Reading the Lansdale Reporter, I noticed two sound off articles that irked me. The article, Let's Occupy the classrooms instead and Pa. in need of education reform shows a disconnect from the solutions that our commonwealth and nation need. That solution is reasonable discussion and compromise, not cuts and righteousness.
In the first article, the author tries to discuss the speck in liberal’s eyes, instead of the plank in the delivery from the right. The author quotes Republican Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich’s comment that “The Occupy movement starts with the premise that we all owe them everything” to exalt the claim that the “the left has collapsed as a moral system in this country”. The author and Speaker Gingrich are incorrect in the assumption the Occupy movement starts with the premise that they are owed something. The Occupy movement starts with the assertion of the word “Enough”
The so-called moral high ground of the right is more of self-righteousness, than a claim to morality. Quoting the former Speaker further, the author uses one of the most ridiculous of all Gingrich’s latest comments: “Go get a job right after you take a bath”. According to Keystone Politics:
“There are still over 4 job seekers for every available jobs” (http://www.keystonepolitics.com/...)
Where are these jobs the occupiers are supposed to get, after they take a bath of course? Jobs aren’t trickling down from the vast amount of wealth being created at the top. When will we see enough of this useless rhetoric that creates more problems than it ever could solve.
The second article continues this belief that the removal of tenure will solve the ills of public education. By claiming tenure protects poor teachers, at the expense of excellent one and we need to reform pensions and benefits. In other words, the problem is the teachers not the education system as a whole. Tenure protects the excellent teachers, more than the poor ones. Yes, some poor teachers sneak by from this job security; however, it prevents good experienced teachers from losing their jobs due to economic convenience. Tenure prevents school districts from firing a teacher because they can be replaced by two for the same cost. The walmart, lowest bidder approach is not one that should be applied to the education of our children.
Yes we need jobs; yes school districts need to find a way to remove poor teachers from the classrooms. However, what we need more is a concerted effort to fix the ills of our society, not expand them. Have we not seen enough division in society, why must we create more? The occupiers are not the problem, the greed and pervasion of capitalism into a form of destructive corporatism is. Tenure, pensions and benefits are not bringing public education down. This cut, cut, cut attitude of balancing budgets at the expense of services is. Furthermore, the first author and the former Speaker are right in one respect. We do owe each other something. We owe each other the guarantee that we will fight for all our rights, not just a select few. Equality in opportunity is what we need, not the prosperity of injustice.