Funding for education is on the forefront of just about everyone’s mind in America these days. After several states passed legislation to approve massive education budget cuts to reduce their deficits, the subsequent teacher layoffs have created a massive uproar across the nation.
That being said, a highly-debated $23 billion measure sponsored by Rep. David R. Obey, the Wisconsin Democrat who chairs the House Appropriations Committee to lessen the blog of the impending teaching layoffs is facing opposition from both sides of the party lines for varying reasons including increasing the already burgeoning federal deficit. Due to a recent stalwart, the bill was recently pulled from congressional consideration.
According to Education Week, the bill still has a chance of passing, but the arguments against it are simmering.
“What’s happening now is that these big [spending] numbers that folks on [Capitol Hill] were comfortable with a year ago, they are increasingly less comfortable,” said Jason DeLisle, the director of the federal education budget project at the New America Foundation, a think tank in Washington.
“Twenty-three billion is a big number,” he said. “We’re going into an election, and [we’ve seen] trillion-dollar, back-to-back deficits. … I think we’re reaching the breaking point politically.”
Realistically, there is a real need for these funds, both to fight the heavy losses teaching staffs are facing for the 2010-2011 school year, but also to increase Pell Grant funds for potential college applications. In a slowly recovering economy, these funds offer a renewed potential for qualifying applicants to receive college money.
The real facts are these:
1. Our already suffering schools cannot perform without enough teachers.
2. Our economy is on the mend and our national deficit is a very real problem.
3. Without a future of children properly educated with a real option for a college education despite their geographic or financial background, our economy will become that of under-educated tradesman, and we will slowly lose our ability to compete on a global scale.
4. Without the ability to compete with our global neighbors on the same level, the federal deficit will take on a decreased focus as we lose our place as the world’s top nation.
This legislation has to pass, to give our kids and our country a real shot of maintaining our current global positioning, with the hope of surpassing other countries in the education race, and ultimately in the global economy.
Posted By: Paul Adams
Wednesday, June 16th 2010 at 12:58PM
You can also
click
here to view all posts by this author...
