Follow the Money

I’m talking now only to those of you in the audience who do not want to let kids escape the public school system. Oh. That’s you?

That’s all of you. All of you bastards. That’s right, I said bastards. I shouldn’t have. A bastard can’t help it. He was born that way. You can. You were born with a heart. And a brain. You can tell when you are harming someone, withholding what he needs, treating him unfairly because he’s poor and has no choice but to take what you dish out.

Why won’t you let kids out of schools that have murders in the hallway and zero learning going on? Your kids aren’t in there, are they? Hey, Barack! Your kids there? No. Your kids are in a fancy, extremely expensive private school. Why? Isn’t the public school good enough for them?

You lie to yourselves. That’s not good for you. Better to face the facts. Didn’t your shrink tell you that? Don’t make up lies to justify keeping other children prisoners while yours are free. That could cause internal stress. You could find yourself raging in a restaurant – about vouchers. Why? Because you’re trying to rationalize your position. And why is your position irrational? Because you, dear one, are not a mean, niggardly person who would withhold from a child the means with which to live a better life – in some cases, to live any life at all. You would not condemn the kid next door to minimum wage all his life if by walking two blocks down the street he could go to a decent school and become, say… a teacher. You’re not the type. You honestly do care about people. But these aren’t quite people. You don’t know them. Their faces are in the shadows, and there are so many of them, you can’t single out anybody. So hey, let’s sacrifice them to the sanctified words, “Public School” because that’s on your political affinity group’s agenda.

Americans are guaranteed an education. Not a school. Now they’ve got a school they can’t escape from, and they get none of the guaranteed education. Some don’t get it until they get to jail, and by then the curriculum has been altered.

Barack, you close your ears. I’m not talking to you anymore. I’m talking to the regular people. Regular people … don’t you think it’s strange that these bigwigs talk up the public schools and their children don’t go near them? Why do you think that is? Is there something wrong with them? Then why do they think it’s okay for anybody else’s kids to be in them?

Well, maybe they just want something different – something the public school doesn’t offer. They’re entitled to that. And “entitled” is the right word. They’re entitled to it because their positions in life reward them with enough moolah to buy their kids the education they want for them. Whatever it is.

It wouldn’t be so bad if these weren’t the very same people who are always crying about the poor, wanting to uplift them, give them a leg up. The very people who think it’s a disgrace the way poor people are treated in this country. The Affirmative Action crowd. The ones who are always screaming for fairness, equality, a level playing field. Well here it is. A way to do it. A way to give everybody the same thing. That thing is “what they want.” That’s basically what you want, isn’t it? That would be equality, wouldn’t it?

You can listen again, Barack.

Let these kids go to the schools that they, as members of their families, have decided they want to go to. Schools: hand over the money the state gave you to educate them, and set them free. You’ll be giving them the means to the education they deem is the one they’re guaranteed. The big brick building you’re in, with the mathematically challenged teachers and the six-figure principals are turning out not to it for them anymore. Your buildings are jails. They have guards who keep the inmates inside. There is no leaving the building once you report in, until the end of the day when your contract is almost up – there’s still the bus ride. You are not allowed to catch some fresh air at lunchtime. In some schools, students can not carry bags of any kind. A girl with her period can get special permission for tampons if she’s ready to announce to the burly guard in the hallway. No cell phones. No contact with the families. They’re the competition. They make life tough. Trouble in school? That calls for a lock-down. Nobody gets in or out. Your kid stays inside while the murderer rampages through the halls. We wouldn’t want him to escape.

This is school, guys. It’s not the place you went to if you’re reading this. Do you get the picture? What they’re asking for is a Get Out of Jail Free card.

Obama! Why not give it to them? Are you beholden to something other than your own heart and brain? Couldn’t be the Teachers Union, could it? You just got their endorsement. What’d you do Barack? Put your nose on the ground and your ass in the air and promise to support public schools so the educators can all keep going on their Alaskan cruises and Caribbean vacations? You did, didn’t you, Barack? Otherwise, why would you condemn the children of all these black Americans who are voting for you because you’re one of them, to a life of poverty or crime because during those years when they were alive to learning, they weren’t in a place where it was going on. They were in a holding pen.

Shame on you Barack, and all the rest of you hypocrites. Put your money where your mouth is. If you say these people deserve a chance at life, give them back the money that’s supposed to get it for them. How many of you are teachers? Raise your hands. I thought so. There are more and more of you all the time. It’s a lucrative profession. Gee. You know? If a lot of kids left public school, they wouldn’t need so many teachers. You could maybe lose your job if you teach in a public school, which most of you do. Sure, you could get a job in one of the charter schools or new private schools that would spring up to take care of the refugees, but hey, they wouldn’t pay nearly as much; it would be ridiculous. You’d have to adjust your lifestyle down to where the rest of the peons live. Ouch. That wouldn’t be good. We don’t want that to happen to you, do we?

So listen. Let’s not let these people out. Let’s say they would be damaging the public school (i.e. my cushy job) if they took that money away from it. How could it support itself? Maintain its buildings? Pay its staff? Well, well, well, if that isn’t the same damn thing those gall-darn plantation owners said. How the hell do you expect me to maintain this huge plant without slaves?

We freed the slaves, baby. And we can free the kids. But for some reason, you’re not interested this time around. You have to wonder if you would have been interested the first time, had you been used to darkies making your lifestyle possible. That’s what you’re asking for. Keep them locked up. They’re needed for your boondoggle.

“Let my people go!” How about that for a slogan, Senator Obama … Sir.