BUDGET CUTS TO EDUCATION

People seem to want to live the impossible dream. Like a small child making an absurd wish, they seem uninhibited when they publicly express one or another incongruous thought. Because they are adults, they should know what they want is impossible but that realization makes no difference. People seriously express ideas publically; ideas that should embarrass them for their lack of maturity but does not. Absurd wishes are the most obvious in political debate. I try to reason out why people do this but get nowhere. Take, for example, the widespread budget-cutting taking place in Republican controlled states. Consider this against the background of all of the troubles we, as a society, had solving all the problems associated with public schools. This extends back to the being of human history. Why, when, and where did the idea for public schools originate? How did we get public school? How do we finance schools? How did segregation come about and why and the reverse, how and why did the current trend of desegregation happen? Why are we concerned about remote rural students and what do we do about it? What do we do about religion and other cultural issues in schools? It has not been easy, but we have accomplished much. Now, some people seem to want to revisit these debates but some seem unaware of all of this history. They discard all consideration to one, which is to save money. We have all heard it, “you worked hard for it so you deserve to keep it”. Politicians have decimated schools by severely cutting school budgets in a number of states with the aim of cutting taxes; however, their argument makes no sense. They justify cutting school budgets by cutting taxes but subsidize industry with even more money than they cut from school budgets. The budgets cuts have been devastating to education. As a result, school boards, made up of parent and neighbors, have cut teachers’ salaries and allowed school buildings to deteriorate. Parents see this and accept increases in property taxes to maintain schools, which means parents are actually increasing taxes to pay for industry profits. Politicians are the ones who force this to happen, which mean the people in those states should agree with them taking this tax shift. This is the cores of Reaganomics, which has driven us to this low point in the history of education. Is there any question about Reagan being the worst president we have ever had? Is there anything reasonable about what is happening? Do people dream they can educate children with no costs? It reminds me of the farmer who was raising calves and decided to experiment to find out if he did not feed them, he could make more money. He came close to succeeding but, unfortunately, the calves died just before they were ready to sell. We all know if we did not have schools, it would cost less. Really, all it would cost is our future as a country. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated