Uncertain Times in a Changing World
Are We headed Forwards or Backwards?
DeSatanist, as I like to call him, should be given credit for one thing. He never gives up. In this case, he never gives up trying to undermine public education.
DeSatanist has already dramatically undermined public education. New teachers can no longer pay into the pension plan which not only takes away one of the few benefits of becoming a teacher, but also will influence other states to follow suit. I’m not a prophet but if I had retired from the state of Indiana or Florida, for example, I’d be keeping my eye on my pension, because the Republican way is to under fund programs and then tell the public that they’re failing.
This recent move by the Florida governor is clearly a well-thought-out plan to undermine teachers’ unions.
Unions have suffered greatly in the last 50 years along with pension plans, living wages, and working conditions. My parents of the 50s and 60s enjoyed an unprecedented time period in the history of societies when a middle-class emerged strong and continued to grow. Unfortunately, they had no idea how lucky they were, and so they turned around and sent my peers to Vietnam and then eventually voted for politicians like Reagan.
It’s been a slow and steady decline ever since then. As near as I can tell those days are over.
I enjoyed a wonderful career as a teacher and eventually a principal of an elementary school in the state of Maine, but I am so sorry to witness the demise of public education. In my day as a young working woman fresh out of college, it was the factory jobs that were in decline, but now, it’s all the professions as well. From teachers, to professors, nurses, and doctors, the work environment is barely worth the effort to spend lots of money and time to secure the necessary degrees.
You know, those degrees that once promised a nice return if the middle class would invest in their children’s futures.
Those days are gone. What we’re facing now is a dire shortage of doctors, teachers, and nurses. Instead of luring enough young people into these professions, we’re seeing people leaving the professions. That combination spells disaster down the road as critical shortages emerge.
It’s quite possible that Republican politicians might get their wish.
Although for the life of me I have no idea why they’d want to destroy the very institutions that make a society desirable and effective. I mean even their children will have to live in what’s left of our country. As we watch our institutions crumbling before our very eyes, I don’t see any reason for a victory lap. Like so many things in our changing world, this trend worries me.
It looks so damn risky, but then I’m old and clearly remember the 50s and the 60s when good times were wasted on the Silent Generation.
