[danjarch]

Sck5, You point to the fact that schools are having a harder time getting new funding. I would point out that this is true. It seems to have started a downward slide in the sixties. You could quickly assume that it has to do alot with desegregation, and you would be partly correct. But a quick look at a lot of other rules and laws that have been put in place since the sixties would revill to an even greater degree the damages done by a liberal mentality.

All schools that receive federal funding are bound up by a whole bunch of rules that have turned public schools from being preceived as an asset to the public at large into something more and more preceived as a liability. Every thing from sex ed to free lunches comes at the expense of local control, and increases cost requirements often above and beyond the grant money the schools receive. Don't forget that on top of forcing parents to allow they're children to be taught, by other morals and principals, subjects that are contiversial, but simple things like prayer or bible studies have been largly banned outright.

The results of these policies were pretty predictable. The adverage person now feels less pride and has less desire to fund or help the local school system. In fact another democrat policy from the era pretty much killed private donations to the public school system. In they're attemps to make every body equal, they passed laws in most states that made any donation given to a school be split up through out the district or through out the state. This effected my elementary school. It had been rutine for the nuke plant to include large donations to the local schools in they're contract negotiations. After the law took effect the local union dropped that from the table. They no longer saw a personal benefit from it. Demanded more pay instead.

The same is true for road construction and a lot of other government projects. I remember reading about a interstate running through Memphis that had already hit 24 million a mile thanks to repeated demands for impact studies and assistance for those with lower incomes that were being forced out of they're apartments. This of course had been in the middle of on going legal battles with every envionmental group and poor peoples group and other groups that seemed to show up over everything. It had been an ongoig project for almost twenty years when I heard about it. The funny thing is that it was less then ten miles of road if memory serves.

Thats become the nature of the beast. More and more is stripped from local control and as such becomes all about politics rather then getting stuff done. Taking more of my money to force me to let you guys teach my child that gay is ok, or buddism is about love but christians are horrable, or lets focus on being ok with our answers rather then knowing how to multiply fractions is not going to happen with out a fight for every single penny.