Education

My last post "Supreme Court on the Health Care Reform Law & the Ryan (Republican) Budget" was posted and distributed on April 6^th. In that post I explained that my discussion entitled “It’s All About Race” would have to be postponed and now I feel I must do so again, but his time indefinitely. However, I will address this complex and difficult subject in due course.

Now to revert to my post as set forth above, Ernest Hauser of the Bronx, NY called my attention to an error. I stated that the Budget Control Act of 2011 was passed in the Senate by a vote of 74 to 26 with 55 Republicans voting for it. Hauser pointed out that this was impossible since there are only 47 Republicans in the Senate. I should have said “with 28 Republicans voting for it.” Sorry for the error.

I also made a misstatement when I said it has not been reviewed by the CBO. This assertion was made after a long and fruitless search for a CBO analysis caused me to conclude that it did not exist. However, in a NewYorker article by James Surowiecki there is a reference to a CBO analysis. Therefore I stand corrected. Mea culpa!

On the other hand Albert Nekimken PhD of Vienna, Virginia and the author of four books complimented me with this:

Well done, as usual. I haven't had time to follow up all of your links included here, but thanks for doing such meticulous work in documenting the ongoing, attempted Republican takeover of our governmental institutions. It's a sad read.

What prompted me to address the subject of education was an insightful article that was posted on the blog of one of my subscribers, Roger Berkley of Woodcliff Lake, NJ, President and CEO of Weave Corporation and past President of the National Textile association. His article is a must read and can be found here.

It was that article that prompted me to respond to it as follows:

You are right that Santorum as an individual is no longer relevant, but as a philosophy, and as one who undoubtedly speaks for millions, he is very relevant.

                       

It is interesting to note that Santorum knocks education for others, while he himself has a BA an MBA and a JD. How hypocritical for a man who has spent so much time, money and effort gaining an education. Talk about elitism. It’s good for him, but not for those adoring followers of his, who in his view, don't need, and shouldn't want the benefits that an education has bestowed on him. Why can't they see what contempt that shows?

                       

Whether it is Santorum or Romney or Ryan - none of them are interested in making education available to the broad population. They want it to be for an elite group like themselves, who will rule over us and tell us that it isn't about achieving equality, that it is about opportunity. But here they are up to their usual tricks. They resort to the old reliable straw man. As though anyone of any consequence wants to impose equality. Opportunity is precisely what it is all about. And that is precisely what they want to deny the bulk of our citizenry.

Many years ago I read Hitler's Mein Kamf. What struck me, and what I will always remember is that Hitler considered the USA a formidable and dangerous foe because he said the educational system of the US comprises all, regardless of class, while Europe was stuck in a class warp. 

                       

To quote from Wikipedia: 

                                   

"By 1900 educators argued that the post-literacy schooling of the masses at the secondary and higher levels, would improve citizenship, develop higher-order traits, and produce the managerial and professional leadership needed for rapid economic modernization. The commitment to expanded education past age 14 set the U.S. apart from Europe for much of the 20th century. From 1910 to 1940, high schools grew in number and size, reaching out to a broader clientele. In 1910, for example, 9% of Americans had a high school diploma; in 1935, the rate was 40%. By 1940, the number had increased to 50%. This phenomenon was uniquely American; no other nation attempted such widespread coverage. The fastest growth came in states with greater wealth, more homogeneity of wealth, and less manufacturing activity than others. The high schools provided necessary skill sets for youth planning to teach school, and essential skills for those planning careers in white collar work and some high-paying blue collar jobs. Economist Claudia Goldin argues this rapid growth was facilitated by public funding, openness, gender neutrality, local (and also state) control, separation of church and state, and an academic curriculum. The wealthiest European nations such as Germany and Britain had far more exclusivity to their education system and few youth attended past age 14. Apart from technical training schools, European secondary schooling was dominated by children of the wealthy and the social elites. The United States chose a type of post-elementary schooling consistent with its particular features — stressing flexible, general and widely applicable skills that were not tied to particular occupations and geographic places had great value in giving students options in their lives. Skills had to survive transport across firms, industries, occupations, and geography in the dynamic American economy."

                       

I am a refugee from Hitler's Holocaust in Vienna, Austria. Even in Vienna my father was a struggling haberdasher. When we came to the US, he took a job as a bottle washer. Eventually, with the help of relatives he advanced to being a technician in quality control, but he never made much money. My brother never overcame these handicaps, became a high-school dropout and eventually a post office mail handler. I was more ambitious. I wanted to go to college. I could not have done so, (and eventually go to law school) if there had not been a free college available close to home. CCNY of CUNY allowed me to live at home, commute by subway for a nickel, and attend college tuition free. This allowed me to save the money I earned working summers, which I could set aside for graduate school. That is over with. There are no free colleges.

