It's All in the Focus...

(Photo - Abramoff and Bush Photoshop)

George Bush was born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth. He's never been poor - and he's never lived among the poor. He HAS lived with the rich - and lived among the richest people in the nation. He believes in private enterprise and has sworn allegiance to these non-human enterprises known as "corporations" which have made his family and friends wealthy.

He does not understand the things that motivate (or don't motivate) the poor, and it is quite possible that he doesn't care. What he does care about, to sort of repeat myself, is enriching coporations which in turn enrich his family and friends. And thus he promotes a government that takes from everyone (including the poor) and gives to the (corporate) rich.

Case in point: From the Heartland Institute - click here to read the article...

Private school "Opportunity Scholarships" and beefed-up math and science instruction to spur American economic competitiveness are two key education proposals in President George W. Bush's budget for the new fiscal year beginning in October.

The FY2007 budget, released February 6, contains a $100 million item to offer eligible parents the option of using either $4,000 private school scholarships or $3,000 worth of intensive tutoring for their children when they are in public schools found "in need of improvement" under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) for six years or longer.

You see, privitization of education isn't about improving education for children - there are dozens - if not hundreds - of studies that have shown that private-school education seldom does better - and often does worse - in educating children than public schools. (I know there are some studies that show that private schools do better, but when statistics are adjusted to account for the educational level of the mothers, the results are pretty consistently in favor of public schools.) Privitization of education is all about taking more of the nation's tax money (which comes from wealthy and working-class poor) and putting it into the hands of corporations.

So here's the rub. Corporations are in business to make money for their owners (stock holders, in the case of public corporations). Children do not come first. So, if the privately owned school begins to run low on funds, they raise rates (forcing out the poorest children) or they cut costs. Lowering costs means reducing services to the kids.

And as I said at the beginning, President Bush does not understand the poor. An education (at least where I live) costs a lot more than $4,000 a year. Poor people are not going to cough up another $3,000 a year to have their children educated when there's a public school right down the road. So, who benefits from the $4,000 scholarship? The rich - who are already sending their kids to private $20,000 a year private schools.

And as for the $3,ooo scholarship for kids to get tutoring that GWB has proposed? There's already an exeriment of this nature going on in the New York City schools - and very few of the eligibile kids are taking the city up on the offer for tutoring. The poor children seldom have parents who care much about education - and those parents aren't going to take the time to see that their kids are getting the help they need

The tax-credits, or scholarships, or incentives, or whatever the Republicans are calling the newest plan for supporting private schools, are all about giving more of your money to their friends, not about improving education. Some day I might get going on what could really be done to improve education. But that's another post.