Immigration and Fear: Should We Really Be Afraid for the State of Public Education?

I wondered into a classroom today that had a real VCR.  Unbelievable.  I don't think I even own a VHS tape that I could show to my students (on any topic, let alone something relevant to any of the courses that I am teaching).   This experience combined with a radio story about Republican's not getting the Latino vote (no big surprise) got me thinking about immigration issues.  Being a former illegal immigrant myself (of sorts) these issues are somewhat personal for me.  Admittedly less so as a white, English speaking male, but still I did live through the immigration process into the United States.  As well as the process of becoming an American citizen as an adult. 

I bring this up because the real issue that we are going to have with immigration going forward into
the next generation in this country is not the number immigrants coming into the US, but rather  the lack of opportunity in our economy.  The current "recovery" is still considered mostly jobless and the wealth/inequality gap continues to grow.  

Latin American immigrants are currently feared by many Caucasians in this country, just as other groups (Asian, Italian, Irish, etc.) have been in the past.   This is becoming an increasingly obvious issue in the north east where I live, and I know it has been a big issue in the south western US for years.

The two big fears that people have around immigrants are that the immigrant population will steal opportunities from current Americans, or that the immigrants will bring with them an increase in crime rates.  There are also those who fear the changing of culture that immigrants bring, but I will leave a discussion of this particular brand of ignorance and racism for another post.

It follows then that the solution to the immigration "problem" is not restrictions on who or how many can get into the US, better boarder security, etc. rather we should be investing large amounts of money into our public education systems.
If we can provide adequate public education for both less well off Americans as well as the children of immigrant families both of the major fears around immigration should be alleviated.  Crime will not increase if immigrant populations are prepared for and can find meaningful well paying jobs.  Also, immigrants will not be "stealing" jobs from American's if our own working class children receive high quality educations.

It is time to shift money away from building fences and into replacing vcr's in classrooms. 

Has Anyone Else Given Up on The Daily Show?

I come and go with television in general.  I have spent portions of my life without TV at all, yet when I am sick or burnt out on work I do enjoy watching certain programs.
 
Over the past year I have been lucky enough to live with a wonderful person, unrelated to her wonderfulness, she also gets cable and has a dvr.
One of my guilty pleasures over the past year has been watching Jon Stewart's The Daily Show.
I enjoy the anger, sarcasim, etc. as well as Stewart's sense of humor.

Over the past month or so I have found the show becoming almost unwatchable.  This is mostly due to the coverage of the Republican primaries.  I don't dispute that the collection of candidates (as well as our current president from the other party) make for some amusing moments with their idiocy and ability to ignore what politics is "really about".  My problem is largely that The Daily Show writers seem to have forgotten that a world exists outside of the Republican party.  The Daily Republican Party might be a more appropriate title for the show over the past 30 or so days.

Of course Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and my personal hero Ron Paul*cough* (as far as contemporary American politicians go), deserve criticism and coverage of their idiocy but enough is enough, and a couple minutes a day is enough!

Essentially by spending all of the show on Republican politicians (even in a critical light) the writers of The Daily Show are sending the message that these politicians, and the broken process of pseudo democracy that exists in this country are worth devoting more time to than anything else (including the ongoing collapse of capitalism, and the occupy movement) currently happening in the US or world.

I have made this same argument about spending too much academic energy on critiquing some of the lesser points of Neoclassical economics, too much energy spent in the critique validates the existence of the object. Are these people really worth covering? The US political system is broken.  If we spend to much time on these clowns it will only encourage them.

This then is a call to The Daily Show:  Stop making these bourgeois idiots feel important by devoting all of your time to them!  I would love to start watching again.