10 REASONS WE CAN’T AFFORD TO CUT EDUCATION SPENDING

from the frugal living advice website Cheapest Service.Com | http://bit.ly/jbc58A

June 26, 2011 - We hear the outcry on a nearly daily basis, “Cut Taxes,” “ No New Taxes” and it’s true, we all need to tighten our economic belts and cut spending. One recipient of our tax dollars, the public school system, cannot afford to have spending cut.

Here are 10 reasons why:

1. Jobs: In every community, schools employ many people, paying the wages of not only teachers and administrators, but also aides, cooks, janitorial staff and bus drivers among others. The money paid out in wages is funneled back into the economy, which, in turn, maintains jobs and the standard of living for our communities. Cutting spending to education eliminates jobs and weakens today’s economy.

2. Quality teachers: People do not enter the teaching field for the money. Teachers are considerably under-paid compared to equally educated peers who chose a different career path. Teachers are in the classroom because they gain personal satisfaction from helping others. But teaching is a difficult job, and if funding is cut so teachers are not compensated adequately, they will leave the profession and move into a career that may not be as personally satisfying, but will help them pay their bills. This will translate into a high rollover of teaching staff, which means students do not have continuity of service, and learning decreases.

3. Staff to student ratio: When budgets are cut, usually the first thing affected in a school is the staff. There is an attempt to determine which persons/positions are least vital to the education of the fewest number of children. So, staff is cut and those remaining are shuffled around to cover the gap, and it happens again and again, until finally the staff-to-student ratio is unmanageable. One person should not be expected to create, teach and critique quality lessons for 30 to 35 children or teens while keeping track of behaviors, ancillary schedules, para-professionals, special needs students, federal educational standards, emergency procedures, and the list goes on and on. Ultimately, stress for everyone increases as learning decreases.

4. Facility upkeep: Classrooms need to be painted, buildings repaired, windows get broken, roofs spring leaks, and boiler systems go down. All of these situations cost money, and the cost of maintaining these structures needs to be covered in order to have an adequate learning environment for our children.

5. Quality curriculum: Generally speaking, kids need to learn a lot of information in order to have a solid background of understanding. Books and other materials wear out, get used up and must be replaced. The cost of replacing these items in the classroom continues to rise, which means that schools need to have funding available to buy these items so students can continue receiving quality education.

6. Technological advances: Technology is the way of the future. If funding for schools is cut, our students will not have proper instruction on how to use the technology that is currently available, nor will they develop the higher level thought processes needed to create and produce future innovations.

7. Extra-curricular activities: The “extra” component of our schools: music, art classes, competitive speech, etc. are often the first things to be cut when funding is scarce. These activities help to keep young people appropriately engaged with their peers and in school, rather than getting into trouble.

8. Changing role of schools: Schools are providing more services to our children than just reading, writing, and arithmetic. Meals and social services for students are provided, as well as other services such as health screenings and childcare. When we expect these services to be provided to our children, we have to expect to pay for them.

9. By investing in education, we invest in the future: And the future economic stability of our country. Our country’s economic stability is directly related to the education of our youth. If the United States expects to maintain its position in world affairs, our young people must be educated to prepare for that responsibility. If funding for education is cut, our collective knowledge base is reduced, thereby reducing the very foundation upon which this country was built.

10. Higher return on our investment: When education funding is considered an investment in our children and their future, we can see the value of every dollar spent beginning with pre-school classes for at-risk students, through elementary classrooms where teachers have few enough students to give them all the attention they need, to extra-curricular activities that keep students engaged, to grants for disadvantaged or low-income graduates to give them a chance to obtain higher education.  Every dollar spent here means that someone is succeeding. He is contributing and giving back to society. She is providing more opportunities for the next generation. They are not promoting violence or drug use, nor are they in prison, which costs the taxpayer even more money with no positive return.

Ultimately, when it comes to spending money on education, can we afford not to?