Cost of War \ Cost of Education
It came out 2 weeks ago that the U.S. taxpayer cost of the Iraq War is now 360,322,292,000. 360 billion dollars, What does that mean?
We instead could have funded 6,244,437 new public school teachers across the US.
-10,300 in Denver alone (costofwar.com)
We could have funded 17million 4-year college scholarships across the US.
-28,000 in Denver alone. (costofwar.com)
Soon we will move close to half a trillion dollars spent on the Iraq War, how do you feel as a taxpayer? as a teacher in public education? Supporting the United States men and women serving in the military is important, but are our current policies doing them or us justice?
Thoughts?
Additional Articles :
Study: World falling behind on 2015 education goal (The United States is currently spending about $8 billion a month on the Iraq war.)
http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/01/18/education.world.reut/index.html
'$100m gap' in US Iraq spending
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4515397.stm
Where your income tax really goes?
http://www.warresisters.org/piechart.htm
We instead could have funded 6,244,437 new public school teachers across the US.
-10,300 in Denver alone (costofwar.com)
We could have funded 17million 4-year college scholarships across the US.
-28,000 in Denver alone. (costofwar.com)
Soon we will move close to half a trillion dollars spent on the Iraq War, how do you feel as a taxpayer? as a teacher in public education? Supporting the United States men and women serving in the military is important, but are our current policies doing them or us justice?
Thoughts?
Additional Articles :
Study: World falling behind on 2015 education goal (The United States is currently spending about $8 billion a month on the Iraq war.)
http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/01/18/education.world.reut/index.html
'$100m gap' in US Iraq spending
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4515397.stm
Where your income tax really goes?
http://www.warresisters.org/piechart.htm
posted by aaron b at 9:04 AM
9 Comments:
I lived Arizona in education and so many teachers are leaving the profession because of the lack of support. Education on a normal basis in 49/50 in funding and pay, but military spending is at least in the top 5 in the nation per capita. We blame teachers for a student's failure without consider what the teacher is up against.
Very good point Aaron, but what would all of these great things be without the freedom that our county has had and continues to have to fight for?
Wow! These numbers really hit home for me, Aaron! I am so proud of being a teacher but feel that many of people in the mainstream don't take us seriously. Did you know that public education has one of the highest pools of professionals with Master's Degree's? I wish I could site this with where I read it, but can't remember. Anyway, with the kind of top notch professionals we have in education you would think that people would want to support higher wages, which in turn would help students achieve at higher levels because more quality people would stay. It is true that may people leave this field in their first 3 years due to stress, workload, pay, etc. Thus, the mentor program was created at the site level to provide support. Is that enough?
As far as the war goes, I am anxious to hear the Presidents State of the Union this evening and to hear about what plans are out there. I believe the winds of change are beginning to blow!
I don't like when people complain about the lack of money and support for education. As a teacher you know what you are getting into. We all know that teacher's are underpaid, we also know that many schools are underfunded. What teacher's should do, is get more involved. How many of the new teachers are part of the union? If you are a member, are you active? Do you you attend meetings? Money is being spent on the war because lobbyist are asking the local, state and federal goverments to spend the money. If more teachers were members and active in their union then the CEA and NEA could get more things accomplished. If you are a member then you get the monthly issue of NEA Today and you can read about the accomplishments of the union. Your union is really good at getting more for you and your school. How many people would like fewer students in their classes, more pay, better benefits? This is were your union works for you. I agree that much of the money being spent on the war is not needed, however, we are at war and we must protect the soldiers that are protecting us.
Educational policy is much more complex than other policy areas because of the many levels and players involved in the system. This complexity lends itself to a reality that it is difficult to change what happens in the education field. Though Pat's comments about the union are well heard and understood, it takes more than a union to create change in education. A piece of this is that because there are so many levels and players in the field, there is a huge disconnect between policy and practice, and it takes a much longer time for outcomes to be examined. Those involved in the education policy arena usually don't want to wait around to see the results. Taxpayers are more willing to see their money go to efforts such as the war, because they can actually see (or believe they can) the results. The sad thing is that education is terribly underfunded in the US, particularly in Colorado. I believe that Colorado ranks 48/50 in educational spending. As pracitioners, it should be our goal to prove to outsiders that what we do does pay off and it is worth it to invest in education. This is the challenge.
P.S. I don't belong to the Union because I don't feel that the Union can accurately represent my needs as a counselor... this is a whole different can of worms!
In Pennsylvania, they had a $40K to start initiative. This was a great thing for first year teachers because if you had a master's degree you were starting at at least $45K. I was lucky enough to work in a great school district that valued teachers enough to join the initiative and provide students with the best candidates that they could find. Unfortunately, I also knew teachers who worked in Philadelphia public schools who weren't making what I was making after 8 years even with a master's. It comes down to the dedication of the district to providing top quality instructors for their students.
The interesting thing about the schools that began the $40K to start initiative is that the schools around them joined up as well and teachers stopped looking at what they could make and started looking at the values and missions of the schools in which they worked.
The down side of this is that it made moving to Colorado something of a financial hardship because I had grown accustomed to making quite a bit more than I can make here no matter where I work.
HHHMMMM.... I have so many responses. Thanks you guys for getting things rolling.
CJ - I would love to hear more on your idea. Are you saying that freedom is the core value and the others follow that one?
I think that Melissa is right - I agree that people do not always take teachers seriously. For starters, eveyone has been to school and has their own value of that experience. People always tell me, "When I was in school..." and then I hear about their experience. There aren't many other professions that eveyone else has experienced. For example, I never hear anyone say to a doctor, "When I do open heart surgery...." Does this make sense?
Secondly, I think that as teachers we can be are own worst enemies too. I think we are insecure about education as a profession and we do things to muddy the waters.
Finally, if we are going to talk about education and financial resources - my beef is class size. I am a union member and believe stronbly in that membership for all educators. I am anxious to see when and if that issue gets addressed in the future. I have a first grade son in a tiny classroom with 26 other kids. Is there any research that justifies that number?
I look forward to more discussion on this.
With the limited funding of our schools in this state, I think it's time to search for alternate forms of funding. Corporate sponsors, maybe?
I wonder if more money was spent on education, would we have less need to spend money on war? I know that sounds simplistic, yet it seems to me that a more educated population would likely participate more in government decision and policy making. We pride ourselves on being the world’s leading democracy, however, few citizens participate directly in government. I include myself in this last statement - I vote but it has been a long time since I actively participated in a school board meeting or attended a city council meeting. Would a better educated population have a better standard of living and more time to invest in governmental decisions? Would a positive form of peer pressure develop in which the expectation was to actively participate in local, state, and national decisions?
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