By David J. Hudson, WeMustChange.org

We have major problems in this country and leaders who seem uninterested in addressing them. Those problems are education, pay equity, jobs, healthcare, clean energy, campaign finance reform, term limits for politicians and a host of others but for the sake of time I will address the educational priorities in this country.
After the major financial crisis on Wall Street that has reverberated around the country affecting millions of people in some form or another; we have yet to see financial reform. The very money that was given to the big banks and other firms are now being used to fight financial reform. Lost in all of this is the message we send our children about honesty, greed, doing what’s right, respect and love for one another. The message that “We are our brother’s keeper,” is absent in the actions and behavior of our leaders.

Needless to say, we now have local school boards who are laying off teachers and floating around the idea of shortening the number of days our children attend school; along with colleges looking to hike up tuition rates to make up for budget shortfalls. Hasn’t the students of these schools and colleges suffered enough?

We would rather pay college football coaches millions of dollars a year to coach football than to invest money into career services at our universities that would give graduates a good chance of securing a job. A career that would give them an opportunity to pay back the high costs of student loans. Instead of cutting back on outrageous salaries, we instead seek to increase rates to already inflated tuition costs.
I wonder how many graduates out there with college degrees, yet unemployed and still responsible for paying back their student loan? Why shouldn’t the colleges and universities be responsible for at least securing students their first job?

Our priorities are out of order and the only people who suffer are those who had nothing to do with the problem in the first place. The actions of a few have caused heartache and pain to millions of Americans.

Our colleges and universities should be held responsible for lackluster performance in their career services departments. We have allowed them to roam freely for far too long without any accountability. If a student pays from sixty to over hundred thousand to attend college, that college or university should be required to make every effort in assisting that graduate in finding a job. And a way to do that is to cut the salaries of coaches, presidents and senior administrators and shift that money to the career services department.

We need a paradigm shift in our thinking concerning how we educate our children or face a future much worse than what we are currently experiencing. With an educated workforce and citizenry, the public would be more enlightened and able to hold our political leaders accountable for their actions instead of easily being programmed and misled by whatever the media airs.
It is time that we all remove greed from our society and focus on what’s better for our children and the future of our country.

Just my thoughts, what’s yours?