The don’t want abortion - but treat the children who live terribly - neither helping in their living expenses nor their education - thus concentrate survivors to substandard levels of living.
I can’t believe how dire this situation is and that you seem to be the only voice breaking through. Why isn’t this covered more in the media? Thank you for your advocacy. Your work is so important and powerful.
Your views and writings are amazingly inspirational. A true north star. Thank you so much. Coming from Colorado was a shock politically for me. You give me such hope. #VOTEBLUE
I grew up in rural Nebraska and many of my family still live there. People in rural areas have always felt neglected and abandoned and angry. We had very few amenities when I went to school and my relatives children have even fewer today. I don’t think people who live in more populated areas have a clue as to what life is like in our rural areas. Unaffordable Internet that frequently is out of service. I could go on and on. I almost cry when I read your blogs because you really know what is going on and it seems like so few care. Thank you for trying to spread the word.
I am so thankful to have found your Substack. I live on the west coast and admit that since reading your stories my view of this country and its regional politics has been changed forever. You are a must read for all my family members who have had my same insulated view on America. Thank you so much, I am always educated and inspired by your work.
How is tax money distributed in Missouri? My property tax is very high and rising every year as MY county refuses to implement the senior citizen property tax freeze. I am not in my earning years anymore and there just is no money in my budget for more funding. How many big businesses get tax credits for being here? It seems like the whole city of St. Louis is owned by schools, churches, and universities, and they are likely tax exempt as they would qualify as “non-profits” because they are religious and educational organizations. Tax them for a change! This year public money is available to religious institutions, further stripping the public schools. Tax them! Tax the rich!
I graduated in 1976 from a high school in one of the poorest counties in North Carolina. We had very little, and in fact, by the time I reached my senior year, I went to work because there were no classes left for me to take. Around 2000, a student sued the state for providing inadequate resources to some schools while providing extra resources to others. The last I heard, that lawsuit is still ongoing. Meanwhile, the county my high school is in deteriorates in every way - high poverty, high crime, high illegal drug use, etc.
I attended 3 Lincoln County "Democratic" Party club meetings! I was appalled. They are helping the Republicans. They have no community outreach & they constantly defer to the patriarchy's asinine comments like they need some kind of appeasement. I think they are out of touch & focusing on the wrong things. I am at a loss of where to concentrate my activism. Maybe "Planned Parenthood of STL"?
Jess, another excellent essay on the current state of education in not only Missouri but in too many other places in our country. A majority of my school years were spent in rural Missouri schools. I had a couple of really good teachers, but the funding was abysmal. Due to my own drive and passion for reading and learning, I turned out ok if I do say so myself. 2 bachelor's degrees and a master's. But not because of the schools in Missouri. I think it was in spite of the educational system. God gifted me with a very good brain and my mom encouraged me to use it and imposed no limitations on what I could do with it. My brothers - 4 and 6 years younger - barely graduated high school and couldn't read at a middle school level. But they kept being pushed through the system. So sad. Thanks for your spotlight.
My 2 boys got an excellent education in the St. Louis County Parkway school district. I want to remind Jess’s readers that she is focused on the educational inequities in rural Missouri specifically and not public schools in general.
I plan to do my part by supporting Blue Missouri as she suggests.
I lived in suburban ST Louis while my daughter was in public school. Our community had the highest ratio of churches to population. We paid tuition for her to go to another district’s public high school because her middle school teachers wouldn’t teach evolution (but they did teach creationism), and one history teacher spent a whole semester on cowboy life (not Native Americans or the politics around western expansion) so that she avoided anything controversial in the nation’s history. Oh, and on weekends and during the summer the Catholic schools used the public school facilities like gyms and fields, because “they paid for them with their taxes.” So of course the district voted down every school bond issue, since most residents were paying Catholic school tuition for all their kids. Absolutely no sense of shared responsibility for the next generation. It’s shameful and morally malignant.
