Please, Let’s Protect Our Futures...
The annual struggle to whittle back our school budgets makes us sad. To battle between zero-increase budgets and hikes of 5 percent or so seems ludicrous given that, on a worldwide scale, our taxes are less than most people’s in the world… and furthermore, that what we’re talking about is education, our kids, our nation’s future. How about fighting global warming instead?
To be faced with cutting back on music and the arts for being luxuries is a shame. To look at breaking apart a program like INDIE to save a few people a few dollars seems a betrayal of the sense of community and innovation we once took pride in in this country.
There are things we do for the greater good, like education, that define who we are as a people, as a civilization. The way we treat education and the arts is a key to our success as a culture. To throw out – or even attempt to micromanage – such matters as a means of saving a few hundred dollars here and there seems to us to be wrong-headed. What about the old fable involving babies and bathwater?
Sure, some of our elderly need help. But shouldn’t we find other means of helping rather than hurting our young. Sure, the system stinks and too much burden is put on property owners. But fix the system and don’t kill what’s best about the rest of our lives because of a bad system.
It’s a shame education presents the only place in our democracy where voters can directly say no to a budget process… because they do. Why? Because they can.
It’s a shame people don’t recall that we collectively fund things like education, and roads — and in most civilized countries healthcare – because it’s a sign of who we are as a good people, and an indication of how we hope the best for our collective futures.
All else is negativity.
Congratulations to the board on a decent compromise Tuesday night. But let’s not push them further. And let’s now pass this hard fought-for budget!
PS