For decades in America it has always been taught that “Education is the torch that will light the future” and for decades an onward struggle has been causing turmoil between legislators, educators and parents as to what is best for our students through teacher evaluations and development, curriculum requirements and student evaluation through grades and testing. There is so much to consider in educating just one student and even more in educating a nation.

Teacher unions (while have their purpose) seem to be more consumed with pacifying their members than ensuring well qualified teachers are prevalent everywhere in all schools and that if teachers aren’t willing to keep themselves qualified with appropriate credentials and most important by daily job performance adhering to the guidelines of their state and local school board----being secured via union affiliation is not acceptable and unions must realize that longevity of service does not always confirm quality of service.

As in business, if an inferior product or products do not satisfy the customer----then new marketing must take place to set the wheels turning for a new and better product that meets the needs of the majority. While there is work ongoing to address the many needs in education, the issue of testing is currently in the spotlight (and justifiably so) and here for your perusal is articles by John Rosales entitled “Educators and Parents Demand Less Testing … and Lawmakers Listen” and "Why Is Education Important." Also view the video for some interesting comments.

There is so much work for us to do in getting education out front in the lives of our students. In addition to the issues presented here we need major funding to ensure that the demands we place on our teachers will be more than adequately met with their pay and that a full curriculum can be supplied to schools without cutting our music, the arts, physical education to name a few subjects that are always first to be dropped and last to pick up.

Now is the time for everyone that truly believes that “Education is the torch to light the future” to stand and represent, because it is necessary for the good of each student, all families in every state across the nation of our country to maintain and re-claim in some areas our status of being America the great (aka United States) with education being our benchmark.