WHIPLASH...........

ACTUALLY....... Mitt Romney proceeded to offensively attack the dignity, offend and insult 47% of the American people, which includes not just the poor but also working-class families, members of the military and the elderly. He said  "it wasn't his job to worry about those people".  Well, that disgusting statement didn't do much for him, so.... last Sunday night he told Scott Pelley, on 60 Minutes, that he cares about 100% of the people.  He said he was in this race for the poor and the middle class. That was not just a flip-flop, it was a backwards double-sumersault whiplash!!

The only 100% that Governor Romney cares about are himself and his wealthy cronies.  For instance:

•  Romney wants to cut service personnel, their pay, their health care and their pensions
•  Romney wants to privatize the United States Post Office
•  He wants to cut back on fire fighters and police officers 
•  The EPA - a little cut back there.  Do you think Romney cares if we have clean air, or clean water
•  He plans to privatize Social Security-you can put a little money aside each month for your retirement
•  Romney would "get rid of" Medicare.  He'd issue vouchers and you can buy your own health care
•  He would end FEMA.  Cantor says fine, but only after he's sure it provides aid to his territory first.
•  Romney will privatize schools.  If he closes public schools and have children go to private schools with vouchers, this would eliminate union teachers.  The private schools could choose whatever they want for tuition or deny students whom they consider unfit to go to their schools.  The private schools do not have to accept the public school children.
•  Romney would do away with the hiring of teachers with 'highly qualified certification' requirements and block grants for money for states that adapt policies focused on improving teacher effectiveness.
•  Romney says that classroom size doesn't matter to students, and doesn't impact educational outcomes.  After all his elite schools had classrooms of 14 students, Romney's children had just 11
• He supports low interest rates on student loans on a temporary basis.  His best advice for students trying to figure out how to afford college "shop around, borrow money from your parents".
• Planned Parenthood, he'll git rid of that, never mind the 3 million patients that depended on that last year
• Taxes - the rich get richer and the poor get poorer
• Obamacare - he'd repeal most of that on his first day in office 

 "WHEN  THE  RICH  WAGE  WAR,  IT'S  THE  POOR  WHO  DIE"

DO YOU SUPPORT THIS TYPE OF EDUCATION??

ACTUALLY........ Since this is the time that most children are beginning a new school term, I thought it was appropriate to talk about education.

According to the Huffington Post, 08/28/2012, this is one of the key elements of the Republican Platform.  There is a lot that I could take objection to but, for crying out loud, why would any normal parent want to follow this ridiculous rule.

 "Republicans support consumer choice, including home schooling, local innovations such as single-sex classes, full day school hours and year round schools.  Republicans renew their call for replacing family planning programs for teer education which teaches abstinence until marriage as the responsible and respected standard of behavior."

The name of the education program that Romney named "A Chance for Every Child" is a pro-choice, pro-voucher, pro-states-rights education that just yells privatization of the education system.

Romney is proposing a voucher system that would have parents of the most needy children to shop  for schools, which would probably make an already bad situation worse.  Poor and special education students would choose a school, based on standardized test scores and other data (?) and only then a certain amount of public money, to be determined (they don't give specifics on that) would be allowed to follow the child to school.  Romney disregards how factors outside the classroom can affect the child.  He ignores the fact that many of the poorer children live in poverty and turmoil, come to school hungry, tired or sick with parents who really care little about their child's education.

Romney would eliminate the No Child Left Behind Act, so states would no longer have to meet federal requirement for improving schools.  States would be left to run their own systems, providing the funds were there.  And this is a good one -  he opposes "unnecessary" teacher qualification requirements.  Paul Ryan voted against $10 million in education funding for states to hire qualified teachers and repeatedly voted to cut millions from the Head Start Program.  His budget could cut 200,000 children from that program in 2014 alone.

With regard to higher education - Romney has no specific plans to address student loans.  Ryan's plan would allow student loan rates to double, costing students on average another $1,000.

On college tuition:  Romney's only advice to those struggling to afford college was to "shop around", or "borrow money from your parents".  Ryan told a student "he should work three jobs to pay for college".

On student aid: Romney would "drastically cut federal student aid causing roughly 1 million students to lose their Pell Grants".  The Romney-Ryan budget would cut Pell Grants by an average of $1,000 for 9.6 million students by 2014.

THIS IS ONLY ONE OF THE ISSUES IN THE ROMNEY-RYAN PLATFORM. THINK THIS THIS IS BAD, WAIT UNTIL I EXPLAIN SOME OF THE OTHERS.

ROMNEY'S IDEA OF EDUCATING OUR CHILDREN

ACTUALLY.....did you know that Romney said "As President I will be a champion of real education reform in America"?  Do you think he really knows what that means much less how he would do it?  Well, he has told the Latino Coalition that "starting on day one", OMG that's another day one thing, he will be there to give parents of every low-income and special needs student the opportunity to choose where their child will go to school. That's quite a statement.  A Chance for Every Child is the education program that Romney spelled out in his speech to the Latino Coalition.  He is promoting a pro-choice, pro-voucher, pro-states-rights education system that will certainly hasten the privatization of the public school system.

The parents of poor and special-education students would choose a school based on standardized test scores, and then public money would follow the child to school. In other words, it's a voucher system. His program is not based on quality research.  It doesn't mention the reform that's been shown to be the best: early-childhood education.  His goal is for every classroom to have a quality teacher.  Of course, that's not too hard if he can find a teacher for a school in a disadvantaged neighborhood and be able to pay them a quality salary.  Has he really considered how difficult that is?  Oh! Of course, he and his wealthy co-hearts would chip in on the salary bit.

Romney opposes investment in education. In 1994 he said "we don't need to spend more on education".  As Governor of Massachusetts, he closed a $1.2 million budget shortfall by cutting millions in funding for K-12 education.  By his second year as Massachusetts Governor schools saw one of the largest cuts in the nation on a per-student basis, and forced school districts to cut staff, increase class sizes.  He called it "non-reform reform and said that efforts to reduce class size "may actually hurt education more that it helps". Yes, you can fact check this - I have.

Mitt Romney is ignoring the important role that outside-school factors play in the performance of a child in the classroom.  He can talk about how a great teacher and their students can overcome the effects of living in poverty and turmoil, but it's just not possible.  An underprivileged, tired, sick or hungry child simply can't do as well as one who isn't.

Romney thinks the federal government should have no control over local education, which would mean that states would no longer have to meet federal requirements for improving schools.  States would be in control of running their systems.  Bad idea Mitt!  He opposes what he calls "unnecessary" teacher-certification.  Yeah, it's an open door policy.  If you can add 2+2, congrats you can become a math teacher.

Do I sound bitter - well I am!  This man wants to mess with our children.  He can't relate to these peoples education problems. He just "doesn't get it".  He's not worried about our children's schools or their education, he's worried about being elected President of the United States.  God help us!!!