Now we are getting what we voted for here in Kentucky and not only have put someone in office who will punish our state, but our nation as a whole. He has not only warred on sensible regulations and workers rights and wages but is now taking up his other wet dream. Eliminating the Department of Education which insures that all children get a chance at going to school and getting a degree and hopefully moving into higher education regardless of income.

So now Rand Paul is blocking a much-needed overhaul of No Child Left Behind which funds our public schools. While No Child Left Behind is a failure like everything else George W. Bush did the Mad Doctor seeks an excuse to destroy the whole Department of Education. So now after a year of bi-partisan negotiation Paul is halting progress on the bill:

A Senate committee debate on a bipartisan bill to overhaul a key education law came to an abrupt halt Wednesday after Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) invoked a little-used procedural rule that forced a temporary adjournment.

Listen to the Mad Doctor here:

And so he used an outdated rule to upend committee meetings:

The Senate rule, which can be used by any senator, says no committee can meet without unanimous consent once the Senate has been in session for two hours. The rule originated when there were few states and it was important for lawmakers to spend time on the Senate floor. But with the Senate’s growth, the rule has been rarely invoked.

However, despite the tedious ramblings of the Mad Doctor he had plenty of opportunity to insert his input into the negotiations over this bill but evidently was too busy killing much needed regulations that keep Americans safe and lowering your wages:

“We had hearings with superintendents, teachers, principals, broad input from across America,” Harkin said. “Does that mean every two years we have to start from scratch every time? The senator from Kentucky had every day since he was sworn in in January to come to me or Senator Enzi and say, ‘Here’s what I’d like to have in the bill.’ Other senators did that. Our doors are open. It was no secret that we were meeting. . . . If the senator filed 74 amendments but is objecting to our meeting to even consider his amendments, can please someone explain the logic of that?”

Michael Bennet went on:

“The senator speaks of the tragedy of this process,” Bennet said. “I’ll tell you the real tragedy. The real tragedy is that only nine of 100 children living in poverty can expect to graduate from college. A tragedy is that there are people working at our schools right now doing the best they can to serve our kids and we think a two-hour meeting is too long.”

So now Rand Paul suddenly cares about this bill after ignoring it for over a year?? If the Mad Doctor really cared about listening to folks and getting their input he would easily see that his radical view of localizing schools is nothing short of idiocy to most Americans:

For the last several years, inadequate funding has been the biggest problem Americans say public schools in their communities must contend with. According to the 2005 Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup survey*, this problem hasn't been devalued. Twenty percent of Americans say lack of money is the biggest problem the public schools in their communities must deal with. Overcrowded schools, discipline issues, use of drugs, and violence, each mentioned by roughly 10% of Americans, are all distant runners-up.
Not surprisingly, worries about school funding became more prevalent after the economic boom screeched to a halt in the late 1990s. Many school districts found themselves with less state aid resulting from serious budget cuts at a time when the cost of a high-quality education was rising dramatically. "There's a significant shortfall in federal funds causing a great shift in budget priorities for the states," says Reggie Felton, director of federal relations at the National School Board Association (NSBA) in Alexandria, Va. "While the No Child Left Behind Act covers the cost of testing, the reporting requirement forced schools to upgrade their information technology systems, and that's a huge cost."

"Schools are being asked to fulfill larger roles and those needs are more expensive," says Rebecca Gorrell, chair of the math department at Lakewood, Colo., middle school. "For instance, a quality education now includes graphing calculators for every student and computers with Internet connections in every classroom. The technology budget alone is up tenfold in the last decade."

Despite the public's concern about inadequate funding for public schools, no one would suggest that money can solve every educational issue. Gorrell, however, would still welcome it and thinks it can solve many problems. "Money can reduce class size and that's great -- more one-on-one time with the teacher is always a good thing," she says. "Additional funding can also offer teachers better salaries, especially math and science teachers, so they'll stay in education and not take higher-paying jobs in research and private industry."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

But therein lies the problem. You see, Rand Paul and his ilk would rather do anything than invest in their own country. They hate their government and hypocritically ignore the fact that the government is so bad because they have had their selfish hands on it for far too long. Their own greed does not blind them to reality they simply do not care about anyone but themselves and the very few that they represent.

And reality is this. American children deserve an education. It should be a right. It is not only right on a moral basis, but it serves the interests of this country to have as educated a populace as possible. State and local governments simply cannot afford to do this. Without federal help it would be impossible. Then what children will not be able to get an education?? Of course, those living in poverty or the middle-class.

So while No Child Left Behind is seriously flawed Rand Paul's hold does not come from any sense of doing the right thing or trying to improve the educational system in our country. It comes from an attempt to destroy that system and insure that only those of wealth and priviledge, folks like himself have a chance at improving their lives by achieving higher education. All because they refuse to give back to the system that made their own success possible.

That is why here at Hillbilly Report we call it like it is. Rand Paul and those he represents are quite simply the greediest and least patriotic among us.