Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Saturday, September 24, 2005

In the wake of Hurricne Rita and the possibility of gas shortages caused by production disruption on the Gulf Coast, our Governor has asked the public K-12 schools to close on Monday and Tuesday. As I sit and consider this request, I am confronted more and more by its knee-jerk stupidity.

Now, i understand that it will save more than 250,000 gallons of deisel not to have to run buses and it might also save some regular gas due to teachers and administrators not having to drive but there are a number of factors not being taken into account. I seriously believe that the teenagers that now don't have to go to work will burn up that extra gas running around in their cars on those days. There's also the economic impact of the parents that now have to find daycare options. Many will have to take time off work while others will end up leaving kids without supervision leading to all kinds of trouble.

If the Gov was so concerned about gas shortages why doesn't he close all non-essential state offices and order state employees to stay home and conserve gas? How many gallons would be saved by grounding the state's transportation fleet for those two days? Why doesn't he do what California is doing and vigorously pursue moving the state's vehicle fleet to alternative fuel/hybrid technologies. Why didn't he cancel high school sporting events on Friday night?

No, the Gov is showing his true feelings regarding education this weekend. It's the least important thing the state does and the most easy to cancel in his mind. This pretty much seals the deal electionwise for me. I can't vote for him. What remains to be seen is whether I can vote for any of the other candidates. If the Dems put Mark Taylor forward I'm pretty sure I can't vote that way either. Why can't the Democratic Party put anyone but weak, special interest hacks on the ticket? Just like on the natinal level, the Georgia Dems seem to only be able to lose races rather than looking to inspire and win them. I'm a registered republican but that's only because I'd rather be in a party than be counted as an independant. If the Dems actually gave me a candidate that seemed to be free of the special interests I would vote that direction.

The thing that burns my bacon the most is the thought of having to listen as our college students whine and complain that they have to come to school when the K-12 students don't like it's some sort of personal affront. I'm really sick of some of our students. This is the first year I've really considered whether teaching at a four year school wouldn't be a better optioin. I love the two year mission but I'm really tired of my student's underachievement this year and their continuing attempts to justify it as someone else's unrealistic expectations.

Sigh.

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