Middle Ground

I know most of us want to be teachers. We want to educate the children of our society and of course, see to it that our democratic society prevails. I read the newsweek article titled, "Last of the True Believers?" and have a link to it here: http://www.newsweek.com/id/195088/page/1 The article talks about Governor Sanford's refusal to accept 35o million a year (over 2 year period) or rather 700 million of the 2.8 billion that is South Caronlina's portion of the $787 billion federal stimulas law. Governor Sanford has already accepted 75% of the money, but refuses to accept the rest unless the "reluctant" Republican dominated legislature sets aside a matching sum of state money to pay down the states debt. The governor's stance has raised speculation about a 2012 presidential bid. Sanford calls his postion middle ground, because if the economy hasn't recovered by 2011 when all of the stimuls money runs out, South Carolina will be forced to find a new source of funding to sustain the new level of spending or make sharp cuts. Also, Sanford states that we can't spend our way out of a problem that was caused by too much spending. It is a scary time that we are living in. I know many of us have taken a tremendous chance and have made a huge financial committments to go back to school and change our careers. We are due to graduate in May 2010, just over a year away. I know that I would love to be able to teach after we graduate and teach until my retirement years. Everyone wants the money and wants it now; but what do we do when it all runs out in 2011?