Would rec again for content if I could.

R&K

It's almost as if the repugs don't want an educated American public, maybe easier to rule, and lie to, us that way.

Teach them just enough reading skills and math, to be able to do the job.
For heaven sakes, do not teach them any critical thinking skills! They might start asking embarrassing questions and we could end up with living wages, actual realistic retirement income and women wearing shoes and not pregnant in the kitchen, with her other half yet, getting dinner ready. Oh, the horror.

fits the definition of 'treason', I think.

Schools seem more and more to be warehouses, storing kids for either working at low wage jobs or for the prison industrial complex.

role of prisons in this society.
Private prisons are the new slavery. I guess there is a tradition of under-educating slave populations.

The start of another school year with teachers and communities being asked to do with less (no, being asked to do more with less).
Its time that Americans stop in-fighting and work together to remove the current, corrupt, political officials and reform our political and economic systems.
All of our resources are being spent to increase police surveillance over us, individually, and over our communities (and to supply police forces with military weapons and equipment, ultimately to be used against us) and none of our resources are dedicated to improving living conditions or even maintaining old infrastructures.
We are always being told to think of the national budget as we would our family budget, to prioritize, to make cuts, to do without. Well, if it were my family budget, I would never ask most of my children to starve so that a couple of them could get fat, I would never expect my children to go hungry or suffer in the cold so that I could outfit the house with the latest home security cameras, I would not hire outsiders to take the garbage out or mow the lawn when my own children could do the work, and eat, because I didn't spend money hiring others to do the chores, and I would not deny educational opportunities to most of my children in order to send a couple of them to private schools. So hearing politicians ask us to prioritize rings somewhat hollow.
Whether one is a teabagger or the most left wing contributor to DU, we all ought to agree that the current system is ruining the future for everyone (except possibly the 1% and I am not sure the money and weapons can protect them).
Like other public endeavors that have been successful, the schools have been the target of greedy corporate thugs, who will do or say anything to get their hands on the public purse.
This is why teachers and schools are being attacked and blamed for the exaggerated problems related to educating children, in a system that holds no promise for their futures. And, of course, old teachers need to be demoralized and treated so badly, that they all quit their jobs, and can be replaced by less expensive and ill-prepared, "teach for America" recruits.
If we want better participation and results from education we need to equalize income and insure that the work we ask our students to perform, leads to some beneficial payoff for them.
We also need to be sure that higher educational opportunities exist for all citizens, who are prepared to develop the skills required for specialized occupations. College and university need to be free, or very low cost, for all students prepared to benefit from the experience and university faculties need to be well-supported by the state, so that students are not exposed to the anti-academic "chairs" filled by and paid for by right wing foundations.
Unfortunately, this is only one of a myriad of problems the US citizenry faces, that need reform, and put all together, the problems seem nearly insurmountable.
I am overwhelmed by the situation, and I have the advantage of having earned several university degrees. Others, without the tools that college can provide, must be feeling even more despondent than I.

I am beginning my thirty first year of teaching at a community college. I have yet to hear an administrator announce we have an increase in funding during a fall orientation meeting. Now that we have two tea baggers on our local board - they are discussing the removal of tenure, refusing to use the salary schedule, and asking faculty to prioritize programs across campus for possible closure. All the faculty has done is accept more students in courses and teach overload sections for a fraction of their worth.

I'm not quite sure when teachers became the enemy and students became second class citizens - but I've had it. I will be leaving at the end of the year.

I have several more years to go before I can count myself among the retired.
I hope by the time I qualify, for retirement and Social Security, that they have not been stolen from me, forcing me to work until the day I die.

I have little reason to believe that my shitty 401K will withstand another Wall Street looting and SS will likely not survive long enough for me to retire.

What can we do but get up each day and survive?

That is about the only way to stick it to the man.

sure don't want us doing.
The small pleasures we get, we must appreciate.

my wife was on strike a couple of years ago.....