This country does not have a terror problem, a war problem, a budget problem per se. It has an education problem, which is decades old and is not being addressed properly. We’re dumbing down and falling behind, and it’s starting with your infants and toddlers in early education, it continues in elementary education and goes on from there.

Lack of American graduates in science and math puts us further and further behind China, India, Korea, Japan, Germany and many other countries every year. We’re outsourcing our future, by cutting the education of our youngest citizens – those who will carry us when we are old.

The U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services announced today that 35 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico submitted applications for the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge, a $500 million state-level competitive grant program to improve early learning and development. Applicants include: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

I wonder what the states that did not apply are doing? Texas is missing from this list. What’s up, Governor Perry?