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Shooting Ourselves in the Foot
When it comes to public policy there are few issues that are truly “silver bullets.” Tough problems tend to demand multifaceted solutions. But for this state and this country’s toughest challenges, especially issues like unemployment and poverty, we do have one silver bullet left: education.
Those who say that we cannot afford great schools until the economy improves or that poverty needs to be addressed before we can improve student learning outcomes, have it absolutely backwards. Historically, schools have been the great equalizer in our country. They are the place that helps even the poorest kids lift themselves up by their bootstraps. It’s in classrooms that we educate the next generation of business leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs.
As Nicholas Kristof reflected in this weekend’s New York Times, “The United States supports schools in Afghanistan because we know that education is one of the cheapest and most effective ways to build a country. Alas, we’ve forgotten that lesson at home.” He continues, “A prime factor in America’s rise over the last two centuries was its leadership in educating the masses.”
I’m not the first person to be outraged that school children are being forced to pay for the failures of policy makers. But my anger stems from something beyond the immediate negative impact that this state budget “deal” is going to have on school budgets. We’re sending a terrible message to Minnesota kids.
How are we adults supposed to tell kids that there’s nothing more important than their education when in the next breath we decide the easiest way to balance a budget is by taking money from schools? Children need to know that our priority is their education but instead they get to witness adults’ real priorities: short-term political victories.
We are terrible role models.
State policymakers are still considering serious reform measures, from finally getting serious about the value of Pre-K choices for parents to new teacher evaluation systems but a skim of the local paper shows only a trace of those issues. Our kids, and our future deserve a bigger slice of the public policy discourse.
With another round of school funding shifts, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot with the only silver bullet we have left. And in so doing, policy makers today are setting up Minnesota for another generation of unacceptable poverty levels and anemic economic growth.
It turns out that shooting ourselves in the foot hurts even more when it’s with the only silver bullet we had left.
Posted in Economic Development | Related Topics: State Budget Budget Deficit Education Funding
8 Comments
July 21, 2011 at 11:25 pm
While you will never hear me arguing against the concept of the need for a quality education for our children since it is part of what founded this country. It is not about money, history has proven repeatedly around the world that it is not about money, it’s about commitment to our children. We pay willingly for that commitment to our children. What made us great before the sewage, was local citizen control and input, coupled with teachers commited to “Child Centered” education. What change was Unionization in 1964, the creation of the Federal Dept. of Education in 1967, followed by the creation of the 5 Regional Education Labs, and completed with State Deptments of education in every state tied back to the Socialist Federal teet. What happend on our end was the end of virtually all local input into “Independent School District” decition making. While the takeover was one buzz word driven change at a time fed to a gullable captive audiance one at a time while they were too busy thinking about much more important UNION ISSUES. This is how we got here, the real question is how do we get back to being a quality education leader without going back to what we had. The more power we have put in the hands of these elitist educrats the worse education our children are getting. Worse yet many of you are “training the workforce of tommorow”, not teaching our children, it seems you feel much more comfortable feeling your working for the big corporations rather than us.
July 21, 2011 at 10:49 am
I agree with Greg about dismantling the “great equalizer, but don’t these companies need educated workers. They can’t run things all by themselves (they are too few and too uneducated themselves in their own industry). They need some middle managers, technicians, accountants, and the like.
July 21, 2011 at 10:21 am
This article, in referring to schools as “the great equalizer” states exactly why our public schools are being gradually dismantled.
There is a certain class of dysfonic wealthy people in our society whose psychological dysfunctions cause them to want to create an extremely stratified society. They believe that our ideal state should look like most third world countries where a very few very wealthy individuals are able to gather into their own coffers all the resources that were formerly possessed by the state’s citizens, progressively reducing those average citizens to the economic status of Medieval serfs.
The equalizing effect that our excellent schools systems have had on society works counter to their aims, not to mention that well-educated people are far less likely to tolerate the continuous reductions in their own standard of living required to feed the insatiable need for MORE and MORE personal wealth demonstrated by those who will NEVER be able to lead psychologically healthy, emotionally satisfying lives, but whose psychological dysfunctions make more wealth seem to be the only means by which such satisfaction might be achieved.
Because of their emotional deficits, such people are unable ever to feel satisfied, but their inability to look within themselves for the source of their own dissatisfaction means they are completely willing to destroy the world and their fellow citizens in order to seek the satisfaction that will forever elude them.
Tearing apart and tearing down our public school system is just one small part of their (largely unconscious) project to take the average Minnesota citizen to the status of the average Nicaraguan citizen in the days of the Somoza Dynasty (1936-1979).
July 21, 2011 at 10:08 am
Right on. Can someone explain to me why public education is perceived as “always broken”?
July 21, 2011 at 9:59 am
As revolting as the idea is, Governor Dayton needs to form a task force/committee to start forming some policy about raising revenue. The committee needs to be bi-partisan AND the Republican leadership needs to agree to the recommendations during the next legislative session. Otherwise, we will have a BIG shutdown 2 years from now. Let’s get all of the wrangling over with while there is time to carry on an adult conversation.
July 19, 2011 at 2:27 pm
The connection between funding schools in Afganistan and defunding schools here is right on point. What are we doing???
What’s the message?
July 19, 2011 at 11:00 am
This is so true and so obvious.
And it’s happening all over-not just Minnesota. When will we learn?
Irv says:
July 22, 2011 at 8:27 am
Not true. Given the Republican agenda we will all be working at Walmart and not need that great education. Apparently that is the way to prosperity, if your the select few.