From: bradj@oakhill.sps.mot.com (Brad R. Johnson)
Subject: Re: CDF'S MISSION: LEAVE NO CHILD BEHIND
Organization: Motorola Inc., Austin Tx.
Distribution: tx
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 19:41:52 GMT

In article <wm56VB1w165w@keys.lonestar.org> cwinemil@keys.lonestar.org (Chris Winemiller) writes:
>curt@ekhadafi.austin.ibm.com (Curt Finch) writes:
>
>>                 =====  CHILDREN IN CRISIS  =====
>> 
>> *6   CDF'S MISSION:  "LEAVE NO CHILD BEHIND"
>>      Conscious value and political choices, rather than "some
>> unavoidable attribute of modern, urbanized societies or acts of
>> God," are to blame for America's high child poverty rate,
>> according to Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children
>> Defense Fund.
>
>I agree.  And the next paragraph names the conscious decision that got
>us into the education mess:
>
>>      CDF characterizes the conditions for children in 1992 as a
>> national disgrace and calls on the nation -- from the White House
>> and Congress to parents and local communities -- to invest in
>                                                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^
>> children's future.
>  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>Ah, yes: spend and spend and spend!  Just like we do now!  Sure fire way
>to get results!  (chuckle)

It is possible to invest without spending money.  It's too bad more people
do not realize this in our country.  It seems many parents are not putting
enough time and care into their children's education.

>
>>      CDF's 1993 campaign "will be to guarantee Head Start for
>> every eligible child, with full-day, full-year services for
>> families that need them, with enriched parent, infant, and
>> toddler components and to get all children immunized," according
>> to the report.
>
>I'd like to apply for these programs for my kids.  After all, I am a
>very scarce minority: a white male over-taxed taxpayer, who pays for the
>upkeep of his own family (single-income family no less!) and who is
>forced to act as a money tree for state and federal agencies to suck up
>his money for programs for everyone else's kids but his own.

Thanks for supporting us all Chris.  It's really kind of you to be putting
in so much more than your fair share.

>                                                               Since I'm
>such a rare item (and becoming rarer), I think my kids are "entitled" to
>the programs that _I_ pay for.

Here's a proposal that you might agree with - let's have it so that the taxes
that you contribute to education only support your children.

poor children:  lucky to get minimal education from underqualified, under-
paid teachers in an understaffed, underequipped, oppressive environment.

middle class children:  same as it ever was - satisfactory education from
qualified but underpaid/dissatisfied teachers in a thoroughly satisfactory
and unexceptional environment.

upper class children:  good education from qualified and satisfied teachers
in a beautiful new, fully equipped, state-of-the-art, educational environment
with plenty of money left over for the senior trip to Europe.

Sounds good to me.  I lead a comfortable life and see no way of losing it so
screw all the children of those lazy, good-for-nothing, government-sucking
poor people.  If they worked as hard as me, they'd find their way out of
poverty and poor education just like I did.  (Well, my parents did alright
for themselves and I had a good education, but I WOULD HAVE crawled out of
poverty if I had to.)

I don't buy it, but maybe that's why I'm not a Republican.

Brad