He’s serious, isn’t he?
I caught the last half of The Colbert Report last night, and he had on the congressman from Georgia’s eighth district (Lynn Westmoreland, I believe). One of the first things he said was that the eighth was “a good conservative district” and “a good family district.” Okay, so I was already prepared for some humorous responses to Stephen’s questions. But when Stephen asked what could be cut to help ease the deficit and the congressman said, in either complete seriousness or it was the best acting I’ve ever seen, the department of education, I was shocked. Contrast that to lovely Dennis Kucinich, who sadly will probably never get most of his ideas passed let alone become president, who supports tuition-free higher education for kids in state schools. Can you even imagine free college? Wow.
And just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, Stephen brought up the congressman’s efforts to have the Ten Commandments put up in the House building and in the Senate. Stephen asked if he could think of any better place than a public building to put up the Ten Commandments (even my little brother thought immediately of a church), but the congressman said no, they were good things for people to see. And yet as important as they are to him, the congressman only managed to name three. As much as I’ve tried to forget my Christian upbringing, I still remember more than that: don’t take the lord’s name in vain, have no other gods, keep the sabbath holy, honor parents, don’t covent neighbor’s wife (and this excludes the three he named: don’t steal, don’t kill, don’t lie—I guess that counts as not bearing false witness).
I think I heard more people laugh during this “Better Know a District” than I have for almost anything else on The Colbert Report. I kind of hope that that congressman and his family weren’t watching last night.
June 15th, 2006 at 10:57am
Oh, I will have to catch that one this afternoon or tonight. Do you think the congressman and his family would manage to catch on to the ridicule if they did watch?
Though I don’t know much about Kunich’s plan, it is in fact possible to implement free state education on a state basis, as I know of a few states with programs to fund tuition to in-state schools. In fact, I wouldn’t be suprised if free college were already available to you at some level, but it wouldn’t be NYU or Bryn Mawr.
June 15th, 2006 at 11:12am
Yes, it was a good show. I’m not sure that they would understand, but they’d at least hear the people laughing at him.
I would believe that. I was a little disappointed when I saw that he was only pushing for free state colleges; it would be wonderful if private colleges could be free, too.
June 15th, 2006 at 7:17pm
Yeah, but I don’t know if they’d really be private colleges if they were state-funded, like how improving the quality of public elementary and secondary schools is more relevant than offering free admission to private schools. Or maybe you just meant that jokingly; I certainly wouldn’t mind either if I could go to Barnard for no tuition.
June 16th, 2006 at 11:36am
Actually, cutting talk of cutting the Department of Education has been around for quite awhile and has at least a little merit considering that it is not entirely useful given that school curriculums are decided by the state (and not by the federal government, thus essentially removing any use the Department of Education). However, I also think cutting the department would probably be bad on a symbolic level.
June 16th, 2006 at 12:06pm
Entirely free education is really what I’d be going for, Christina. : )
Even if the states get to decide curricula, it helps to have some funding from the federal government, and the Department of Education does provide some scholarship money for college students. Is the percentage of the federal budget allotted to education even significant? I thought I heard somewhere recently that it was some rather small number, but I can’t seem to find that again. You’re right, Dan. It would show that our government cares more about war and oil than about educating its citizens.
June 16th, 2006 at 12:44pm
The Republican Party seems to be going in the direction of complete privatization of schools, which is a phenomenally bad idea. Private school students get lower scores on standardized tests than public school students (on average). In addition, if Republican support of higher education is any indicator, there won’t be anywhere near enough funding for poor kids to go to private schools. Our education system is having enough problems as is.
July 18th, 2006 at 4:59pm
Update again!!