2014
NYT 3-4-14 … Among other proposals that Mr. Obama will revive in his budget to improve the chances of upward mobility for lower- and middle-class Americans is one making preschool universal for 4-year-olds, paid for with higher tobacco taxes. He would make permanent a tax credit for college tuition, provide tax relief for those with federal grants or loans for college, and expand the existing tax credit for full-time workers’ child care costs.
I was born in 1943, my mother stopped working when she became pregnant. She had no choice, it was her employer’s policy, the Prudential Insurance Company. I started kindergarten in September 1948, a few months short of my 5th birthday. Thereafter I went through grammar school, junior high and high school in East Orange, NJ. I received a good basic education, which means I learned solid basic math skills, most important I learned good reading skills and I learned about history, geography and civics. I also learned basic bookkeeping and how to write checks and assorted other mundane things, like typing. I remember things today I learned in the fifties, things that a 25 year old today has no clue about. You know, tough stuff like the three branches of government, how to figure the percentage one number is if another and even find Montana on a map or where the Alamo is.
Looking at my school year books, it’s clear that 40% or more of my class was African American. That system produced graduates who attended Harvard, Princeton and other top colleges. I wasn’t among them.
My father worked 6-7 days a week from eight in the morning until eight at night. My mother was an old fashion homemaker with little, if any, involvement outside the home. Both had a high school education, my mother from the same school system, my father a nearby town.
That education and background was the basis for my future opportunity and upward mobility. Over a fifty-year career it served me well. However, back in those days I did have a distinct advantage over some of my classmates; I am white. Today being non-white has its own advantages if properly utilized as our President can attest.
Now we are told pre-school is essential for upward mobility.
How did that happen? What went wrong? How did our schools become inadequate, even failing? Who is to blame? Why isn’t the upward mobility of the 50s and 60s still available? Why haven’t we adapted to the demands and opportunities of the 21st century?
🔴I have my own answers, but I’d much rather here from you … and please, no pontificating about the 1% or Democrats or Republicans. This didn’t happen overnight and we are all in this together.🔴
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 