Frosty Wooldridge -- America's Growing Educational & Job Nightmare

AMERICA�S GROWING EDUCATIONAL AND JOB NIGHTMARE

By Frosty Wooldridge
November 11, 2005
NewsWithViews.com

Most Americans over 40 witnessed the dumbing down of our schools in the 70s 80s, 90s and into this century. As a teacher, I was �encouraged� to pass minority students who did not work for excellence nor did they study toward academic success. Students quickly learned they didn�t have to study for learning or passing grades. Thus, they coasted from grade school without effort and finished high school with spurious diplomas. Recently, Lou Dobbs of CNN, presented Americans with some disturbing facts on our schools.

What erodes America�s foundation?

Fifty percent of black and Hispanic teenagers do not graduate from high school. The United States does not stand in the top ten industrialized nations of high school graduation rates. Robert Reich, former labor secretary, said, �Our children are not going to do as well as we are doing because they won�t be able to command decent paying jobs. And that�s the first time in many years since the Depression.�

The facts show American students rank 28th in math while trailing China, Finland and Korea. America is no longer the most college educated nation in the world. Eric Hanushek, Hoover Institution, Stanford said, �I think it tells us something about the long-run prospects if we don�t in fact take a new tact and improve our schools. Other countries are pushing very hard at developing their human resources and skills of their populations.�

According to the Dobbs� report, 37 million people live in poverty. Functional illiteracy affects over 35 million Americans. One in five American children lives below the poverty level. Each year, 1.5 million unwed women give birth.

What are the inevitable results? The American Dream degrades to lower and lower expectations. Wages stagnant, mortgage defaults rise, 47 million Americans lack health insurance. Frustration and crime accelerate.

What�s causing the demise of our educational systems? Four aspects of our Constitution erode every single day of the year because of massive, unrelenting legal and illegal immigration. What does it take to run a successful American society? First, it takes a highly educated populace. Two, everyone must buy into and adhere to a similar moral code. Third, each citizen must appreciate and abide by the same ethical system and finally, a single language is imperative to discuss, debate and evolve solutions for the common good. We continue losing all aspects with massive immigration from Third World countries.

America is a constitutional republic invented by very intelligent men such as Hamilton, Madison, Adams and Jefferson! However, it takes a highly educated public to advance that brilliant piece of governance. We�re losing that ability on all fronts.

A prime example stems from a report by the Rocky Mountain News, May 16, 2005, �What Happened?� www.rockymountainnews.com ; In 1999, 5,663 students enrolled in Denver Public Schools. In 2005, only 1,884 graduated from high school. That studied showed more than 65 percent flunked out or dropped out. What caused such a massive failure rate? The report showed that 30,000 illegal alien kids attended school with little to no ability to speak English. Their parents suffered functional illiteracy in English and Spanish. Additionally, the classroom experience suffered such degradation that one in five teachers quit or transferred out of DPS system every nine month cycle.

With 1.3 million illegal alien children in schools across America and hundreds of thousands of �anchor babies� born to illegal mothers who cannot and do not speak English, it�s little wonder America classrooms suffer similar problems across the country.

Writer Vicky Davis brings this national educational and job nightmare to a burning focal point when she said, �Assume the following are true: America has a population of about 300 million people. Minimum wage is between $5.00 and $7.00 per hour. A computer programmer makes an average salary of about $60,000 per year.

Davis declares facts about overpopulated countries like India and China. She knocks you upside the head with the following realities facing American workers:

�China has about 1.3 billion people,� she said. �A common wage for a manufacturing job is about 50 cents per hour. India has over 1.1 billion people. A computer programmer makes between $7,000 and $10,000 per year.�

Question 1: If you were a corporation, where would you locate to ensure the highest profits assuming that there are no barriers to re-importation of your products and services back into the U.S.? Answer: China or India.

Question 2: Will more education for America�s children solve the problem of the wage differential between China, India and the United States? If so, explain how. Answer: Frightening!

Question 3: Consider the following as one option for solving the problem of the wage differential: Encourage massive immigration of foreign workers - labor and professional into America so that the cost of labor decreases by simple supply and demand rules. How many people would the United States have to import to equalize wages between China, India and the United States? Answer: You don�t want to know because you�ll get sick to your stomach.

Bonus A How many new people would need to be added to the U.S. population to equalize wages between China, India and the United States?

Bonus B What would that do to the standard of living in the United States?

Bonus C What would be the impact on American Workers?

Bonus D What would happen to American culture and values?

Question 4: Assuming that more education won�t solve the problem and the selected remedy is to lower wages in the United States to match those of India and China, consider the following and answer the questions:

a. Explain the impact of the increased population on our natural resources.

b. Explain the impact of the increased population on our infrastructure.

Question 5: One argument used to justify free trade with China is that American consumers reap the benefits of being able to buy cheaper products produced by the Chinese. Considering that American workers are also American consumers, explain how cheaper products are a benefit to the consumer if the consumer must work for wages that are competitive with the Chinese and Indians and they must pay for the increased infrastructure costs and loss of natural resources to accommodate the increased population.

Question 6: Who benefits most from �Free Trade� and the global economy?

Question 7: Define the vision you have for the future of America and for America�s children. Is this vision possible if the U.S. policy is �Free Trade� and competition in the global economy?�

With Davis� sobering pop quiz, how do you think America�s Middle Class will survive the free trade onslaught with the continuing development of a highly uneducated population?

Short answer: It won�t. It will no longer remain the Middle Class. It will become the lower class.

Why? We don�t have enough educated people willing to take action to stop insourcing, offshoring, outsourcing and downgrading of American jobs.

Who did this? Look to the president of the United States and Congress.

Last week, senators Teddy Kennedy and Specter promoted Senate Bill 1932 bringing another 350,000 H-1B visas foreign workers into the USA with green cards to work American jobs. That�s on top of the already 1.1 million legal immigrants they approve annually. And, that�s on top of the 1.0 million H-1B, H-2B and L-1 visas ALREADY HERE! Bush did not raise a finger to stop last week�s addition of another 350,000 that insanity. He must get a kick out of seeing Americans lose their jobs to foreigners!

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In the meantime, even Democratic Senator Byrd of West Virginia got so sick of the 350,000 H-1B visas that he offered an amendment to strip the bill of the visas. Your Senate voted to delete Byrd�s amendment and passed the 350,000 H-1B visas by 84 to 14 votes. Your own senators voted to screw 350,000 American workers out of a job.

It leads me to the following quote by Mark Twain, ��Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.�

Frosty Wooldridge possesses a unique view of the world, cultures and families in that he has bicycled around the globe 100,000 miles, on six continents in the past 26 years.

He has written hundreds of articles (regularly) for 17 national and 2 international magazines. He has had hundreds of editorials published in top national newspapers including the Rocky Mountain News, Denver Post, Albany Herald and Christian Science Monitor.

His first book, "HANDBOOK FOR TOURING BICYCLISTS" by Falcon Press is available nationwide. His second book "STRIKE THREE! TAKE YOUR BASE" by the Brookfield Reader published in January 2002. His bicycle books include "BICYCLING AROUND THE WORLD."

His latest book. �IMMIGRATION�S UNARMED INVASION�DEADLY CONSEQUENCES.�

Frosty Wooldridge has guest lectured at Cornell University, teaching creative writing workshops, magazine writing at Michigan State University, and has presented environmental science lectures at the University of Colorado, University of Denver and Regis University. He also lectures on "Religion and Ethics" at Front Range College in Colorado.