Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Are fundamental principles threatening our future, equal opportunities, and living the American Dream?
Response to Strike.
Tax policies, economic development and funding for our schools all serve as roadblocks to adequately educate our children. Many Americans do not understand good tax and economic development policies and threaten the success of education. Public schools are dangerously underfunded, and have been developing over several decades. Teacher salaries have remained un-changed since the early 1970's despite inflation, we need to attract and retain education professionals. Poor working conditions and low salaries are what many teachers face around the United States. We need broad public support, a healthy economy and economic and tax structure to lead to good school funding, which allows for quality teachers and in turn a quality public education.
Cutting middle school sports is nothing, when you look at the fact CMS is cutting hundreds of teacher position and is just a preview of what's to come.
http://www.wbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=12188611
"There is no greater return to an economy or to a society than an educational system second to none."- John F. Kennedy
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3 comments:
You couldn't be more right Amy. I was watching on the news last night that CMS needs to cut 8 million from their budget. Middle school sports only accounts for 1 million of that 8 million. They had the option to cut salaries instead of positions, but they voted 6 to 3 on cutting positions based on performance levels. It's scary really how easily you can lose a teaching job these days. My mother is a teacher and she told me that back when she was coming up through school...teachers jobs were held nearly as important and were as safe as doctors jobs.
Is anyone else questioning their logic for getting their masters? I will tell you how disappointed I am in our education system and in ourselves as educated americans knowing that we should be funding our schools. We all know it is true, but where do we cut elsewhere? healthcare? security? We need to come up with a better system. What about taxation? How about a flat tax or an increase in sales tax? People with more money buy more things and more tax dollars could be given to our schools. A penny tax increase could do wonders. I am not a big taxation person, but if I know that tax is going to my son's school, I can swallow it alot more easily.
Billie, I am 100% for public education. While I can see your reasoning with regard to sales taxes, I don’t believe this will offset our dire needs in SC and nationally.
What about all the layers of bureaucracy at the local, state and national levels, especially after the NCLB Act?
What about the money we continue to pump into Iraq each year to set up a democracy for them when our own faces challenges? We’ve already spent approximately the same amount as the recent stimulus package. These are costly decisions both in lives and money.
These are complex and nuanced issues with many areas to consider. It is truly sad that we continue to cut teacher positions in school districts across our state and nation each year, which in turn affects student learning and achievement and our society as a whole. In regards to our current economic situation, many folks (on both ends of the economic continuum) did not make prudent choices, further adding to our current economic situation. As a society, we must come together to discuss these issues in thoughtful and constructive ways. Property and income taxes primarily fund our SC public schools, and accordingly, disparities are inevitable. For example, Aiken has one of the highest teacher pay scales in the state due to their tax base; while just down the road in several small towns (Edgefield, for example), teachers make roughly 10,000 less/year, on average.
Until we can attract and sustain quality teachers in rural areas, which will in turn bring more families and businesses (many don’t want to serve these schools, even if money is not an issue, due to the locale and the limited community resources), we’ll continue to have these economic disparities and social divisions in our public system.
Complex issues, but exciting nonetheless since we can be advocates to help with the necessary reform to ensure our democracy maintains a public school system that serves all of its citizens.
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