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Don’t sacrifice education in quest to cut US budget

by Erik Berthelsen - 03/29/11 11:03 PM ET

It’s time for the bleeding to stop. It’s time someone stepped in and put the brakes on this runaway train.

{mosads}What’s needed? Emergency funding — and fast, so we can save our schools, save our teachers and, more importantly, save our children.

If the threatened cuts to public education come to fruition, I can only imagine a spike in drop-out rates. These kids will not be able to keep up with future emerging technologies to maintain a decent quality of life. Furthermore, this country will continue to fall further behind in the education race with other nations.

It is easy for federal, state and local governments to sit back and enact legislation from the hallowed halls of Congress and in their comfy state and local offices. But, I challenge each and every member of government to visit any local public school classroom and imagine what it will be like, shoving in 35 to 50-plus students and then asking teachers to educate them with no more pay, no more tools and no more time.

It’s time to enact emergency legislation to fund the schools and stop the measures designed to cripple or kill these public teaching institutions. Stop laying off educators and stop the destruction of public education.

After all, these are our leaders of tomorrow.

Dallas

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