You wouldn’t think a progressive like myself would be agreeing with this governor, but I think he was on the right track. Let me explain myself. The governor believes that the downfall of our education system happened because mom joined the workforce. Well, he’s half right. It’s not that mom joined the workforce, but the fact that both parents have to work full time in order to obtain a healthy middle class lifestyle, regardless if it is mom or dad.
Think about this. If a child around the age of 12 or 13 years old or older is coming home to an empty house, he or she isn’t going to focus on school work. They are most likely going to jump on the T.V. and Xbox, or hang out with their friends, right? Exactly. There isn’t someone at home most of the time to give the child structure, to make sure they are focused on their homework or to help them with a project So at this point, the child begins to slump in school.
So how do we remedy this? There are multiple ways. One way is we need to increase the wages of working people in this country so a family can afford to choose to have one parent home full time ,or at least home when the kids get home from school. Back in the old days, mom was working only until the kids came home, a.k.a., mother’s hours or if the father earned enough money, she stayed home full time. Now, mom needs to supplement the family’s income because wages have not increased at all for working people in a generation.
Raising the minimum wage not only helps those who are earning that wage, but it puts upward pressure on all other wage earners. Also, tying the minimum wage to productivity. Why should just the shareholders and management get the benefits of a productive employee, it should also be the employees.
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Unfortunately Mississippi’s Governor Phil Bryant’s party will object to raising the federal minimum wage, and I am willing to bet he would object to raising the minimum wage in his poor state also. They would most likely object to tying production to it also.
So he isn’t really interested in solving the problem. He just wants to sit back, place blame and point fingers, something the current Republicans are great at doing.
