Re-Post: Here's to Stickin it to Tha Man

This is a re-post of the original post that the government confiscated (assuming I can remember it all). Take this THA MAN! My aunt's got my back y'all so you betta start steppin.

New thing to be excited about

1) Coldstone Creamery: After much anticipation I finally secured a job becoming the largest person on the CofC campus. Yes, I work at an ice cream store and yes I get free ice cream and YES I plan to take full advantage of that

2) Emily Connor: a cool new friend I met via facebook stalking. Don't laugh. She says she thinks I am cool too ... maybe that's because she's afraid I will do something drastic that facebook stalkers do .. but thats ok bc I still get called cool.

3) Hispanic Kids: I have been to Midland Park Elementary school twice so far to do volunteer work with the hispanic kids there. The school is 40% hispanic so I get lots of practice and want to take most of them home with me. There is this one ADORABLE kid named Carlos who has the chubbiest little cheeks I have ever seen and his crack shows 90% of the time ... and basically he is the cutest thing to hit the face of this planet.

4) Alexi Murdoch: A new musician I encountered through when my suitemates left their music on really loud. He is British (I think) and good. He has out a 4 song EP that can be downloaded off of iTunes for like 3.50 or something ... check it out.

AND NOW WHAT WE ALL HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR AND WHAT I WILL EVENTUALLY DISAPPEAR FOR!!

My thoughts on education reform:

So I was reading a newspaper that Sam (who just asked my roommate Megyn to marry him .. she said yes!) left on the floor of my room. The headline of the front page article was "Concerned with Education" which I am, so I picked it up. As of that day which was Jan. 25, 2006, some education bills were being put through the Statehouse and I have to say I was quite dismayed about what I read. First of all, they are trying to put through some legislation that didn't make it last year (and hopefully won't make it this year). Last year the legislation was called Put Parents In Charge and they've renamed it the South Carolina Educational Opportunity Scholarship Act ... which is altogether too long in addition to the fact that it is crap. Let me break it down for you. Basically they want to give $1000 credits/taxbreaks to parents who send their children to private schools. And they want to give $500 to parents who home school. As I said the last time I posted this, I have no problem with people choosing to go to private schools or who homeschool ... totally their choice. However, I do have a problem with giving public money to benefit only a few students who aren't even in the public school system. Their are plenty of public schools that really need money and instead of supporting them and building them up our government is proposing that we put that money toward private education. The part that seems so catchy in this particular peice of ... legislation, for lack of a better word ... is that it proposes to give "low-income families and students in failing schools a taxpayer-funded scholarship of up to $4500 for a private school education." What tha? Because that is really promoting your schools!?! I'm pretty darn sure that if the school is failing the $4500 would be much better served improving that public school than going into the private schools which are already bringing in the dough. Again, if you choose to do the private school or home school thing ... go for it. But I don't agree with public money funding private schools especially at the expense of improving public education.
Now, on to the second bill that really pushed my buttons. There is a bill (House Bill 4489 to be exact) that proposes to "give students the opportunity to attend any public school in South Carolina, particularly higher performing schools outside their district." Yeah, this seems fine and dandy at first glance. But come on people, take a closer look. If this comes into effect, students naturally are going to flock to the already good schools, leaving what exactly behind at the schools that aren't doing as well? Not only does this create an overpopulation of certain schools but it puts "lower performing" schools at even more of a disadvantage. Especially becuase my guess is that the students who will be switching schools will mostly be the students who have the money to pay for transportation (there is no mention of transportation being provided). In other words, the students who already have the money to make opportunities for themselves will be flocking to the good schools, leaving the lower-income students at a poor school that essentially has no hope of getting better as long as no one is investing in it. We need to be focusing our education funds on improving the public schools that we already have! And not just the schools that have proven themselves worthy with good test scores, but the schools that need to be helped. I mean you don't go around tutoring the kids who have A's ... you tutor the failing ones. I will end with the same question I asked last time: Where is the legislation that supports public schools? That seeks to improve public education?

Well that was pretty much what got me on the government hit list. I feel like I was more clear the first time around but this will just have to do.