Wednesday, March 18, 2009 | By: Tonya Keitt Kalule

When do you fight, how do you fight?

There are so many injustices in this world until it is hard to know where to start. One would think that you would start in your own backyard, and I have a few issues there that I could definitely address and they would benefit many others as well. Then there are those injustices, like cut back in education that are taking place in California, that are just unthinkable. So where do you start? Yes you can take on a couple of things at a time, but then there is the time required and the research necessary to start to address these issues. Yes I could probably figure out where to start but where do I find the time to start.
Collectively, the average working person was able to override the political machine and elect a man to the highest office in this country, who was not the forerunner. This makes me believe that we can do anything together. We need to continue this fight because President Obama is not going to make this all happen alone, and he is not going to be able to do all through the Executive Office. As he has said many times, we need to get together and continue to fight, continue to make our voices and desires heard.
Today I was able to watch the town hall meeting that President Obama held in Costa Mesa, California, and behold, there was a teacher in the audience to ask the necessary questions in reference to the cutbacks in education. She has been teaching for over 20 years and received a pink slip last week. She also told of another teacher in the same district, an Urban district, who had received the Teacher of the Year Award and was also given a pink slip. Can anyone see the problem here. I was under the impression from watching the news last week when there were a number of teachers gathering with picket signs in various parts of Los Angeles that it was mostly the newer teachers that were receiving these pink slips, not that this is acceptable, but veteran teachers. This is something that just tells me that our education system is just business as usual. The business of getting rid of the teachers that are making the higher salaries and hiring newer teachers at a much lower rate. I do believe that our education systems need fresh ideas and change, but the the teacher of the year. She is obviously doing something right. President Obama stated that most of the money in the stimulus package was for retaining teachers, as well as upgrading the infrastructure, but most was for retention. This particular teacher that addressed President Obama also expressed that the average number of students in a classroom was 36 to 44 students. It is impossible for one teacher to teach that many students when the students have various skill levels. There needs to be a major overhaul of the education system because it is obviously not working and has not worked for at least 25 or more years. This needs immediate attention just like the economy and the health care system in this country.

Now where and when do we start to make enough noise about our education system, how it is effecting our future and our present. How we are presenting another generation of people that are not going to be equipped to run this country, keeps it's promises, and propel it into the next century.

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