That's Not How It Works

That's not how it works - that's not how any of this works!

Apparently, the Governor of Kentucky is suffering from a serious misunderstanding of the American education system and made the mistake of verbalizing some of his misunderstandings this past week. The short version is that teachers in the state were protesting for a serious increase in funding for education. As a result, many schools were closed for a day. The Governor took this as an opportunity to get in front of some cameras and blame teachers for every child that was assaulted, exposed to drugs or in any other way harmed during the time he or she would otherwise have been in school that day.

I'm honestly not sure how I'd go about responding to the subject if I were there in person. I mean, there's so many different directions from which to approach that:

1. Schools should be safe for kids, but we don't send them there for the purpose of keeping them safe.

2. It is a PARENT'S job to ensure a safe home and social life for his or her child. Yes, teachers and schools need to protect kids while they are engaged in mandatory or extra-curricular school time, but once they leave they are the responsibility of their families. Period.

3. Students don't attend school on weekends, so whatever harm you think they're coming to on a day from school they're already exposed to... every week. Is that somehow the school's fault, too?

4. If you actually believe that schools are desperately needed safe havens for students, the logical response is not to gripe about them wanting more money - it's to throw buckets of money at them so that they are equipped to actually serve that function.

5. If you think kids are at that much risk every minute they're not at school, shouldn't your public policies and budget reflect that? Oodles of money to law enforcement, child protective services, etc? Seriously, it's a bad plan to open your mouth about ideas that made you look EVEN WORSE at your job than you already do.

All I can say is that I sincerely hope the people of Kentucky pick a different Governor when this idiot's term is up!!