My kids received excellent public school educations, first in Michigan, then in Illinois. My son, now grown, was practically apologetic when he told me last year he was taking his kids out of Missouri public schools and placing them in private ones. He said they realized during the pandemic how little their kids were actually learning in the public schools. The kids are now thriving in private schools. It is a sad statement about how our public school system is failing.
Keep them stupid and ignorant is the Republican mantra - because ,otherwise, they wouldn’t win elections. Wake up. Earning a decent living requires education nowadays. You need to learn in order to earn. Never realized how horrible the educational system was in Missouri. BuIt thanks for opening my eyes. Good luck .
Feeling every bit of this in Tennessee as my “aw shucks” HVAC governor makes Friday evening deals with members of the Republican Good Ol’ Boy Supermajority to get school vouchers over on their constituents who want nothing to do with school vouchers. William “Lapdog” Lamberth rammed it through a session again on a deal to make harsher sentences for juveniles offenders. Because what’s the bedrock of a class system that seeks to limit access to education? The school to prison pipeline, that’s what.
Bless you for doing the work of writing about these horrors that republican’s consistently produce.
I was an elementary teacher, raised and educated in upstate New York, went to college on a Regents scholarship.
Then I moved to Arizona.
Because they required AZ history and government classes, I took a job teaching kindergarten in a Catholic school & stayed there for three years until my 1st child was born. The elementary school in our middle class neighborhood was fine.
It wasn’t until the kids hit middle school & high school that I realized how bad Arizona schools often are. They had a 50% drop out rate! And that was still in a pretty good area. I substituted in schools all over. Big disparities.
Arizona was one of the first to start voucher programs. I heard horror stories from teacher friends. I had moved into counseling, but was out of schools at that point.
Now I’m torn as my young grandchildren are almost school age. My kids are looking at private schools with help from vouchers. And the older ones are at charter style schools, both taking taxpayer dollars from the public schools.
I am still loyal to the public schools, but I understand them wanting a better education for their children than they were offered.
Arizona is turning purple! So maybe there’s hope here. But I do feel your pain, Jess.
The republicans have a huge amount to answer for
The don’t want abortion - but treat the children who live terribly - neither helping in their living expenses nor their education - thus concentrate survivors to substandard levels of living.
Just evil.
I can’t believe how dire this situation is and that you seem to be the only voice breaking through. Why isn’t this covered more in the media? Thank you for your advocacy. Your work is so important and powerful.
Your views and writings are amazingly inspirational. A true north star. Thank you so much. Coming from Colorado was a shock politically for me. You give me such hope. #VOTEBLUE
I grew up in rural Nebraska and many of my family still live there. People in rural areas have always felt neglected and abandoned and angry. We had very few amenities when I went to school and my relatives children have even fewer today. I don’t think people who live in more populated areas have a clue as to what life is like in our rural areas. Unaffordable Internet that frequently is out of service. I could go on and on. I almost cry when I read your blogs because you really know what is going on and it seems like so few care. Thank you for trying to spread the word.
I am so thankful to have found your Substack. I live on the west coast and admit that since reading your stories my view of this country and its regional politics has been changed forever. You are a must read for all my family members who have had my same insulated view on America. Thank you so much, I am always educated and inspired by your work.
How is tax money distributed in Missouri? My property tax is very high and rising every year as MY county refuses to implement the senior citizen property tax freeze. I am not in my earning years anymore and there just is no money in my budget for more funding. How many big businesses get tax credits for being here? It seems like the whole city of St. Louis is owned by schools, churches, and universities, and they are likely tax exempt as they would qualify as “non-profits” because they are religious and educational organizations. Tax them for a change! This year public money is available to religious institutions, further stripping the public schools. Tax them! Tax the rich!
I graduated in 1976 from a high school in one of the poorest counties in North Carolina. We had very little, and in fact, by the time I reached my senior year, I went to work because there were no classes left for me to take. Around 2000, a student sued the state for providing inadequate resources to some schools while providing extra resources to others. The last I heard, that lawsuit is still ongoing. Meanwhile, the county my high school is in deteriorates in every way - high poverty, high crime, high illegal drug use, etc.
