And the other kids pay the price because their needs are not addressed. And their parents pay the price through higher taxes for “social services.”

Re the teachers who owed for childcare: EXACTLY WHAT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN GUARANTEEING GOOD CARE FOR YOUR CHILD?!

Unfortunately, our school system does not believe in doing this. So we have tens of thousands of dollars in library books, aftercare fees, school picture money, etc, that goes uncollected. Last year our county finally–after losing over 100T dollars on unpaid school lunches–discontinued allowing students to charge over 5 days. Now they get a PBJ, and, remarkably, virtually NO ONE has a problem paying for their lunches now! We teachers had been saying this for years, but it had been deemed “too cruel” to make the child “suffer” for their parents’ unwillingness to pay. And yes, I say unwillingness because our school does everything it can do to beg parents to apply for free lunch! We have over 70% Federal lunch program kids now. Just fill out the danged papers! Or let the parents come in and scrub toilets to repay the money! Amazing how “consequences” work!

There are times when we have to work with parents who simply do not want any responsibility for educating their children, teaching them right from wrong, or establishing good moral values. A strong work ethic is one of the best gifts a parent can instill in a child because this trait gives the child the ability to seek out ways to succeed in life.

Parents who do not teach these things to their children will cause the children to pay a price-sometimes a very steep price. Sending children off to live life without good skills, a proper education, and solid character traits dooms the child to certain failure.

should we not wait for all of the evidence before labeling these folks sorry parents?

You wanna tell that to the president of the United States?

1. Apply for free or reduced lunch.
2. Make a PBJ. Better yet, teach your child to do it.

Some of you are arguing that it is wrong to consider a parent “sorry” who has lost his job but still sends his children to an afterschool daycare program? Give me a break.

Successful people arrange their lives according to values. They seek value in their lives and they look for interactions that exchange value for value. They understand accountability, responsibility, and the perserverence required to obtain that which they value.

That having been said, I can safely say, as a parent, that my highest value is my family–namely my children. I would do anything for them. I work hard to help them develop the primary faculty they will need to be successful in life–i.e., their reasoning minds. This can only be done through education. I work hard to ensure that they are nourished and healthy, ready to face the challenges of the day. I work hard to pay for a home and clothes.

If I, for whatever reason, were not able to afford the things my children required in order to succeed, I would get a second job (and a third, and a fourth . . .). If I had lost my job, I would search tirelessly for a new one, or I would work an assortment of odd jobs in an attempt to make as much money as possible in the short term. I would limit expenditures to the essential, cut all personal expenditures from my budget, and live as basically as I could. I would do this because my children are my highest value.

So I wonder: Why are all the people who are so quick to want, to take, to get something at the expense of the rest of us not doing the same? Why do they have cell phones? Why do they have cable? Why do they have luxury cars on lease and $100 shoes? Why do they get a Free and Reduced Lunch when I can buy bread, peanut butter, and jelly from Kroger for less than $5 a week? You don’t have a RIGHT to cable. You don’t have the RIGHT to a DVD player or a cell phone. You don’t have the RIGHT to yummy food. You don’t have the RIGHt to food, period. These are all things which must be EARNED.

Why do they get everything I have to work so hard for?

Many of you are right: We’ve created this culture of entitlement, and the unfortunate result is the suffering of the children caught in the middle. We can end this cycle, but it won’t be pretty. It would take millions in private charitable donations, kids being removed from depraved situations, and thousands of moochers going hungry in the streets. But it CAN change.

Someone just has to have the balls to do it.