Be prepared, grab your razor

Today, Governor Branstad and Lieutenant Governor Reynolds along with an assistant out of the Iowa Department of Education office visited Marshalltown High School pitching their "Education Transformation" blueprint to community and school officials and several students. And after listening to the guy for over an hour I just have one question: How did this man get elected governor?

First off, I think he was quite surprised with how the high school students were prepared and the questions that we asked. He actually had it quite easy. He would avoid the question, go off on a tangent and then hand the microphone to one of the other ladies so he didn't sound stupid in front of the whole audience.

Another thing: Where did he get his education? One student brought up socioeconomic status and how it has been proven that it is a determining factor in a lot of things such as test scores and overall performance in the class room. He responded and said that he doesn't think socioeconomic status has anything to do with a how a student performs and said that he grew up in a poor family and look where he's at today. So he just gave us one example and it was himself? Any student with at least one semester of high school level sociology would know that a person's socioeconomic status is the determining factor of many things in a person's life: Where they shop, where they work, what they do for recreation, how involved they are in their student's education, how many years of schooling they completed, etc.

Not only did Governor Branstad dodge questions like it was his job, he brought up irrelevant ideas like comparing Marshalltown to Singapore and how he had just visited a new turkey hatchery a few days ago. Don't care.

Here's a piece of advice to the governor himself: Be prepared. You might think we're a bunch of under-achieving low-lifes in Marshalltown, but we proved you wrong today. Also, plan for tough, hard-hitting questions and actually answer them. Don't beat around the bush and look even more stupid when you start to say that Abraham Lincoln grew up in poverty and became president. Actually, Lincoln was one of the wealthiest presidents of all time. And shave the mustache; it's getting a little out of control.