A key campaign topic for the Pennsylvania's governor race was public education spending. In the commercials and advertising on this topic, Governor Corbett was portrayed as the person who cut upwards of $1 billion from public education. All I know is that according to the State Dept. of Education's web portal, the amount of state funding for education remained the same for the past two school years. But I digress.
A review of this same web site shows that the Commonwealth of PA spends $15,341.00 per student for each one of the state's 1.8 million children enrolled in grades K-12. Revenue funding for education is broken down roughly as 58% (local property taxes), 36% state and 6% between federal and other sources. Broken down further, each one of the state's 12.77 million residents pays on average $832.00 each year per student for public education.
My point of this post is ask a question to those who say we don't spend enough on public education. In fact, I only use the example of education funding to show real numbers. Inserting the word "welfare or transportation" in place of the word "education" works as well. I would like for politicians, activists, school boards, educators, department secretaries, political parties, etc., to put an exact figure on what they need in order to fund their departments or causes. I am growing sick and tired of politicians and activists saying, "if only we had more money, then we could solve 'X' problem." Again, how much is enough? What do you need? If education is suffering, should we spend $17,546.09 per student? Or, would $20,065.98 be enough?
I fully understand that as the years go by, costs increase. I get it. But, just because you cut funding does not necessarily mean that results need to suffer. Listen folks: throwing more money at a problem does not mean that the problem will get fixed. Maybe if people would start using their brains instead of someone else's bank accounts, we could begin to increase our results. Yes, we do need money. However, the quick fix is not just asking for more.
So the next time you are talking to activists or politicians or school board members and they say, "if only we had more money", ask them this question: "Give me a specific dollar amount you need in order for everything to be perfect?" My guess is, you will not get it.
A review of this same web site shows that the Commonwealth of PA spends $15,341.00 per student for each one of the state's 1.8 million children enrolled in grades K-12. Revenue funding for education is broken down roughly as 58% (local property taxes), 36% state and 6% between federal and other sources. Broken down further, each one of the state's 12.77 million residents pays on average $832.00 each year per student for public education.
My point of this post is ask a question to those who say we don't spend enough on public education. In fact, I only use the example of education funding to show real numbers. Inserting the word "welfare or transportation" in place of the word "education" works as well. I would like for politicians, activists, school boards, educators, department secretaries, political parties, etc., to put an exact figure on what they need in order to fund their departments or causes. I am growing sick and tired of politicians and activists saying, "if only we had more money, then we could solve 'X' problem." Again, how much is enough? What do you need? If education is suffering, should we spend $17,546.09 per student? Or, would $20,065.98 be enough?
I fully understand that as the years go by, costs increase. I get it. But, just because you cut funding does not necessarily mean that results need to suffer. Listen folks: throwing more money at a problem does not mean that the problem will get fixed. Maybe if people would start using their brains instead of someone else's bank accounts, we could begin to increase our results. Yes, we do need money. However, the quick fix is not just asking for more.
- BELIEVE that more money doesn't necessarily solve the issues we face
- ACT by using your brain instead
- SERVE others by being a good steward of what is given to you
So the next time you are talking to activists or politicians or school board members and they say, "if only we had more money", ask them this question: "Give me a specific dollar amount you need in order for everything to be perfect?" My guess is, you will not get it.
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