                       

How far we have regressed! And they want us to regress still further!

                       

If we are to remain a great nation it will not be by the strength of our military, though we need that too, but by the strength of our educational system. It is time for every state and every city and county, to have a free college system and that will only happen if it is financed at the federal level. Just as between 1910 and 1040 we moved to make high school within the reach of everyone, so we now need to make college within the reach of all. Only in this way will we make this a land of opportunity again, close the income gap, and assure the greatness of our nation in the 21st century. Those who say we cannot afford this are giving up on the future of America, and dooming, not only an underclass to remain an underclass, but are pushing millions who had achieved middle class status in another age, out of the middle class.

                       

Not only will the middle and lower classes benefit from such an approach, but in the long run, so will those at the top. 

                       

It is true that what we want is a larger pie for all, but that will not be achieved, by lower and lower taxes, particularly on the rich, but by evaluating the needs of our nation and then raising the right amount of money to meet those needs.

                       

We must realize that we cannot go on deciding how little we will tax, and then focus on what we can afford. We need to decide on what this nation's needs are, what it will cost to meet those needs, and then focus on what level of taxation is required, to meet those needs. In 1986, during Reagan's second term, our marginal tax rate was 50%. By the time he left office the rate was 28%. At the end of the prosperous Clinton era it was 39.6%. The Ryan plan would reduce that to 20% and raise additional revenues by unspecified (the rabbit in the hat - now you see it now you don't) elimination of tax expenditures. This is a formula that makes nothing possible. It is a formula for an ever-greater divide between the super rich and the rest, and the decline of our nation.

On another note I must call the readers attention to the stepped up War on Women, at least in Wisconsin. See here.

Comments, questions, or corrections, are welcome and will be responded to and distributed with attribution, unless the writer requests that he/she not be identified.

The Culture Wars Resume

Just when everybody thought this election would be about the economy it has become a resumption of the Culture Wars.

Democrats have seized upon the issue of birth control as an “Attack on Women” and it may be of greater concern to women than to men, but men too are effected by any attempt to restrict birth control. Whether in the married state or absent matrimony, men are very much concerned about impregnating a woman, whether she is a wife, or a girl friend. In the married state additional unwanted children place just as much of an economic burden on the husband as on the wife and if single, what man wants to be responsible for an offspring which was neither intended nor desired.

To be sure a female is more immediately effected, since it is her body that carries the fetus, but to pretend that only women are effected is to blind oneself to reality.

But what has suddenly brought this to the fore. The media has made it appear that the ruling by the Obama Administration requiring all insurance policies to cover birth control is strictly about insurance coverage, and Republicans want it to appear as though it were a battle over freedom of religion. But it is neither! 


The issue was brought to the fore when Komen decided to defund Planned Parenthood. But that simply brought it above the radar. As I pointed out in my post "Contraception, Abortion and Komen," it was as early as last year that the “House GOP voted to zero out the entire $317,000,000 Title X family planning budget and in New Jersey, Planned Parenthood was completely defunded to the tune of  $7.4 million. More recently on March 5, 2012, Newsweek reported that Texas was defunding Planned Parenthood. (The New York Times reported the same thing two days later.)

In none of these cases was there even a pretense that religion was an issue. And besides since when can religion override public policy. Would Rick Santorum or even Mitt Romney take issue with the Supreme Court when it ruled as long ago as 1878 in Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S. (8 Otto.) 145 that members of the Mormon religion could not claim exemption on religious grounds from the prohibition against polygamy, holding that “the Free Exercise Clause … protect(s) religious beliefs, not religious practices that run counter to neutrally enforced … laws.”

Would anyone argue that a physician, who is a Christian Scientist, can withhold medical care because it is against his religion, and for obvious reasons the argument that a pharmacist can refuse to dispense birth control pills on religious grounds has also been soundly rejected.

But the fundamentalists in the Republican Party (and I prefer to call them Fundamentalists rather then Evangelicals, because there are many Evangelicals who do not have Fundamentalist beliefs—Jimmy Carter it should be remembered is a born again Christian) want to impose their believes on the rest of us, and work toward a Christian theocracy.

They are now so dominant in the Republican Party that the Party in the Senate voted almost unanimously (Olympia Snow dissented) for the Blunt amendment, which according to the Washington Post “would have allowed not only religious groups but any employer with moral objections to opt out of the coverage requirement. And it would have allowed such employers to do so in the case of not only contraception but any health service required by the 2010 health-care law.”