I attended 3 Lincoln County "Democratic" Party club meetings! I was appalled. They are helping the Republicans. They have no community outreach & they constantly defer to the patriarchy's asinine comments like they need some kind of appeasement. I think they are out of touch & focusing on the wrong things. I am at a loss of where to concentrate my activism. Maybe "Planned Parenthood of STL"?
Jess, another excellent essay on the current state of education in not only Missouri but in too many other places in our country. A majority of my school years were spent in rural Missouri schools. I had a couple of really good teachers, but the funding was abysmal. Due to my own drive and passion for reading and learning, I turned out ok if I do say so myself. 2 bachelor's degrees and a master's. But not because of the schools in Missouri. I think it was in spite of the educational system. God gifted me with a very good brain and my mom encouraged me to use it and imposed no limitations on what I could do with it. My brothers - 4 and 6 years younger - barely graduated high school and couldn't read at a middle school level. But they kept being pushed through the system. So sad. Thanks for your spotlight.
My 2 boys got an excellent education in the St. Louis County Parkway school district. I want to remind Jess’s readers that she is focused on the educational inequities in rural Missouri specifically and not public schools in general.
I plan to do my part by supporting Blue Missouri as she suggests.
I lived in suburban ST Louis while my daughter was in public school. Our community had the highest ratio of churches to population. We paid tuition for her to go to another district’s public high school because her middle school teachers wouldn’t teach evolution (but they did teach creationism), and one history teacher spent a whole semester on cowboy life (not Native Americans or the politics around western expansion) so that she avoided anything controversial in the nation’s history. Oh, and on weekends and during the summer the Catholic schools used the public school facilities like gyms and fields, because “they paid for them with their taxes.” So of course the district voted down every school bond issue, since most residents were paying Catholic school tuition for all their kids. Absolutely no sense of shared responsibility for the next generation. It’s shameful and morally malignant.
My kids received excellent public school educations, first in Michigan, then in Illinois. My son, now grown, was practically apologetic when he told me last year he was taking his kids out of Missouri public schools and placing them in private ones. He said they realized during the pandemic how little their kids were actually learning in the public schools. The kids are now thriving in private schools. It is a sad statement about how our public school system is failing.
Keep them stupid and ignorant is the Republican mantra - because ,otherwise, they wouldn’t win elections. Wake up. Earning a decent living requires education nowadays. You need to learn in order to earn. Never realized how horrible the educational system was in Missouri. BuIt thanks for opening my eyes. Good luck .
Feeling every bit of this in Tennessee as my “aw shucks” HVAC governor makes Friday evening deals with members of the Republican Good Ol’ Boy Supermajority to get school vouchers over on their constituents who want nothing to do with school vouchers. William “Lapdog” Lamberth rammed it through a session again on a deal to make harsher sentences for juveniles offenders. Because what’s the bedrock of a class system that seeks to limit access to education? The school to prison pipeline, that’s what.
Bless you for doing the work of writing about these horrors that republican’s consistently produce.
I also want to say that your blog is fantastic. It’s so great that you are illuminating the issues in rural America!
I was an elementary teacher, raised and educated in upstate New York, went to college on a Regents scholarship.
Then I moved to Arizona.
Because they required AZ history and government classes, I took a job teaching kindergarten in a Catholic school & stayed there for three years until my 1st child was born. The elementary school in our middle class neighborhood was fine.
It wasn’t until the kids hit middle school & high school that I realized how bad Arizona schools often are. They had a 50% drop out rate! And that was still in a pretty good area. I substituted in schools all over. Big disparities.
Arizona was one of the first to start voucher programs. I heard horror stories from teacher friends. I had moved into counseling, but was out of schools at that point.
Now I’m torn as my young grandchildren are almost school age. My kids are looking at private schools with help from vouchers. And the older ones are at charter style schools, both taking taxpayer dollars from the public schools.
I am still loyal to the public schools, but I understand them wanting a better education for their children than they were offered.
Arizona is turning purple! So maybe there’s hope here. But I do feel your pain, Jess.