Short changing our children

To me it is a sacred responsibility to provide our kids an education that will give them every advantage in life. After that, they are on their own.

Having been a teacher, too, I recognize there are only so many hours in the day, and so many days in the year, that time exists to educate our kids while they are growing up. And I also recognize that some teachers will "get even", usually using grades, against some kids that do not agree with them.

As an opinion, I believe in public education, funded by citizens through taxes, and controlled by elected school boards. And as an opinion, I think many of these boards are doing a bang up job, like getting their kids educated to give them advantages in life. And as an opinion, I believe one size does not fit all, hence local control of our children's public education.

Now I recognize how important a school board member job can be. Where my recent kids attended public school in Gwinnett County, a suburb of Atlanta, last year's school board budget was $1.4 billion dollars. That's a lot of money, and influence.

But as an opinion, the basic mission remains the same, and it is a sacred mission, that is educating our children to provide them every advantage in life. Secondary are things like an adult jobs program, and other such considerations.

Two examples come to mind to me. One is of an elected representative in Michigan who did not know Texas shares a border with Mexico. The other is of a person at a McDonald's drive through outside of Atlanta that could not make change, even having a machine to help her. My opinion is that both these people have been set back in life by their poor educations.

Now, and last, right now it seems popular to try solve many of our culture's problems by indoctrinating our children at the expense of teaching them things like the 3R's, doing simple taxes, home economics (to include balancing a check book), or wood shop to help young people do simple plumbing or car maintenance later in life.

What ever we Americans do, at the school board level, I sure hope it enhances our kids first, and all other considerations come second. My vote will be so influenced, and I suspect many other voters will think this way, too.