As many of you know, President Obama has proposed an $800+ billion economic stimulus package aimed at jump-starting our economy. Specifically, there is an astonishing $140 billion earmarked for education. My first impression… wow! My second thought wonders whether money is just being used to coverup the real problem. The old adage, “The road to hell is often paved with good intentions” comes to mind.
The TImes Herald (http://www.timesherald.com/articles/2009/01/21/business/doc4978032a3d7d2604933205.txt) presents a good breakdown of the education package. There are increases to grants and loans, additional funding for work-study, and even various technology upgrades. Yet, nothing that actually fixes education is even mentioned. Reform of our educational system is what is needed. Parents, just dropping off their children at the door of a school and not taking part in their education is the problem; students being allowed to just slide through our schools is the problem; an educational system that focuses on the quantity of graduates instead of the quality of graduates is the problem.
An editorial in this morning’s edition of The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/04/opinion/04wed1.html?_r=1) sums up these thoughts well, “Congress is doing the right thing by helping the states stave off layoffs and other problems. But the stimulus will fail Americans in crucial ways if Congress squanders the opportunity to push the country’s schools toward long-overdue reform and allows the education money to be turned into more pork-barrel spending.”
Reform is needed, not money.
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