Nature of State: Education Budgets

After reading a recent blog by my colleague Raymond W regarding education cuts, I began to give the matter great thought.  I found my colleague's introduction quite interesting.  He began by polling a group of middle schoolers about their opinion of school budget cuts.  Even at this young age, the children already had a distinct understanding of the importance of adequate budgets and the damage lack of funds can have on a school.  Too many children today feel the ravages of under budgeted schools as classes lack in technology and advanced teachers.

As a school student myself (in a more advanced stage of course), I too have a very strong opinion of the need for school funding.  At UT, many of the budget cuts have affected the ability to continue classes in the order that most benefit us.  It was always difficult to get into language courses, and now as those classes have diminished in numbers, it is almost impossible.  These effects are minimal compared to the effects I see in our public schools.  I am a mentor at several elementary schools in East Austin, working with different age groups.  We often go to play in the library that can hardly be called such or playgrounds with only swing sets.  Teachers restrict my 30 minutes with them because I take them away from the ever-present TAKS test and the holy grail it is.  It is a shame that schools exist in such dismal shape, but it makes me ever more sad to see the education system continually focused on a test that does little to teach our children what we truly need.

My colleague also touches on this.  He was disappointed that the government "stiffed us and hid behind an unnecessary war, for which there seemed to be no shortage of extra cash."  While I agree that the government did stiff us, I don't blame the war.  As mentioned in a previous post, the war following 9/11 was necessary at the time, but should not have been at the sake of our children either.  Raymond mentioned several areas that "fat" needs to be trimmed, and all of those are true especially his fact that education is already bare boned enough.  However, I don't believe the blame lies solely in the path of the war.  The battle of budget is not between two enemies but many contenders, and it is a matter of who can scream the loudest, and sadly, school children just can't pull that weight.