The "New" Administration

Seems like the teachers union is going to be Piossed! Barack Obama, in his infinite wisdom (sarcasm intended) has chosen to take them on in a sense. I read the article on yahoo.com, so I'm not real sure of it's authenticity or relevance, but Obama wants to institue merit pay for teachers who perform better than other teachers, or at least that's what I get from the article.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090310/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_education

What pisses me off most, is that the people who make these rules and come up with ideas to "improve" education have, most likely, never ever spent a day in a friggin classroom! WTF??? They don't seem to understand that it isn't the teacher who doesn't do their job. As a teacher, I can only do so much to motivate a child to do better. If that child doesn't have support at home where they are doing their homework and studying, what else can I do. Especially when I have to think about 25-30 kids per class at a time. I'm a secondary education teacher, and I will tell you that people in my position usually have a total of like 120 kids per year. So I'm supposed to make sure that each of these kids is performing above and beyond their potential just so that I can get the extra five grand that I should be getting anyway? Again, WTF????

Throwing money at a problem isn't going to solve it. The sneaky teachers will just find a way to skew results and make it look like their kids are doing better. The teachers that try their hardest but can't be sucessful for whatever reason are going to suffer. Money is not the answer! God! IT is soooo frustrating to see this happening in my lifetime. WE put all this money into programs like NASA ( 1 Billion granted to them from the stimulus package; that's right B-illion) who are already OVERBUDGET! I'd like to see Mars as much as the next person, but when our kids are failing school, our middle class is being laid off and more and more people are having to rely on food banks and charities it is time to reevaluate our quest for science and technology.

It seems like this administration's priorities are not in the right place. WE as a country need to focus on getting ourselves right again before we can move forward. Maybe that is too Republican in thinking, but what is a discovery on Mars going to do for us when we can't feed our people? What good will a new museum be if no one can afford to visit it because they dont' have the money for the gas to go to it? Let's right the economy, let's get people feeling more comfortable about their jobs and their money, then worry where to put the next museum to string.