So basically, you are against the government making sure your child is effectively educated, but you feel you have the right to determine who can or cannot "breed"?

Thanks for the laugh!

Ok, then I don't want to hear whining when they wind up as drug users on welfare.

I don't know where you live that you would say public schools are actually "good" but many of our seniors are also likely to vote down budgets. And, yes, I do expect government to cut its budgets as much as possible so that taxes don't have to be raised.

Schools will be "good" schools when every person going through them graduates and graduates being able to read, write, spell, do math, etc. at the start of college level. Merely being in 12th grade doesn't mean a student can read at a 12th grade level.

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

I won't whine when they wind up as drug users but I would move to eliminate Welfare programs or, at the very least, make these people's ability to afford drugs a reason to disqualify them from receiving Welfare (since they exceed income guidelines).

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

I am against the government dictating what constitutes "effectively educated" since it isn't the government's responsibility. And I never said anything about dictating who should breed - though I do think that if you're unable or unwilling to carry out the responsibilites of parenthood then you shouldn't become a parent.

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

Most street drug dealers make very little money, less than minimum wage. (freakonomics)

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Set your destination with your heart, get there with your mind.

"The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides

Yep. Our schools are good. We are one of the top schools in a state that has very high education scores compared to the rest of the country. Our schools are good because we give the students the services that they need. Are they having trouble reading? Then we send them to extra classes with a specialist.

And taxes will go up no matter what. Our tax base is second lowest of the 6 surrounding towns. But I will say it again... they would vote differently if the services they like and use were impacted as much as the ones they do not use. Need a ride to the senior center? Sorry, that will now cost you $5 a day. Bet they would not demand that people pay for the services they use then!

Yes, we should. If you want your kids to believe they're nothing more than a bunch of damned animals who share ancestors with monkeys or if you want your kids to believe there is no such thing as right or wrong or if you want your kids to believe that government is their friend and that it is their duty to surrender their natural rights to the government, you are free to impose such ignorance on your children.

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

And your solution is? Dissolve the school systems and have everyone home school?

But obviously the people spending $500 a day on crack are getting the money from somewhere. My point is that if they can afford to spend it on crack they can afford to spend it on food, clothing and shelter.

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."