How Much is Too Much?
I heard a news report on the radio a few days ago about a large number of highschool students, their teachers, and families staging a walkout of their local highschools because the budget proposed by the California Governor and legislature proposes large across-the-board cuts in all areas of state spending, including education. The students were irate because they claim their districts are already suffering from overcrowding, not enough resource funds, and not enough teachers; further cuts would make the situation worse.
The protests by the students is only one of many vocal complaints being heard in
My question for you isn’t whether or not any particular group is justified in their demand to keep their budget from being slashed. My question is when faced with overwhelming deficit projections, and an economy in recession, what is the responsibility of the individual and special interest group to help rectify the damage? As a society, we seem more than willing to ask the richest amongst us for even more help, but does that mean the disadvantaged have no responsibility to change?
I ask this because despite all the research indicating how beneficial after-school programs in athletics and the arts are to helping kids, the entire idea of beyond-basic preparatory education is relatively recent. When the nation was founded, the majority of the citizens didn’t receive education past the early grades: and extra curricular sports and music being offered at school was unheard of. If we are going to ask people to pay more taxes and require city service workers to take pay cuts, should we just allow the children and youth to continue in blithe ignorance of the current state of the nation? That would be like parents who wear rags, so their kids can dress in the latest designer fashions.
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