Tuesday, September 08, 2009

The government velvet glove

This is the kind of reason why many parents are suspicious when the government wants to "provide" more services. Brigette Russell reports in They’re Uncle Sam’s kids now — he paid for them:

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When the news came that Santa Fe’s public schools would get some of the federal stimulus bounty being handed out by a benevolent Democratic Congress and president, few suspected that some of that federal pork would turn rancid.
One of the things the school district did with the federal largesse was to fund an after-school program at seven Santa Fe schools, including E.J. Martinez elementary. First, grateful parents felt the soothing touch of Uncle Sam’s velvet glove. Only when it was too late did they feel the
iron fist inside:
Parents of students who registered for the after-school program at E.J. Martinez Elementary School were told last week that they would not be allowed to pick up their children until 5:30 p.m., even if they themselves get off work earlier than that.
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So the government wants to help working parents. It provides an after-school program, but if the parents have some free time and want to spend it with their children, the government says tough, go away.

Most children want to spend time with their parents. The government should be supporting the parents, not pushing them off to the side.

(Hat tip: PalmTree Pundit)


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Technorati tags: children, education, government schools, children, public school, public education

2 comments:

Michelle said...

That is absolutely ridiculous. Whenever it comes to government, one should also look for the wolf wearing Grandma's clothing.

Henry Cate said...

Yeah, I'm still kind of amazed that they are giving the parents such a bad time about wanting to spend time with their own children.