We Do Need An Education

Posted on 01/28/2009 at 12:10 am by JumpyPants

Posted by JumpyPants

Is there a magic bullet to creating a better future, one in which the planet starts to get better, the economy is robust yet equitable, and humanism catches up with technology?

Sure there is: education.

Education is the key to a real future not just for America but for the planet. And guess who knows this? That’s right: President Obama. Which is why his stimulus package is all about the education:

The proposed emergency expenditures on nearly every realm of education, including school renovation, special education, Head Start and grants to needy college students, would amount to the largest increase in federal aid since Washington began to spend significantly on education after World War II.

Biggest federal investment in education since WWII. Wow. That’s…the last several decades are making so much more sense.

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  • http://www.dugshop.com Paula Bonhomme

    I’m sure Boehner and the Big Macs (McCain, McConnell) will find something to whine about here too.Gosh, Boehner and the Big Macs sounds like the kind of band I’d want to see, now that MC Rove has retired and is on his way upriver for at least nickel’s worth.

  • http://www.intoxination.net Jamie

    And Dylan Ratigan on Morning Joe this morning said that putting money into education is “wasting money”.Wow – with thinking like that we should be number 1 in everything! /snark

  • jmrunning3

    My mother is a retired 1st grade public school teacher and union member. She was incredibly dedicated, but in the end she lost that dedication because of the “War on Education”.I think I finally understand the intense desire to undermine PUBLIC education in favor or PRIVATE. Public education should be set up to encourage creative thinking, but also critical thinking. It’s that critical thinking that is such a threat to the “Boner’s” and Macs and the right in general. Critical thinking means questioning and investigating, rather than obediently accepting.If President Obama succeeds in this and turns our public education standards around, the right could conceivably shrivel up and blow away in the wind or, at the very least become marginalized.

  • http://www.politicalpartypooper.wordpress.com/ politicalpartypooper

    Upping education funding is fine, so long as REAL benchmarks are demanded. It’s time to make our schools performance oriented, and not union oriented, as in, “You’re a teacher, therefore, unless you have sex with one of your students, you basically cannot be fired.”One major education piece that should be MANDATORY: four high school semesters of basic economics. You know, like budgeting, living within your means, insurance basics, investing basics, checkbook maintenance, job searching. Without this kind of education in our schools being mandatory, citizens will continue to be the complete uneducated people I meet in my job every day.It’s amazing. When I ask “How much after tax money do you spend in a month?” maybe one person in ten can actually answer that question to within one hundred dollars. The other ninety percent have absolutely no clue. If we don’t change that, forget fixing the economy, it won’t do any good.

  • Tom

    Who is spreading the myth that so much money is being spent on education? I’ve reviewed the bill. Less is being spent on education than on mass transit. The summary of the bill just restates what will be spent on education six times. The administration says that we will renovate 10,000 schools. Guess what? We have 97,000 public schools in America — the vast majority built in the 50s and 60s. These schools were designed to teach a 19th Century curriculum to prepare students for 20th Century jobs that no longer exist. They weren’t built with energy efficiency in mind. Personal computers, technology and the net? We have only 14 million computers for 50,000,000 public school students.Our school district only receives 3% of its budget from the feds, yet they dictate how we spend 80% of our funds. We have been victimized by the right-wing War on Education for so long, taxpayers haven’t approved a local tax increase in 20 years. We can’t fund schools because it is more important to eliminate “job killing taxes”.And what does our local government want to do with stimulus funds??? Dump $70 million federal tax dollars into sprucing up two retail malls!!! Our school district is not unique. I’m sure Congress could put another $500 billion into educational infrastructure and still not meet all of the needs of America’s public schools.