Note to Texas legislators: what about the commandment not to bear false witness? If you don't want to separate church and state, could you at least agree to separate truth and falsehood?
Thomas Jefferson, until this year, was revered in American history textbooks as the Founding Father who wrote the Declaration of Independence. His document is the reason we celebrate the fourth of July as this country's independence day. This is a holiday to remind Americans about the history and significance of that document.
But earlier this year, Christian conservative members of the Texas Board of Education decided to push for a revision of our history by downplaying Jefferson's influence in the founding of our nation. Why? Because the notion of the "separation of church and state" has been traced to him. These religious rightists believe this country was founded as a Christian nation and decided to make their point by revising public school text books. The effect of this kind of revision of American history would be to celebrate the founding of this country as a Christian event rather than the secular event it always has been...
If we want an educated populace, we should make sure kids can get to school. I think bus passes would be more worthwhile than many of the textbooks that schools are forced by law to pay for. It's a boondoggle for the textbook companies, and often the textbooks are not used by teachers. I remember that I used to have one expensive social studies text for every two or three students. This was the bizarre legal requirement that schools had to fulfill. My kids had trouble reading the books even when they could see the print. Imagine how impossible it was for them to read when they were craning their necks to see a book that was placed halfway between their desk and the desk next to them. Those books cost a lot of money and were almost useless.
In the 1960s I used to walk to San Diego High School. It was a lovely walk with no homeless people on the bridge and Victorian homes instead of high rises. Not long ago I was driving on the ramp to highway 94 East and I noticed a high rise parking structure near the school. The only kind of building that is more menacing than that is a prison.
...Osuna doesn't own a bike or car. His only option is to take the San Diego Trolley or bus. But he can't afford a pass.
And Osuna is not alone. Hundreds of students at San Diego High School do not have a cheap, safe and reliable way to get to school. The problem is so bad that many teens are chronically tardy. Others skip school all together.
San Diego High School is surrounded by high-rises, freeways and homeless people...
[Conseulo] Manriquez recalls how one of her students was mugged while walking to school...
Manriquez decided to establish a bus pass scholarship for about 80 of her students... A few weeks later, she was flooded with applications...The majority of her students come from low-income families and could not afford a monthly transit pass. Transit passes cost students $36 every month. A bus pass scholarship for half a year saves them more than $200...
Daniel Gilbreth is transportation manager for for the school district...“It would just be too costly,” Gilbreth said...
But Manriquez believes the district's priorities are misplaced. She says it's even more costly to deny a child transportation because it contributes to low-attendance and high dropout rates...
