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Pastimes : Let’s Talk About Our Feelings about the Let’s Talk About Our -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: goldworldnet who wrote (1537)	3/22/2005 9:51:28 PM
From: Lazarus_Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5290

I hate the NEA Amen, brother. I can't remember them EVER supporting any education initiative that didn't bring more money their way. They and state and local teacher's unions are the worst things that have happened to education in the last 50 years. They have vehemently opposed merit pay for teachers and supported an egalitarian, communistic pay system. In some areas, they have yeilded their "all animals are created equal" philosophy in a few areas like science and mathematics because they were forced to- -they simply could not get such teachers without paying more. Yet merit pay has been an integral part of professional employment in the private sector seemingly forever. Funny. You DON'T need a teaching credential to teach advanced differential equations in college, you need a doctorate in mathematics- -the subject area. Yet to teach analytic geometry or calculus in HS you MUST have a teaching credential. There's something seriously wrong with that approach. I believe education is as important as defense. You can make that statement about lots of things- -health care is an obvious one. There is one thing you should remember here though: there is nothing in the world more expensive than a 2nd-rate military. It costs you hundreds of billions anyway and gets defeated at the one time it matters. There's another matter you need to consider in evaluating defense and education expenditures: a great deal of money for education is raised and spent at the state and local levels; national defense is entirely a federal matter, so of course it will take up a signficant portion of the federal budget. State gov'ts don't support the US Army. "Defense spending, however, declined from about 6% in the 1980's to 3.2% in 2002." somc.rochester.edu I'd also suggest that you look at chart 4 there. Defense spending HAD decreased as a result of the end of the Cold War. 911 undoubtedly has increased it again, but so be it. There are certain people who need to be taught this country is not a helpless giant.