So when Philly schools fired nearly every counselor in the district this week -- 283 in all, along with 3,800 other school staff, I guess you could say they were really freeing kids up from those time-consuming meetings about college or getting help dealing with bullying, sexuality and other personal social and emotional issues.
But not all adults were negatively impacted by Gov. Corbett's draconian budget cuts. Millions more were diverted from education to prison expansion. Pennsylvania will house 49,000 inmates at a cost of $35,188 per inmate and spend $9.3 billion to educate 1.8 million students at a cost in state dollars of $5,305 per child.
Can't help but wonder what they're going to do next for to those Philly kids?
We must hate our children, Joan Walsh writes in Salon.com. We crush them with debt to go to college -- and now college loan rates have actually doubled this week. "Are we out of our minds?"
Of course, the truly lucky kids – those blessed wealthy members of the Lucky Sperm Club – sail through higher education without debt. But today, even upper-middle-class kids are having to take out loans, as the average annual cost of a four-year public university soars above $22,000, while private schools are over $50,000. Who the hell thinks this is a good idea?And the thing about college loans is, you can’t refinance them, and you can’t get out from under them by declaring bankruptcy. "It’s more like indenture", writes David Dayen. There’s no statute of limitation on collecting student loans, and lenders can garnish wages, tax refunds and even Social Security checks.
But remember, it's all about the kids.
Hmmm...firing all the counselors. Now that's a WONDERFUL way to address those mental health issues that so concerned us--let's see--when? Oh, that's right, when elementary students and faculty were murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School LAST DECEMBER.
ReplyDeleteI guess that the country is going to have to depend on their legislators to enforce real gun control laws, because they're certainly NOT going to take care of the individuals who should NEVER have access to guns in the first place.
I wouldn't say that memories are short, but I would say that the greed is enormous. And--yeah--it's all about the kids. Right.
It's all about the kids? What about the kids of the now unemployed counselors? Those kids (the ones whose parent(s) work helping other people's kids) don't matter? Too bad their parents wasted their time on OTHER kids?
ReplyDelete