I was instantly drawn to this blog solely on the basis of the youtube video with the picture of the little girl holding the 'Will work 4 pre-k' sign. That was rough.
In Education: Tell It Like It Is, Michael Hurta presents the education cuts in the legislature in the rawest and sugar coated free way. He makes an obviously valid point in bashing Republicans in being the culprits of the state's educational downfall. There is no question or possible way to doubt that this will be extrememly detrimental to not only our state, but also to our entire nation's future.
House Bill 2485 seems to delineate the most rational and pragmatic solution- at least it would prevent further damaging effects. As the writer says, Representative Scott Hochberg wouldn't even vote for the bill he created himself, but at least it would place all schools at an equilibrium. It's a tremendous shame that we've dug ourselves in to a financial hole so deep that it is now having damaging effects the education system, but this bill it's 1,000 times more reasonable than denying a good education to our nation's future.
Along with the kids, are teachers. It seems like this bill would prevent many of them from losing their jobs. And of course there will be cuts, but probably not as much then if left in the hands of others. There's no denying that all districts will be losing a ton of money, that is more than clear, but it seems that at this point there is no other way around it.
It seems really sad that pulling funds from education is now necessary because of poorly made decisions in the past. Hopefully some other solution is found because this should be a last resort. Maybe the all mighty power of the written/typed/shouted word can prevent this from happening. New ideas could have the power to avoid this all together.
In the mean time, this bill could be a good starting line in at least preventing further deteriorating effects. It's unfortunate that this is the best solution, but it's better than nothing. At least it's a jumping off point. I guess the silver lining is that we're in it so deep, there's no way other than up from here.
