Why not educate the 98%?

I recently heard that my state eliminated the Common Core.  We couldn't have our third graders feeling like failures.  We couldn't let those states that believed in stupid stuff like science and math and literature that was full of heresy and bad words have a negative impact on our precious little children.  Our State Superintendent sided with sending more of the state budget to corporate welfare than raising our education budget.  The good news is--we might still be better off than Texas.

But what is going on in this nation, and other nations that have suddenly set their goals not at pulling the people up but at stopping the progress of the majority.  We have seen such things before.  When slavery was legal, many areas made it a crime to teach a slave to read or write.  And there is a huge push right now in which women of certain fundamentalist religions are killed for trying to get an education. 

A person that is not allowed to learn what is needed to compete with the rest of the community is at an acute disadvantage.  They are set up to be used, overworked for little or no compensation, unvalued and ignored.  

When Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nigeria, or any of those other countries that seem so foreign and backward are in the news for gang raping school girls or trafficking them or kidnapping them or beating them for speaking up for their need to be educated, I'm appalled, incensed even.  But not totally shocked.  Not frightened.  It sounds like more of the same from places like that. No one has ever called those countries free or claimed they were fighters for equality and righteousness.

But then I look at my home, home of the leader of the chief climate-change denier.  Home of the same use of  a fundamentalist religion to control and keep down those that most need education, healthcare and opportunities.  Where are our role models?   Our Governor turned down the Medicaid that would have allowed so many of our population to have healthcare. We are ranked 46th in terms of health. Our medicaid is limited to the disabled, children living in poverty and pregnant women.  Our state doesn't like birth control, sex education, HIV education, or Planned parenthood.  Our state is 4th in teen pregnancy.  We are 39th in education.  22.2% of our students earn a bachelors degree, 7% go on for a graduate degree. Our per capita income is 30,334$ annually--ranking us 47th in the nation.  We are ranked 11th on poverty with over 15 percent living below that threshold.  We are ranked 17th in firearms deaths.  That leads this state to the great position of 43rd best place to live.

So what are our legislatures currently working on?

• Three pro-gun bills have passed in 2014.
• A bill modelled after the Texas bill restricting abortion is in progress.
• Decrease in monies to the Arts and Humanities.
• Legalizing Medical Marijuana( that one will never get anywhere)
• Increasing funding to tourism.poverty and violence is always a big tourist attraction)
• And decreasing the requirements for our students education.  (can we compete when our students have no standards to meet at all?)

What does Oklahoma have?

We have 5 billionaires worth a total of at least 34.8 billion:

Guess what industry doesn't like climate change?

Guess where the tax breaks for businesses were going?

Harold Hamm

Worldwide Rank: 90
Net Worth: $12.4 Billion
Source of Wealth: Oil & Gas

George Kaiser

Worldwide Rank: 109
Net Worth: $10 Billion 
Source of Wealth: Oil & Gas/Banking

David Green

Worldwide Rank: 276
Net Worth: $5 Billion
Source of Wealth: Hobby Lobby

Lynn Schusterman

Worldwide Rank: 384
Net Worth: $3.8 Billion
Source of Wealth: Oil & Gas/Investments

Tom & Judy Love

Worldwide Rank: 384
Net Worth: $3.6 Billion
Source of Wealth: Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores

These 5 individuals are not the problem.  The problem is our elected officials that can't see past the rich people telling them what to do.  When a group of fanatics steal school girls because they don't like educated women, we know who the bad guys are.  Why can't we see that stealing our own childrens educations and futures makes us the bad guys?  Tax the rich at a rate at least similar to the taxes being hefted onto the heads of those that struggle to keep their kids in peanut butter sandwiches.  Look at the statistics, if we are already heading for worst, don't do something stupid that speeds us toward the bottom.  We don't need less education, less healthcare, less birth control.  We don't need more science denial and environmental destruction.  Maybe the only hope this state has is if those rich guys profiting off our ignorance decide to do what they know is right.  Does that ever happen?