I was really surprised to see this in a Hill report on Levi Johnston, the boy who is the father to Bristol Palin's baby and will be her husband.
Johnston has since dropped out of high school to become an apprentice in Alaska's oil fields, and he and Bristol Palin will wed in December. "I'm still the same old boy," Johnston said. "I'm just a workin' man."
He's dropped out of high school? Why? He doesn't need to work to pay for a home or medical care for Bristol and her pregnancy. Bristol's living at home, her parents make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in a cheap state to live in, and the Governor's insurance covers it all.
How is dropping out of high school going to help him and his future at all? It will retard his ability to move up in the Alaskan oil fields should he want a promotion, and it will reduce his earning ability for the future when he does have to take care of Bristol and their children.
It's absolutely unnecessary, in that he could very easily have stayed in school and gotten his degree with no negative economic or social impact. But he chose to quit and walk away from his education. The boy is risking his future and his child's future for no apparent reason.
Is this something Sarah Palin approves of? Having her future son-in-law and father of her grandchild give up his education without a rationale? I mean, it took her six years and five colleges or five years and six colleges or something herself to get her degree, so she obviously has some odd ideas on the value of an education.
I know Sarah Palin doesn't control the boy, even if she is holding a shotgun at him. But it is a terrible signal that a potential vice president doesn't value education enough to push her grandbaby's father to get his degree, to get a quality education.
What is she going to say when she defends No Child Left Behind or whatever McCain education policy is out there? Do as I say, not as my son-in-law does?
Sheesh.