Yesterday I Couldn’t Spell Senator, Today I Are One…
The state of Utah is apparently considering the elimination of the 12th grade from public schooling. A movement headed by state senator Chris Buttars, seeing it as a viable (and smart???) way to address the state’s budget gap.
While the knee-jerk reaction to the Buttars plan might be to say “What The F#@$”, he does back his idea up with [almost] valid and very pointed evidential statements, like Utah is “spending a whole lot of money for a whole bunch of kids who aren’t getting anything out of that grade”–though there don’t seem to be many tangible facts supporting that statement.
Still, if it’s true then of course eliminating the grade completely rather than addressing why students in Utah “aren’t getting anything” out of it is the obvious first choice to make. Right?
In addition, it seems Buttars also proposes eliminating the provision of school buses for high school students. That makes sense to me, it’s not like it would unfairly burden children of lower income families or children from rural areas, and besides–walking uphill to and from school, in the snow, with no shoes and only one sock was good enough for our grandparents so it’s good enough for our children too! Right?
I get that most states are facing serious budget issues right now. So are most families and individuals too, the financial crisis of the past few years isn’t lost on many of us.
But if there’s one thing we should have learned from the near financial catastrophe of late it’s that we are heavily connected in the global economy, and moving forward that connection is only going to get stronger and broader. In order to compete in the global markets, after having virtually eliminated manufacturing and blue-collar labor that paid a livable wage to legal citizens here in the U.S., our children are going to need more schooling, not less.
The very notion that state legislators anywhere are discussing the reduction of classroom time for children at a point when it’s so obvious that the discussions we should be having are on eliminating summer vacations and making the school year a 12 month cycle rather than 9 just shows how short-sighted many of the folks we elect truly are.
So, here’s a money saving plan for Utah and any other state to adopt that wouldn’t hurt our children one bit: reduce your state legislative body by 90% and make the remaining 10% unpaid (including perks and benefits) positions.
Sure, some will argue that you couldn’t attract quality leaders if you did that, but the evidence suggests that we’re not really attracting quality leaders now with the current system, and history (which we learnt in skole) shows that many of the most influential and revered people ever were unpaid, or at-least started out in unpaid positions. For example, Gandhi, Alfred Sisley, Jesus Christ…
If anyone wants to argue that bloated salaries, sweet perks and benefits are attracting talent to American politics on a higher scale than Jesus Christ I’m all ears, but otherwise then perhaps this is the discussion state legislatures should be having right now instead of talking about ways to steal even more from our children’s future.
Related articles around the web:
- Republican priorities (horsesass.org)
- Conservatism is a Harsh Mistress (trueslant.com)
About Scott Bannon
A conservative liberal with a perspicuous perspective on American politics.
Scott's writings have been published on dozens of news and opinion outlets both online and off.
