Monday, September 12, 2005

Where are our priorities?

Katrina Pushes Issues of Race and Poverty at Bush

$72,812,416,000. That is the total amount appropriated for education in this country this year.

$401,700,000,000 That is the discretionary budget for defense in this country this year.

Imagine for a second what schools could do with $400 billion. Even if we spent half as much on education as we do on war, we could pull a lot of people out of the vicious cycle of poverty. Imagine if teaching was a high paying position, and only highly qualified individuals were instructing children how to think. Imagine if the salaries of administrators were lower, and the money saved could be spent on books and computers. What if we stopped spending the money on new football uniforms and started taking field trips? Why is the United States consistently ranked near the bottom of quality of education in the industrialized world?

Teach a man to fish...

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