My son started Kindergarten this year. This was a big transition for him... and me. For him it was a transition to an all day school and the rigors of learning his ABC's and 123's. For me, it was learning that I was taking on a voluntary part-time job without my knowledge. It seems that no matter the school, fundraisers are an integral part of their budget. Even high class private schools have fundraisers. I have been inundated with information on how this school needs these extra funds and don't I care about my son's education? If I did, I would do all I could to raise more funds for the school. I am doing a few things, but honestly, I have other things I need to do. Unfortunately, one of those things is fundraising for my son's soccer team. If it is not one thing it is another...
I asked my mom if she remembers having to do lots of fundraising for my brother's and my education. She said there was a little, but not like it is today. It seems like these things are no longer our city's, state's, or country's priority. And that is a sad thing. A few years ago, our school district had to shut down 6 schools. It is a large school district, but I think that any time a school is shut down, it is a tragedy.
So why are we having to do so much more fund-raising now a days? Well, things everywhere have been cut back. Taxes have been cut as well, and while that may put more money in people's pockets, it also takes it away from things like education. Education is an investment. If you are investing in possible workers for your company, wouldn't you want them to be well educated? Wouldn't that make your business better in the future? But no, nobody is thinking like that now. Right now, it is all about what is wrong with education and government and we should cut it back; not thinking about who that could hurt or how far those repercussions could last.
I agree that budgets need to be balanced and cut are necessary. Unnecessary waste needs to be cut, but lets not throw out the baby with the bathwater. If we cut too much, too soon we could be heading to losing our middle class and on our way to becoming a third world country. I have a feeling that the extremely rich would not mind that at all, as long as they got to keep as much money as possible. But for the rest of us, things would get a lot harder. Our middle class that was built in the early to middle part of the last century made our country strong. Do we really want to lose that?
Having watched the Occupy Wall Street and other protests around the country, I certainly understand their point of view. Since I have children, I am not going out to protest. Sorry, but my kids come first. There is an excellent book by Tracy Chavlier called “Falling Angels”. It is the story of suffragettes in England at the turn of the century. Yes, they were doing important work, but it also showed how their children suffered because their Mother's thought that protesting was more important than raising their children. I just cannot do that, protesting is for the young and angry. Most of the rest of us are too busy to keep up with that. But it does not mean that we do not understand where they are coming from.
I am one of the 99%. It seems that more importance is being placed on material things than extremely important things like education. We have seen a crest of success in this country, but now it is over, so many children are no longer doing better than their parents. Are we witnessing the decline of the United States of America? I will try to vote in a way to slow it down and hope that my children will still do better than me. It may not be protesting, but it is the easiest way every citizen to tell our leaders what our priorities are for the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment