A sobering look at Georgia's educational budget woes

http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/schools-fear-budget-crash-352509.html

 

Well, as long as the football team gets their new uniforms, it's all good.

 

Insert state name here.

 

Reason No. 1 Hewitt won't be canned at Georgia Tech. They owe him a hair over $7 million if they fire him.

 

This is happening around the country, and it's got to change. Our education system is seriously broken, from the way we fund it to the way we administer it to the way we evaluate it. The current generation of students is going to be the one of the most educated in our nation's history in terms of numbers of high school and college graduates. It's going to be one of the least educated in our nation's history in terms of actual achievement and learning used to get those degrees. Our public schools are beyond broken. Schools should be the bastion of social advancement in a healthy democracy. Ours are a prime example of how backward our leadership really is.

 

Teachers get rewarded en masse in labor deals in many states. Salary increases every year, decent benefits and tenure. The challenge is finding a way to reward the best teachers that's fair.

 

In most every school district in our coverage area, the teachers pay zero for their health insurance. Zero.

My daughter has 3+ years left before graduating. I hope the budget cuts between now and then to pay for such nonsense don't kill the quality of her education. At least my son is escaping this June.

 

So you want your daughter to receive a quality public education, but on the other hand teachers make too much money? There's a certain conflict between those two views. If she went in for surgery, would you complain about what the doctors make?

 

I pay about $480 a month to add my wife and daughter, but the plan is kick ass.

 

There is none.

Imagine I told you and another writer that the two of you are judged on the number of headlines you generate each year. I give you Chris Hoke and I give him Ben Roethlisberger. Even though you might be the better writer, the writer with Roethlisberger will have better results.

 

It's worse in states that had rapid growth in the past 10-15 years.

Pittsburgh was pretty shitty in 2000 and it's pretty shitty in 2010.

California was freeking booming in 2000 and now it is a wasteland.

 

This is so true in California.

I read a study where in the past 10 years the "criminal justice" per capita spending increased approx. 125% but education spending was flat. What kind of priorities are being emphasized there?

The voters need to wake up (myself included) and get the message out to the legislatures (who hold the purse strings) that this is unacceptable. We will not stand for any further neglect of our public education system and that our public education system needs to be priority no. 1. Until that happens, the education system will continue to suffer.