Lately I've been avoiding the local news like a copy of the Watchtower but tonight I got sucked in. The first story of the evening was about three school districts in northern California that are laying off teachers, office workers, and custodial staff in the next three weeks. As I watched the wife of a soon to be unemployed custodian and thirty year school district employee cry and talk about how after all these years his take home pay is only about 22k, I thought about the future of our children and the Wall Street employees who are home sitting on a deck with a glass of fine wine while enjoying the fruits of my bailout money.
Surely this can't be right. How is it a bank can be too big to fail but we don't think of our children in the same way? Our young people are too RELEVANT to fail yet the more economically challenged our country becomes the more interest there seems to be in saving the necks of the haves. Who will have anything in the future if our children don't receive the quality foundational education needed to thrive? While parents in these districts may have to find new schools for their children to attend because of school closures, some seflish prick from Bear Stearns is preparing to send his child to some overpriced Ivy League school. I'm unable to close my eyes and convince myself that any of this is right.
People are constantly complaining about unruly, uncultured, uneducated, and uncouth children running about with no direction. We fuss when we see them crowding the malls and disturbing our shopping experiences (at least, I do). We shake our heads and roll our eyes when we see our young girls pregnant or our young boys standing on corners investing in lifetime careers in nothingness yet we stand by and watch our educational system, one of the few things that can actually serve to save our children, be destroyed due to greed and manipulation. Where are our priorities?
Teachers who help foster the academic growth of those who end up as Wall Street workers don't even make a third of what these fat cats receive in bonuses let alone annual income. However teachers are losing their homes, cars, and jobs due to no fault of their own. It disturbs me that we live in a society that goes to cuts of the most valuable services before considering the long term impact on our future. These cuts to our educational budget will only lead to our children "cutting up" or not making the cut when it comes time to apply for a decent college to attend. The last I checked, cuts of any kind have served no purpose other than to hurt.
