The State of the Union Address—Point one destroy the dream of equality

Last night was the last of President George W. Bush's state of the Union addresses. The last of something can be a thing to cheer about. I must admit that I will not be sad to see someone else do the State of the Union address next year.

President Bush had one very disturbing request last night. He wants Pell Grants for K-12 students so children can afford to attend private schools. Our country is based on the premise of public education for all children. The idea is that with a good education anyone can achieve great things in their lives. By taking money away for the public school system and putting it into private schools, we would deprive the public schools of the needed funds to educate all of our children. Private schools charge very high tuition fees for each student and don't have a central administration therefore it cost more to educate one child in a private setting. It would be unwise for us to spend money on private education when we already have a public system in place. I would love to see us pay public educators the same salaries as private schools pay their educators for doing the same jobs. We might just attract younger and more skilled individuals if we could afford to pay them the same salaries as private educators received. The truth of the matter is that as long as we want to provide a good education for all of our children we will never be able to afford a great education for each and every one of our children. The country is unwilling or unable to spend the money to make that dream a reality. I know that a few people out there don't have children of their own and don't see a reason to spend money on education at all. If we allow the Bush administration to dismantle public education then we allow them to destroy the dream of equality for all Americans because without public education a growing number of people would no be able to afford to send their children to school. We have Pell grants for Higher Education and just look how many people still can't afford to attend college in this country. Do we really want to do that to our children? Do we really want to do that to our country? Without a well educated workforce it would not be long before other countries that are willing to spend the money on education would moved ahead of us in the world's free market place. Exactly what are we, the American people, willing to give up to provided a private education to a limited number of children in this country?