Michelle Obama: Teachers Are Key to a Successful Economy

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This writing of our First Lady is absolutely false ... The nation's public schools are filled with chaos, children of parents who don't care about their kid's education or behavior and classrooms which are without order, respect and in which there simply cannot be anything near a "learning atmosphere" ... Public Schools (except for about 10%)are a public disgrace and a huge failure of public policy where the nation's children are robbed of any chance of an education which has value by administrations which are afraid and in which there is no discipline ... nearly all "public school issues" would disappear immediately and the test results in every school would improve with a return of discipline to the classroom.
The private schools which educate Presidential Children do not have the same problems ....
Please go to a public school grades 9 - 12 and enjoy the circus ... just stand outside the classroom and listen .... every person from the gardeners to the teachers know which classes and children are in complete chaos and in which a daily theft of future success takes place.

Chaffin of CA 1:44PM October 15, 2009

I wish my children could go the the private school you and your husband send them to. Throwing more money at an incompetent system does noting but waste taxpayer dollars. The USA is already in the top 3 of educational spending per capita, but our public school children perform at the bottom.
The federal government should give middle-class taxpayers a break. let us deduct private school tuition from our income taxes, or give us vouchers. I want my little girls to get the same chances as your Ms Obama.

Jason A of TX 1:42PM October 15, 2009

MO & BO are so narcisitic they think we care about them. While they continue to break down America the rest of the world watches thinking thet they could not have done a better job

John smith of MN 1:42PM October 15, 2009

When I was 18 and a freshman in college, I had a close friend my same age who lived off campus in a mobile home with two roommates during a summer term.
One of the roommates was a 27-year-old male small-town principal with a masters degree, who was working summers on a doctorate so he could qualify to move up the administrative pay scale.
You know what he spent his summer doing? Since he was off at an out-of-his-local-town university, he spent his summer "doing" 18-year-old freshman girls at the mobile home. At least a half a dozen of them. My friend and I literally saw and overheard this taking place with regularity.
How would you like to be one of the "quality" local teachers assigned by some clueless political school board to work for a jerk like that? It happens more than you think.

Muser of NM 1:41PM October 15, 2009

If you want children to learn... I mean, really learn, then stop paying teachers based on tenure and start paying based on performance. Stop allowing teachers to double-dip by receiving pensions and salaries at the same time. Stop the Deferred Retirement Option Program that is raping the taxpayers. Stop teaching socialism, anti-capitalism, moral relativism and false notions of global warming.
Start focusing on individual responsibility, winning and losing, success, hard-work, technology, moral absolutes, ethics, integrity, math, reading, basic communication skills, economics, balancing a checkbook, civics, national pride, English!
This is pure pablum by the First Lady and she is nothing but a mouthpiece for the Public Sector that keeps growing, voting for her husband, and stealing from the Private Sector.
Here's an idea, teach children about Free Enterprise since after all, that is what built our nation and provides the very textbooks they read from.
And, then, teach the children how to vote uninspiring, uneducated, unworthy politicians out of office.

Fashionpop Entertainment of FL 1:40PM October 15, 2009

That Michelle Obama is a nitwit is no great surprise -- anyone who listened to this angry, pampered, affirmative-action millionaire race-victim complain about the cost of fruit "at the fruit market" during the campaign already knows this.
But she seems fairly typical of the modern version of First Ladies. Laura Bush, who seemed a gracious and modest woman generally, took as her pet "First Lady Cause" hunger in the U.S., making claims about the plight of American children that were obviously absurd and easily documented to be so.
Hillary Clinton was certifiably crazy, as her subsequent Presidential campaign clearly demonstrated. Hopefully the emotional trauma of that death-defying flight amid hellish anti-aircraft fire in Boznia will fade with time. Meanwhile, speak softly near the Secretary and make no quick movements.
I recommend that First Ladies stay inside the White House Bubble that obviously clouds their thinking, since national security prevents them from being treated like normal humans.

Jerome of IL 1:38PM October 15, 2009

check out the facts on how much has been spent on education since 1990: 90-91 248B, 91-92 261B, 92-93 274B, 93-94 287B, 94-95 302B, 95-96 318B, 96-97 339B, 97-98 361B, 98-99 384B, 99-00 411B, 00-01 442B, 01-02 467B, 02-03 490B, 03-04 514B, 04-05 536B. Those are BILLION dollar increments year over year, during dem years and republican years..and we have to cut arts in school? BTW..this information is provided directly from US Dept. of Education at Ed.gov. Let's hold all politicians accountable and the department of education. Obviously they haven't a clue how to budget properly. Here's a great link to some charts that should blow your mind in terms of what has been spent (and collected via taxes) on education. http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/10facts/edlite-chart.html

Jimmy Smith of VA 1:38PM October 15, 2009

A successful economy is based upon creation of competitive goods and services. In turn there is a need for trained employees and finally teachers who have trained employees. A person who says it starts with teachers is the same person who thinks milk comes from the grocery store.

Jeff D of CO 1:37PM October 15, 2009

Teachers are the key to a "succcessful economy"? What planet is this hadrian on? I agree with Derrick of Illinois !

Ann of WA 1:37PM October 15, 2009

Mrs. Obama should be asked why her husband refused to allow 1,700 DC schoolchildren to continue to receive Vouchers to leave the abominable DC public school system.
President Obama's two children go to a private school, but he refuses to give other black children the opportunity of a good education by sending them "back" to the DC swamp called a public school system.
Today in the NYPost, Diane Ravitch points out how school administrators and teachers heve been "gaming the system" and lying about improved performance of children in the public school system. The results are shameful: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/ny_testing_mess_xlGmMitC04B4VHD2YDi5CM
Michelle Obama, much like her husband, talks the talk, but does NOTHNG to insure that Public School Teachers' Unions are put on notice, perform or allow alternative Schools. The NEA and State Teachers Unions are the problem not a solution to the DECLINE in our educational system.

John Greene of NJ 1:36PM October 15, 2009