News from the Plains: All this Red can make you Blue
We're Number 42!
by Barry Friedman
Oklahoma’s current pace of progress is not enough to meet future workforce needs
Progress? We don't need to stinking progress. We have our freedom, we have our guns, and we have our
Swons.
In a recent study released Georgetown Center on Education, Oklahoma ranked 42nd in the nation for the number of adults who have college degrees, up from 43rd place.
That's right, up from 43rd.
Ain't no stopping us now.
Actually, there's plenty stopping us.
Congressman, Senators, come on down.
First District Congressman Jim Bridenstine
Q: Do you support requiring states to implement education reforms to be eligible for federal grants?
A: No. I support funding of education at the local level. The federal government should not be in the business of funding education or setting standards for the states to meet.
Right. We don't need no stinking federal government money, we don't need it imposing national standards. If we want to allow the use of tax dollars for the teaching of creation stories and fanciful tales of Christ slaying the dinosaurs in
science class, as does Louisiana, who's to say we can't? Godless Humanists? Chuck Schumer? The ghost of
Albert Shanker?
Senator Tom Coburn
America became a great and prosperous nation in part through strong local education that was controlled by parents, families, faith-based groups and community organizations.
Help me out here, because I keep looking and looking and looking and can't find where the senator mentions, you know, (Lewis Black delivery here)
teachers.
And for higher education to work, let's be clear, before anyone even gets to college, Oklahoma, the study concluded, has to "close the attainment gaps that exist by race and class to work at the local level."
Senator Jim Inhofe
Voted NO on $52M for "21st century community learning centers"
Voted NO on additional $10.2B for federal education & HHS projects.
Voted NO on $5B for grants to local educational agencies.
Voted NO on shifting $11B from corporate tax loopholes to education.
Voted NO on funding smaller classes instead of private tutors.
Voted NO on spending $448B of tax cut on education & debt reduction.
Did he always vote NO? No.
Voted YES on giving federal aid only to schools allowing voluntary prayer.
Voted YES on $75M for abstinence education.
So, there you go: NO on money for learning centers and closing corporate tax loopholes for teachers salaries and books but YES on the Lord's Prayer and money to promote virginity.
Here's why it matters:
“Research from the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce tells us that 57 percent of all Oklahoma jobs will require postsecondary education by 2018,” said Jamie P. Merisotis, president and CEO of the Lumina Foundation, which works to increase college completion in the U.S.
Intact hymens will not matter as much as Associates Degrees.
Your Top Ten
1. Massachusetts
2. Colorado
3. Minnesota
4. Connecticut
5. Vermont
6. New Hampshire
7. Maryland
8. New Jersey
9. Virginia
10. North Dakota
If you remember, last week, Oklahoma was ranked 5th freest state in the nation by an
organization that has close ties with the
Koch Brothers (as in owned by them), so take that, Massachusetts, with all your,
pffft, graduates and high-paying jobs.
Our bumper stickers kick your bumper stickers' ass!
Your Bottom Ten
41. North Carolina
42. Oklahoma
43. Alabama
44. Louisiana
45. Wyoming
46. Indiana
47. Kentucky
48. Mississippi
49. Arkansas
50. West Virginia
Notice anything?
Anyway, kind of hard to know what Alabama did that made it possible for Oklahoma to leap frog into the Top 42, but congratulations to all state legislators in OKC this session who decided that what we needed here was less money for education, but more for guns and prayer
West Virginia, we're coming for you.
“If we intend to develop the talent needed to meet future workforce needs," said Merisotis, "we must improve the delivery of a high-quality education to the growing numbers of low-income, first-generation, minority and adult students.”
Take a look at the list again. It pretty black and white--uh, Blue and Red.