America's Biggest Threat

[Silera]

I won't say spend more, because poor ass countries like Cuba manage to have a higher literacy rate than the US. Spend better. Invest in head start, raise the bar for schools in poor neighborhoods, invest in teachers and not in administrators. Instead of spending millions to build new schools in congested neighborhoods, figure out how to bus kids to schools that aren't over burdened and then use the money to train our teachers, involve parents, pay for books and supplies.

In my neighborhood, when I was growing up, there were so many kids. The schools were crowded and they just built new schools on top of the existing ones to accomodate them. Now, the neighborhood is gentrified and the schools are empty. One of the schools was converted to lofts, one to an alternative high school, 2 sit empty.

I think we've become too reactionary and there is no long term planning. Why were they able to teach kids from 1st grade to 8th grade in one room on Little House on the Prairie, and we have to have an entire school built for gay kids?

Throwing money at things doesn't always fix them. Reevaluating them may be a better solution.