Presidential Address to the Nation

Presidential Address to the Nation

"My fellow Americans, today I come to you as a concerned citizen. After reviewing the facts, I have found that the scholastic achievement of American children is significantly lower than the other industrialized countries. This worries and troubles me. I have decided to overhaul the education system. We are going to change the way we think and feel about education and the bureaucracy in it.

First of all, we need to change our children's perception of education. Kids nowadays figure that if they learn a sport like basketball, they'll probably be able to be drafted by the time their eighteen and be a multi-millionaire by the time their nineteen. They figure that sports and musical talent are the only ways to get rich quick and fulfill all their dreams. They see Lebron James and Carmelo Anthony making money right out of high school and say why study. They might as well spend all their free time sharpening their skills instead of reading. Fantasia Barrino, a singer who won on the television show American Idol received a recording contract that she couldn't read because she was illiterate. That is a shame and a failure of the education system. We need to stress to our children that education is important. Education is the key for succeeding at all of your goals. If they know and understand education is number one, they know that every other skill is secondary until after you have mastered the basic skills you need to thrive.

My next step is to clean up all the bureaucracy in the school system. I would make sure that those who have important titles with no real positions would be kicked out. Why are we paying administrators six figures for failing our children? Teachers, however, are another story entirely. Teachers are discouraged by their low salaries and low expectations for their students. They need to know that we will pay them for their hard work. We can not expect them to give their all and receive nothing in return. We must do better.

The third part to this overhaul is the actual school. We need to have a national standard for all our schools, and no, I am not talking about "No Child Left Behind." I mean increasing our standards to make sure our students are learning and understanding the right things. All schools need to be equal. There will be no tax brackets to determine what money goes to what school. All children will have the benefit of a great