First I must state that I am not a teacher. Second I revere anyone who decides to enter into this profession. I have a wonderful daughter but even having 20 or 30 of her in a class would be more demanding than most jobs we are willing to give very high salaries to.
That said I find it interesting that we are willing to entrust our kids to underpaid teachers and expect a good outcome all of the time. There are teachers that teach for the love of the profession and are lucky that they have a spouse with a job that pays equitably. There are many however who struggle and yet try to keep their class a cut above with “out of their own pockets” expenditures.
We need to get off of the vilification of teachers and their unions where applicable and think about the kids and what an underfunded education system is doing to our state in particular and our country as a whole. The past is prologue. Our kids are falling behind.
We should all be willing to pay a bit more in taxes for the betterment of our educational system. Additionally, it is our civic duty to force our politicians to solve the structural deficit in our budget or this state fiasco will be repeated every two years. We need to be honest with our taxes and make it consummate to the services we all want from the government.
You cannot complain, on one hand about government services not being there and on the other hand, refuse to want to pay the relevant cost. Do not be fooled by anecdotes that attempts to illustrate complete government failure or corruption. There are thousands of people in our community, that are doing excellent jobs serving us as government employees (I am not a government employee either, I am self-employed). We need to be vigilant but not be dismissive of or vilifying of government. After all, it is the government of the people and by people, we send up there. It is our doing. As such we must not just vote party lines but in the interest of the middle class and the nation.
So in the short term let us demand the use of the states’ Rainy Day funds for our children’s school and college education and demand a fix to the structural deficit in our budget. A vibrant growing state demands the right balance between the government, the private companies, and individual responsibility.
My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom
Book’s Webpage: http://amzn.to/dt72c7 – Twitter: http://twitter.com/egbertowillies