Supreme Court Nomination: Not so Important
In an op-ed today in the NY Times (duh! I mean, what other newspaper do I ever quote?) , Bob Herbert makes a really interesting point. He says that we spend all this time worrying about Supreme Court nominees and Karl Rove and the presidency and very little time worrying about education.
Yes, the Supreme Court is important, but education is far more important to the average American than who replaces Sandra Day O'Connor. Fixing the education system so that students are encouraged to finish high school and given the opportunity to go on to college has a far greater impact on the daily life of an American than does the Supreme Court, and we would do well to recognize that.
Now this is especially weird coming from someone who spends her life as of now studying the greater trends in political science and government and the theory behind those trends, but much as I enjoy studying these things, are they changing the world we live in? Much as I enjoy complaining that the election of Dubya and his ability to replace a Supreme Court justice are ruining the world we live in, are those really the important issues?
We all like to talk about the big issues and those issues are important, but if we spend all our time worrying about the big things, well then all the little things that have a greater impact on daily life get neglected.
Herbert is right. We should be sitting around worrying about the state of education, complaining about the problem and trying to figure out how to solve it so that students are given the ability to earn an education and make a difference - to become the next Supreme Court justice - instead of constantly referencing a solitary comment that John Roberts made about Roe V. Wade more than ten years ago.
posted by Eli7 @ 8:35 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Dubya's also de-funded education. The system needs a ton of work, but I don't know if any politician could be brave and capable enough to do it.
De-funded? Surely you kid... Education spending has gone waay up (not that I think that's a good thing)
Here's a great proposal to help kids graduate high school.
If they drop out, they get thrown in jail till they are 21.
I wrote imprecisely. Congress, under Dubya's leadership, severely underfunded the No Child Left Behind Act which Dubya bragged about creating.
The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law says the federal government must pay for the rules and regulations it is imposing on our nation's public schools. But Washington lawmakers haven't done so, creating a $27 billon shortfall that parents have had to cover with their tax money. (source: http://www.nea.org/lawsuit/index.html)
Wow, so you've finally seen the light! It's taken quite a while ;)
STX, I have not really seen the light, and you will definitely continue to hear me kvetch about politics and our president and his effect on the Supreme Court.
However, I do think that those are not the things that are going to change the world, and if we want to make a difference in the way people live their lives, then we have to focus on things like education.
And CWS, I agree with JA on the fact that Dubya has presented an entirely raw deal for education and that is unacceptable. Something positive and helpful must be done about education on the federal level - before we start kvetching about future Supreme Court Justice Roberts.
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