Economic Hard Times and Education

As Democrats we hear candidates during the campaign tell us how very important education is to the future of our children. All of the candidates tell supporters how much they care about education and how they will make it a major priority once they are elected. Well the election is over and it is now time to face the music of budget cuts in our state so what do you want to bet that the first item to be cut from the budget is education and educational wages in this state. The cold hard truth is that most elected official could care less about education and our children. Our children are not the people who give these elected officials large sums of money during their campaigns so why should they care about their future. Our children are not the ones that attend private parties with these elected officials so they can’t put a face to the people they will harm.

The sad truth is that our educational employees in this state are not paid anywhere near what they are worth. Educational support staff at the college level gets paid less than $25,000 a year with far less benefits then those earning over $100,000 and at the K-12 level they are paid $12,000 a year which is not enough to raise a family on in this state but why should elected official care about those people right.

So what happened to all of that support for educational issues and educational employees that these elected official claimed to have during the campaign period? Why are management positions that pay over $100,000 with all kinds of perks not even being looked at when we talk about budget cuts? The president of my college got an 11% raise and a car allowance this year while I got nothing and drive a car that may not last until next week. Just think how few jobs would have to be cut to save the same amount of money. Which is more important to those elected official the students and the people who work hard with them every day or the people they go to parties with in the evenings.

We should all watch carefully over the next few months to see just what gets cut from the budget of this state so we can remember well next time we vote for an elected official.