Wednesday, March 10, 2010

‘Balancing the budget on the backs of kids’


Maybe the Republican-controlled Legislature needs a metaphor to understand the gravity of once again reducing the budget for public education.

Putting the squeeze on schools is the equivalent of ordering the Pentagon to reduce spending on ammunition for combat soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Public school students are very much like military ammunition—they're the necessary firepower for improving and enlarging the pool of well-schooled young Idahoans to fulfill the state's aspirations and ambitions to attract more industry that in turn requires more skilled workers.

Even as Idaho's population of families increases, thus requiring more school facilities, lawmakers are shrinking spending as a percentage of need.

As state Sen. Diane Bilyeu, D-Pocatello, lamented the other day as drastic cuts were voted in school spending, "We're balancing the state budget on the backs of the kids and that is wrong."

Here's a portrait that perhaps is a clue as to how politicians have treated education over the years—as some bothersome obligation.

Idaho continues to be voted by various business organizations and publications as one of the top 20 states for doing business—that is, business friendly, especially on taxes.

However, one major business organization, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, awards no such high ratings to the state's educational system.

The chamber awards Idaho's education benchmarks a consistent grade of C in academic achievement, rigors of education standards, post-secondary and workforce readiness, 21st-century teaching force, school management, finance and staffing.

A jarring grade of F was slapped by the national chamber on the quality of Idaho's education data.

Is this what Idaho parents and business executives want of their school system—mediocrity symbolized by grades of C and a political establishment known for regarding public schools so dismissively?

How dare any legislator complain about ho-hum academic achievement after voting to shrink funds for schooling?

Next to health care, nothing speaks louder about a state's ambitions and goals than its schools. If those who dole out funds place education low on priorities, then results will be just what the old saw says—"You get what you pay for."

When legislators finally realize the long-term damage they've done over the years to the state's schools by creating an A-grade tax atmosphere for business but a C-grade condition for education, the catch-up will be costly, politically and financially.




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