When The River Talks

From commenter River over at Lebanon Truth:

The problem is that education is not funded adequately to enable these dedicated professionals to offer students all of the opportunities that the professionals want to offer. This results in competition for resources which in turn leads to in-fighting.

The education community must pull together and agree that there is no “us and them.” There is only “us” and we are here for the kids. We teach them, we transport them, we coach them, we counsel them, we look after their health. We feed them, we identify and address their special learning challenges. We love them. We deal with their behavior issues, we protect them from each other. We provide them a library, we collaborate with their parents, we provide safe and comfortable buildings. We educate ourselves to understand our tasks better. We cut grass for them, guard crossings, build fences and dig ditches. We wipe their chins and clean their toilets. We coach them in sports, take them on field trips, and show them how to cook and shop. We manage programs as administrators, hire new team mates, and balance the books.

We spend more time with them than their parents and our influence can not be overstated.

Amen. Talk about something that's not been part of the public debate for a long time: Infighting hurts students.

Well, that and education funding in the United States is so pathetic as to be criminal.

I realize there are genuine differences of opinion in the LCSD, but certainly there is a much smaller likelihood of turf warfare if no one has to protect their own budget from their coworkers. I've been in that situation and seen even the most well-intentioned folks, people who are friends, get genuinely angry at each other.

I have an idea: Let's send Rick Alexander to lobby the federal government for more education spending. He seems like the kind of guy GWB would get along with... that or they'd toss him a large check just to get him to leave. Either way.