Romney when asked about his position and worried about his general election chances first offered:

“I'm not for the bill, but look, the idea of presidential candidates getting into questions about contraception within a relationship between a man and a woman, a husband and a wife, I'm not going there.”

But when attacked by Santorum quickly fell in line with a spokesperson explaining:

“Regarding the Blunt bill, the way the question was asked was confusing. Governor Romney supports the Blunt Bill because he believes in a conscience exemption in health care for religious institutions and people of faith...”

And when Rush Limbaugh attacked a Georgetown University student who supported a requirement for health insurance to cover birth control, calling her a “slut” who “wants to be paid to have sex… (and that) she was “having so much sex, it’s amazing she can still walk”; and (that) she was “having sex so frequently that she can’t afford all the birth-control pills that she needs.” Romney was so outraged that he said: 

“It's not the language I would have used." 

The Republican House speaker through a spokesperson expressed his outrage with 

“The use of those words was inappropriate.” 

George Will, the outspoken Republican intellectual, commented:

“Boehner comes out and says Rush’s language was inappropriate. Using the salad fork for your entrée, that’s inappropriate. Not this stuff…and it was depressing because what it indicates is that the Republican leaders are afraid of Rush Limbaugh. They want to bomb Iran, but they’re afraid of Rush Limbaugh.”

But just possibly the Republican dilemma can be summarized by a letter that appeared in my local Newspaper, the Fort Lee Suburbanite:

An issue has been created where none existed. This takes the spotlight off of the economy, price of gas and unemployment. Birth control has never been illegal or unavailable. That is why this is a "non-issue." The powers that be are trying to blur the lines between abortion (infanticide) and birth control.

Because this is a contentious topic, women are being fed like sheep by the "wise" wolves. They do this under the guise of "women's rights." Birth control is a private matter. If your religion forbids it… it is between you, your conscience and God ... not you and the President of the United States or Congress. We follow our consciences everyday to do good and evil.

Why is that "cafeteria Catholics" do not make an issue of the other teachings of the Church? Yet birth control sends them into frenzy. We break the Commandments everyday. When the clerk at the supermarket charges you for red cabbage (at 29¢ a pound) instead of radicchio (at $4.99 a pound) do you tell her she made a mistake? No? That is stealing. Are you honest when filing your taxes? No? Mute point! We are all sinners. Look deeply and you will find this to be true, whether you gossip and ruin someone's reputation or tell a lie - look at those who govern. Too bad the Pinocchio factor doesn't work or small noses would be quite scarce in Washington D.C.

Let us all stop this chest thumping and get on with the issues that are important to the future of the United States.

To which I responded with the following Letter to the Editor:

Facts can be inconvenient! 

                     
Once again, as so many times in the past, I find myself writing in response to a Letter to the Editor, that treats facts as just an inconvenience. Get Back to Important Issues, which appeared in your March 2 edition, does that in spades. 

                     
The writer asserts, “Birth control has never been illegal or unavailable.” If that were true the Supreme Court would not have had to strike down a Connecticut law, in Griswold v. Connecticut, that did exactly that. As to availability, that has been, and continues to be a problem for disadvantaged women to this day. That is why Planned Parenthood is so important. Planned Parenthood spends a $1 billion a year providing services to poor and middle class women throughout the US, many of whom are married, but cannot afford the expense of additional children, or have other gynecological needs. 

                  
But what we are witnessing is a concerted war on contraception through defunding. Last year, the House GOP voted to zero out the entire $317,000,000 Title X family planning budget. Fortunately the Democratic Senate refused to go along. New Jersey under the leadership of our Governor, Chris Christie, defunded Planned Parenthood completely to the tune of  $7.4 million. Our President, conscious of the crucial need to provide gynecological services to all women, has made such services available by providing that they be covered in all health insurance policies. 

                     
It is definitely not a non-issue. 

                        

But the letter writer goes further and describes abortion as infanticide. If it were infanticide it would be murder and it would make one third of all women in the US, who have had at least one abortion in their lives, into murderers. That was never the law even before the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, which empowered women to have control over their own bodies. 

                        

What is at stake is the right of people in general, and women in particular, to be free of the dictates of their government, and not to have the religious views of others imposed upon them. This is the essence of liberty, and the separation of church and state. It is the essence of our Bill of Rights. 

                        

It is definitely not a non-issue.

Comments are welcome and will be distributed with attribution, unless the writer requests that he/she not be identified.