“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?

While there are many competitive options out there, in terms of education, they’re not as universally attainable as most would like us to believe. Remember; poverty stricken parents can’t afford to do with out the free lunch programs and most lack adequate transportation, not provided for in attending schools beyond walking distance. Most poor people I know of ride the bus; or like me; they walk. Even buses cost money to ride. Reconfigure schools back to where they used to be configured, to take the peer pressure off these young kids. When I went to school it was head start / kindergarten to sixth in elementary, seventh to ninth ,junior high and tenth to twelve in high school. A sixth grader has no business attending a school with a bunch of ninth graders. And ninth graders shouldn’t be exposed to kids who are young adults, or one or two years from becoming adults. That kind of peer pressure is one of the elements to rising crime in schools, as these young minds are exposed to these older students. Vocation should be a mandatory course requirement from seventh grade, up. The business industry is full of high skilled jobs being filled by foreigners. The industry is saying our kids aren’t ready; that they lack the education and the training these other countries provide their young people.

And it’s a sad but true fact. I was in Germany before it’s unification and the historical collapse of the Soviet Union. I lived in fact,with a German family for a number of years; so I got to view this educational marvel first hand. Vocational courses are mandatory in their schools. They have a mandatory course in English in their elementary schools and I believe; though I’m not entirely certain; that beyond elementary school, is strictly voluntary. But they require their students to pursue a vocation while in school. Even give aptitude tests, similar to what we’d take at a military recruiting station. That determines what would be the best field for each individual to go into. School counselors could be trained to handle that. Not only would our kids be better prepared to emerge into the world ready; but skilled to work and provide a living for themselves from day one. They’d also be better prepared for the next level of education. Another system I’d like to see us adapt from the Germans is an apprentice system for our high school students.

We refer to them as interns. Maybe as an after school program or part of a summer jobs program, with the added benefit of applying those internship hours towards their college credits; for those so inclined to go to college or attend technical institutions after high school graduation. I believe, not only would you see a significant drop in poverty as a result; but also a substantial boost to the job market, the economy, local, state and federal tax coffers; as well as creating a group of young people who’ll not only have hope, but a real believe that there’s a future out there for them. Three years of mandatory ROTC as part of the school curriculum, from seventh grade to the ninth; would help kids in the areas of discipline, responsibility, team work and attention to details. While at the same time,helping to develop new leaders for the future of this great country we live in, by teaching them leadership skills. If I was Secretary Of The Department Of Health And Human Services,I’d most definitely be pushing for these educational reforms. I’d also push to reform welfare. And eventually have it apply to only those with special needs and disabilities, that makes it physically and economically impossible for them to work. No other considerations need apply. It shouldn’t be a permanent source of income. A mistake that’s been on going since the sixties, in it’s current form.

But at the same time, there should NEVER be the pressure of mandatory time limits. These are false and unrealistic approaches to helping anyone lift themselves from the ranks of poverty. My first step would be to revamp the social services infrastructure and personnel departments. We need more and better trained social workers. We need to pay these first line workers a realistic salary and give them realistic case loads, with honest,achievable goals. Allow them to become emerged in the well – being of their case personnel, in order to help these people become productive in their lives and off the social programs as quickly and as practical as can reasonable be achieved. How do we expect one social worker to effectively manage, upwards of sixty to a hundred cases a month? These cases need revisiting on a twice monthly bases. Ten families per case worker is a right target number, if our real intent here is to help these people get into the fabric of America’s working society. Thousands of potential workers, as of now , stymied by a system that wasn’t designed for it’s current use. Politics and it’s finest. We dole out billions of dollars in foreign aids each year and never bat an eye.

Yet we waste millions of dollars on a social system that has proven, year in and year out, that it never has produced the results we were looking for. Yet instead of being gutsy enough to admit it doesn’t work; but has had the complete opposite effect from what was intended; we throw more millions down a worthless well when we ought to be fixing the problem. We’ve been manufacturing poverty in this country for too darn long. Government sponsored and given the Federal Seal Of Approval. Our tax dollars at work. There needs to be reform and the ground work for real and effective results need to start now. I’ve seen too many families become divided and dysfunctional in large part, due to being on welfare. It robs you of hope and the ambition to be or do better. You stop caring and the mentality becomes, “they’re out to get me. If I want mine;I got to get my hustle on. Sling that dope. Steal a few cars, jack a few fools for their ends. Whatever it takes to make it out of here.” You’re not thinking education, cause the schools you attend aren’t pushing education anyway. They’re pushing attendance. But not for the purpose of learning; but rather for the the money high attendance generates.

The higher the attendance rating, the more money that particular school is allotted in the school budget for next school year. I joined the military as a way out. I didn’t want to be a criminal and I didn’t want to go to jail. Some weren’t so lucky. Welfare in it’s current form makes you dependent upon the system and less reliant upon yourself. My mother raised five kids from a job that paid her $98 a week. She received $375 a month from welfare plus $175 a month of food stamps. So as you may imagine, a good home in a quality neighborhood was out of the question. She never completed high school and her marriage lasted long enough to produce five kids. The point I’m trying to make is, very few kids from a single mother home break out of the poverty cycle when they become adults; due to the environment they grew up in. You see what your parents are going through. You dad’s gone,you’re mother’s too busy working to be there for you and you see no money coming on. Welfare provides enough to keep you in living in dumpy project housing or poor, crime riddled neighborhoods.

And you say to yourself; “The pimps and hustlers are living better and making more money than we got. Why waste my time studying if all I got to look forward to is this?!”. It’s very hard for a child; especially a young teenager ; to see beyond the poverty and misery that is an everyday life existence for him or her. Those without the strong intellect; the special skills and talent; or the physical ability to succeed in sports have a hard time excepting there’s anyone that cares. They have a hard time believing there’s a better life and better times beyond the slums of your childhood existence. If we don’t put our hearts, our souls and our dollars into fixing and bring on line a better public educational system than the one we have today; we’ve failed to protect 89% of our kids future, as well as the future of America.

We’ll continue to fall behind the rest of the world because we didn’t care enough about the young and the poor to give our very best. If we’re really serious about growing the economy, lowering taxes, increasing the work force, boosting the GNP, reducing poverty and the ranks of the people currently swelling the welfare system, like Senator Obama has stated over, and over, and over again, “ It’s time for real change.” Poverty; as I hope I’ve demonstrated; is more than just physical obstacles that separates the haves from the have nots. For those kids whose very existence is tainted with the daily stench of poverty it becomes a fact of life; simply because it becomes a state of mind. And THAT”S what we need to combat if we’re ever going to put an end to poverty in the United States Of America.