School Taxes!

       What is it about taxes and schools? People seem to be against anything that might cost a little more in taxes. No matter if it means better or worse education. In fact it seems there are a lot of folks out there that believe less tax money means better education. Maybe they don't actually think that, they just don't want their taxes to go up, no matter what. Fair enough, but we still need to improve our education in this country. Because America is falling behind other countries in that department.
       Of course even in that department, some folks don't believe it for one minute. Some folks don't care, they still won't vote for higher taxes. How come? Well, partly because some folks don't have any kids in school now, so why should I have to pay for somebody else's kids. Of course somebody else paid for your kids and for you to get a good education. Opps, ears are now closed.
       Here's another argument; When you get ready to retire, who's gonna pay for your retirement? It'll have to be the kids in school today or the near future. Social Security and the economy that you will be forced to depend upon will be forced to depend upon the level of education and the caliber of that education these kids have received. That's because the countries with the best educational systems will get the best jobs. And that will determine those country's economies and ours.
       So while more money just thrown at the current system probably won't help much, cutting teachers and programs will hurt. What needs to happen is politicians need to quit ignoring and complaining about our educational system and start working to redesign it. Look at the countries that are excelling in education. Countries like South Korea, Finland and even Canada. How can we claim some programs are too hard for our kids when Canadian kids are doing these programs and surpassing our kids? We should be ashamed that we're not holding our kids to a higher standard.
       I don't blame folks for not wanting to pay higher taxes for a system that's not producing the way we need it to. But when new approaches are suggested, we need to stand behind them. That didn't happen in Colorado this week. When inequality is killing the chances for success for poor communities and their children, we need to correct the imbalance. That didn't happen in Colorado this week either. Ya know what that is? That's just plain DUMB. Penny wise and pound foolish.