Ending Poverty in America

“Give us your weak,your sick,your tired.” And so on and so forth; the Statue of Liberty professes. Big men dream big dreams; while little men sit about bemoaning their failures. Well; there is no magic pill, no one answer, no one size fits all remedy to this social dilemma we are now faced with. One concept; as old as mankind itself; holds one key to ending poverty in the USA. And I quote ;”Give a man to eat, and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish, and you feed him for life.” Unquote. Simply put; education. Education, responsibility, accountability. Fix the public school systems in this country. That’s one measure that most certainly needs to be priority number one. We have multiple choices of school programs in this country. We pass out school vouchers and say; “You can put your child in any school you want to within your scoolzone”.

We offer private schools. We allow home schooling. And that’s great! That’s all great. The unfortunate and sad reality of it all is,according to a recent report published by America Magazine; nearly 55 million kids, K-12, attend public schools. That’s approximately 89% of all kids in America taught by only 3.5 million teachers. If you do the math, it equates to .055 teachers per 18.33 students. Teachers for the most part who are woefully under paid. While the vast majority do love what they do for a living and thoroughly enjoy teaching kids, they still have bills to pay. They still have to earn a decent paycheck. Some have families of their own; kids of their own to raise and care for. A few years back ; the NFL decided it needed full time referees. And they needed these referees to attend classes and training sessions during the off season, in order to be better trained and better prepared to perform at the highest possible level of their professions.

So they initiated a pay system and a training program, that is second to none in the world. They have a managed pay system that’s not just tided into seniority, but also into performance. On the field, in training, in the classrooms and during testing. All referees in the NFL are well paid, have excellent benefit packages, highly trained, continuously trained and tested to product quality; over quantity; results. In other words, you earn your strips. That’s accountability, responsibility and a high level of expectation to perform to a level of excellence, beyond reproach. We demand it of our cars. We should demand it of our educators. The public school system needs to be handled in the same manner. Then we’ll have better trained, better paid and highly motivated teachers; able to perform at the highest level in the world, in education. We’ll attract, as well as retain, good quality people to ensure that our kids get the best education the world has to offer. That’s key to ending poverty in this country. After all; isn’t it time we put an end to the third world level of education we’re providing for our kids?