don't have the time, so they merely introduce topics, not study them. Imagine sending more mature and actually prepared high school graduates out into the world at jobs, or at college, able to actually function without needing remedial courses. It's a concept. It's supposed to be the whole point of education.

All the disgraceful national stories about college behaviorial problems on campuses, including frats and sororities, would probably be greatly reduced if the environment consisted of older and more mature young citizens, actually interested in learning and questioning. Our brains don't fully develop for about 23 years or so. Until all those neurons are connected, why push students through a system they aren't ready for?

Annually, everywhere, because students mature at different paces, there are 7th graders not ready for 8th, 8th not ready for 9th, 12s not ready for college, etc. This is fact, and this is fixable. Students in each of the numeric categories I listed would be able to proceed at their own pace. Under this overhaul, the best would still graduate in four years, and NOT need remedial college courses, and NOT need help filling out a job app. There would be no social stigma staying an extra half year, year, or up to two years.

The goal of education is to produce qualified, literate citizens ready to take their place in the world. Who cares how long that takes? We are failing at that, annually, in great numbers. That failure is showing up everywhere, in the low quality of elected leaders at every level and job of govt; low levels of journalism; medical mistakes, you name the career field, it has problems it didn't use to have.

Our current crop of citizens can't lift their heads up away from their devices to walk, talk, drive, or be civil. They can't carry on a conversation unless they use their thumbs. Their standard response to social confrontations however minor or major, is to either flash a middle finger, or a gun. The complete visible lack of manners, tolerance, and Common Sense, is atrocious. They don't even like our Flag.

This is nuts. We allowed this to happen. We created this. We can fix this. We will not fix it if we continue to support the current education structure, one in which too many certified teachers become expensive administrators, or simply quit; where we socially promote the un-ready; where we praise the few with particular skills in whatever (sports, mostly) and ignore the majority; where we allow tax dollars to be pulled away from public schools to fund charter schools that, even with selective admittance programs, show barely more progress.

States need to tell the feds to stay out of public education, and learn to go their own way. States know where their problems are. Relying on blanket programs from the feds that don't allow for individual fixes is wrong, and proven wrong.