Recent Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, threatened Hawaii that they would have a hard time receiving grants from federal government if they didn’t restore furloughed class days that were the result of state budget problems. Arne said, “There’s got to be a better way…When you have tough budget times, what you do with scarce resources reflects your priorities. I don’t know anyone who could make a case that eliminating 10 percent of your school days is good for Hawaii.” I guess that Arne hasn’t taken a really good look at the success rates of our public schools. Last time I checked most kids can’t read, write, or do math at a sufficient level to succeed in a globally competitive world. One could make the case that less school days would be better because public schools do such a terrible job. There is way too much propoganda taught in schools today and not enough reading, writing, and math. Perhaps the worst thing a state could do is suck up to the federal trough and become nothing more than a slave to the federal government instead of protector of its individual citizens. I would tell Arne and all of the other freedom haters in the Obama administration that they can keep their dirty, filthy federal dollars and I’ll keep my freedom from your arbitrary freedom-hating central planning decisions. Public school education as a whole fails miserably. Every year, more and more money is put into the system with the promises that things will get better, but do they really improve. No, yet the unions and freedom haters continue to demand more. I think it is time for Arne to open his eyes and start facing the obvious, less class days might be better for our children.