No matter your political persuasion, what follows is a perfect example of the disaster this nation has become. An English teacher explains one area that looms large over California’s educational crisis with the kind of specifics that go unnoticed by those removed from it. Like an undetected cancer, it eats away at the heart of America while the majority sit idle in a fog of self-interest. A nation of narcissists deserves what it gets if this is the best we can do.
And if you are tempted to conclude that this is California’s problem, think again. This is the catastrophic result of government run amok with spending your tax dollars because they can. The state of California is simply the prime example of this lunacy as 900 teachers just got laid off from the Los Angeles Unified School District. The district is $650,000 over its annual budget. Chump change in relation to the monumental federal deficit, of course, but symptomatic of how far removed the politicians and their lives of wealth and privilege really are from the results of their incompetence.
The teacher’s slightly edited text follows:
As you listen to the news about the student protests over illegal immigration, there are some things that you should be aware of. I am in charge of the English-as-a-second-language department at a large southern California high school which is designated a Title 1 school, meaning that its students average lower socioeconomic and income levels. Most of the schools you are hearing about, South Gate High, Bell Gardens, Huntington Park, etc., where these students are protesting are also Title 1 schools.
Our tax dollars at work: Title 1 schools are on the free breakfast and free lunch program. When I say free breakfast, I’m not talking a glass of milk and roll — but a full breakfast and cereal bar with fruits and juices that would make a Marriott proud. The waste of this food is monumental, with trays and trays of it being dumped in the trash uneaten.
Our tax dollars at work: I estimate that well over 50% of these students are obese or at least moderately overweight. About 75% or more have cell phones. The school also provides day care centers for the unwed teenage pregnant girls (some as young as 13) so they can attend class without the inconvenience of having to arrange for babysitters or having family watch their kids.
Our tax dollars at work: I was ordered to spend $700,000 on my department or risk losing funding for the upcoming year even though there was little need for anything. My budget was already substantial. I ended up buying new computers for the computer learning center, half of which, one month later, have been carved with graffiti by the appreciative students who obviously feel humbled and grateful to have a free education in America.
Our tax dollars at work: I have had to intervene several times for young and substitute teachers whose classes consist of many illegal immigrant students here in the country less than 3 months, and who raised so much hell with the female teachers, calling them “Putas” (whores) and throwing things, that the teachers were in tears. Free medical, free education, free food, day care, etc, etc, etc. Is it any wonder they feel entitled not only to be in this country but to demand rights, privileges and entitlements?
Our tax dollars at work: To those who want to point out how much these illegal immigrants contribute to our society because they like their gardener and housekeeper and they like to pay less for tomatoes, I say spend some time in the real world of illegal immigration and see the true costs. Higher insurance, medical facilities closing, higher medical costs, more crime, lower standards of education in our schools, overcrowding, new diseases etc., etc, etc. For me, I’ll pay more for tomatoes.
Americans, we need to wake up. The guest worker program will be a disaster because we won’t have the guts to enforce it. Does anyone in their right mind really think they will voluntarily leave and return? It does, however, have everything to do with a third-world culture that does not value education, that accepts children getting pregnant and dropping out of school by 15 and that refuses to assimilate, and an American culture that has become so weak and worried about “political correctness” that we don’t have the will to do anything about it.
Cheap labor? Isn’t that what the whole immigration issue is about? Businesses don’t want to pay a decent wage. Consumers don’t want expensive produce. Government will tell you Americans don’t want the jobs.
But the bottom line is that cheap labor is a myth, a farce, and a lie. There is no such thing as cheap labor. For a close-up view of our tax dollars at work, let’s consider an example:
An illegal immigrant with a wife and five children takes a job for $5.00 or 6.00/hour. At that wage, with six dependents, he pays no income tax, yet at the end of the year, if he files an income tax return, he gets an “earned income credit” of up to $3,200 free.
He qualifies for Section 8 housing and subsidized rent.
He qualifies for food stamps.
He qualifies for free (no deductible, no co-pay) health care.
His children get free breakfasts and lunches at school.
He requires bilingual teachers and books.
He qualifies for relief from high energy bills.
If he is aged, blind or disabled, he qualifies for SSI without having contributed one thin dime to it.
Once qualified for SSI, he and his family can qualify for Medicare. All of this is at our taxpayer’s expense.
He doesn’t worry about car insurance, life insurance, or homeowners insurance.
Taxpayers provide Spanish language signs, bulletins and printed material.
He and his family receive the equivalent of $20.00 to $30.00/hour in benefits.
Working Americans are lucky to take home $5.00 or $6.00/hour after paying their bills and his.
The American taxpayers also pay for increased crime, graffiti and trash clean-up. Have you seen how they “decorate” the buildings in their neighborhoods?
Cheap labor? Yeah, right. Wake up people!
If this makes your blood boil, as it did mine, forward this to everyone you know including your Congressmen and Senators.
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