If you are a parent of a preschool, elementary, middle
school, high school or college student OR any high school/college student of age to
vote – a) pick up a back pack, b) fill it up with lots of energy bars,
drinking water, aspirin and Maalox, c) rush
to your nearest voter registration precinct , d) register or verify your
registration status, e) hope that you won’t regret not having packed a disaster survival kit to help you get through
fighting for YOUR RIGHT to vote thanks to GOP state-issued 2011/2012 voter
suppression laws, and f) pray that your
educational facility will not be shut down or made financially inaccessible
BEFORE voting in November, 2012. Why – because Tea
Partied GOP congressional members, governors, and state legislators are
wiping out educational opportunities for the middle class and the poor by any
means necessary?
Let’s begin with the CHEEKY Foxx. The Tea Partied Republican
House leadership, recently, appointed Tea Partied Representative Virginia Foxx
as chair of the House Higher Education Subcommittee. Her grand entrance into the position was
crowned by CHEEKY remarks regarding the fact that she “has no patience for
students who whine about their student loan debt. After all, SHE was able to work her way
through college without taking on a single penny of debt. According to Foxx “We live in an opportunity
society…You don’t sit on your butt
and have a (college education) dumped in your lap.” What a noble statement. Guess how much the CHEEKY Foxx paid in
tuition fees at the University of North Carolina in 1961 - $87.50?!?!? (www.quickanded.com/2012/04/virginia-foxx-paid-87-50-in-tuition-in-1961.html
)
And that ‘s not all - according to an article in Color Lines
entitled “Representative Virginia Foxx to Lead GOP Attack on High Education”, the
CHEEKY Foxx 1) “doesn’t think higher
education should be publicly funded; 2) “doesn’t “think the measure of success
of a community college is always graduation; 3) “is a fan of for-profit
schools” for the well to do, 4) “opposes the regulation” of for-profit schools
for the well to do, and 4) is “opposed
to the student aid reform bill” proposed by the President. An article in Record & Landmark reports
that “while Foxx derides those who pay for higher education through student
loans, HER campaign is FUNDED for the most part by monies gleaned from student
loans.”
When I checked the CHEEKY Foxx’s voting record at the U.S. Congress
Votes Database website, I found that education isn’t the only ‘butt’ ’
of her cheekiness. Before the CHEEKY Foxx
was REWARDED for her educational INTOLERANCE by the Tea Partied House leadership,
she rejected a Democrat-sponsored Senate bill that would extend the payroll tax
cut and unemployment benefits for two months before she VOTED AGAINST the bill
to extend through the end of 2012. Then
she voted for the GOP 2012 Budget Plan which extends historically low tax cuts
for the wealthy while cutting education programs, Medicare, Medicaid, health
care programs, and other life-saving services for women, children, the poor,
the elderly, and the unemployed to the bare bone! (http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/112/ )
The Tea Partied Republican War on Education doesn’t begin and end with
the CHEEKY Foxx…
- “SENATE REPUBLICANS derailed a Democratic bill on Tuesday aimed at keeping interest rates on federal college loans from doubling July 1.” (www.usatoday.com - “GOP blocks Senate debate on student loan bill”)
- Governor Scott Walker’s War on Education was strengthened when he, recently enacted an “unprecedented $900 million cut to school funding” (www.progressive.org – “The Republican War on Education”)
- NEW HAMPSHIRE’S Tea Partied Republican LEGISLATORS War on Education is played with a) adding a “secrete new language” to the education funding amendment “effectively taking the Courts out of protecting the rights of every child. www.bluehampshire.com - “Defending Against the N.H. GOP’s War on Education”)
- In TEXAS, Tea partied Republican LEGISLATORS’ War on Education includes a) cutting $5.4 BILLION dollars from the state’s budget PREVIOUSLY dedicated to public schools, b) ELIMINATING students’ bus services, c) laying off THOUSANDS of teachers, school librarians and school nurses, and d) shutting down elementary schools. (www.alternet.org – “In Texas, a GOP War on Education”)
- A www.huffingtonpost.com ‘s first in a three-part series on the need for education reform in the United States entitled “Doubling-Down on Dumb: The GOP War on Being Smart states a) at the state level, REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS like New Jersey’s CHRIS CHRISTIE, Florida’s RICK SCOTT and Wisconsin’s SCOTT WALKER have “been cutting funding for public schools, community colleges, and/or state colleges and universities”, b) CHRISTIE and WALKER have “demoralized teachers’ unions, often punishing them severely with budget cuts for teachers’ AND administrators’ salaries and benefits”, c) at the federal level” HOUSE REPUBLICANS continue to pick on the U.S. Department of Education as a source of deficit-reducing budget cuts”, d) “Head Start and Early Head Start programs have been targeted for decades BY REPUBLICANS for substantial cuts in funding or de-funding altogether”, e) “since the start of President Obama’s candidacy for the 2008 presidential election, there has been a CONSISTENT THEME among conservatives, particularly on the far-right and those who identify themselves as TEA PARTY members that education and being educated, are BAD things”.
- MITT ROMNEY said that the “new American Dream is” (NOT education, NOT jobs, NOT economic fairness). Believe it or not, MITT’s definition of the “American Dreams is “to have your kids move out of your basement”!?!? (www.billnobles.com – “Stop the Republican War on Higher Education”.)
- Let’s not forget the Tea Partied Republican “darling’ – triple degreed and educationally deprived GOP 2012 primary candidate RICK SANTORUM who stated a) President Obama is a “snob” for wanting every American to have the chance to attend college, b) state departments of education should be abolished, c) the main purpose of college is to indoctrinate students into becoming liberals c) the indoctrination that is going on at the university level is a harm to our country, and d) the U.S. Department of Education is unnecessary because “government-run” education is a failure” www.huffington post.com – “Doubling-Down on Dumb…”)
If diplomas and
degrees included a REPUBLICAN-legislated license to carry “concealed guns" within “school zones”
and on “college campuses”, Tea Partied
Republican congressional members,
governors and state legislators, probably, wouldn’t touch educational opportunities
for the middle class and the poor with a ten foot pole!
Ain’t that a
blip!
GOTTA VOTE
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