Letter: CUTTING EDUCATION ISN'T THE ANSWER

Chico Enterprise-Record & Oroville Mercury Register

 They get in in Chico and Oroville - two decidedly red towns on the map; why don't they get in Sacramento?

04/27/2008 — In response to Steve Wolfe's letter about throwing "more money in the pot": While no one likes the notion of paying more taxes, the point that we must keep in our sights is that currently no one is throwing more money at public education. The state is forcing local districts and charter schools to make major cuts across the board. As citizens of the great state of California with one of the largest economies in the world, we should be ashamed of our approach to "fixing" a broken system, which is to slash the money and leave the next generation out to dry.

If you compare the amount of money California spends per student to other states, or other industrial nations for that matter, you will see we are already lagging behind. We need to be forward thinking. If we don't spend the money on education now, we will most certainly pay later, but our tax dollars will be going toward more prison facilities, welfare systems and rehab centers. While I personally don't know what the long-term answer to solving the state budget problem is, I do know that this current approach of cutting education dollars is lunacy.

— Karen Rose, Chico

Letter: Cutting education isn't the answer - Oroville Mercury Register