Politics, Taxes, and Education

Legislatures, Taxes, and the People

I don’t know how it is in your state, but here in Nevada the legislative season is upon us. Every two years the usual group of know-it-alls is reelected and shows up for 120 days of confusion, backbiting, and deal making. This of course is all to the detriment of the people that sent them there in the first place! All of this is leading up to something, so bear with me.

Now, two years ago the legislature with the active support of the state Supreme Court, defied the will of the people by passing a massive tax increase without the constitutionally required two-thirds majority. Needless to say, a number of the Supreme Court Judges are no longer there! Although the same thing can’t be said for most of the politicians that also participated in this little fraud.

Now we jump ahead to this year, and surprise the state is running a surplus of about 12% of the projected state budget for the next two years. The Governor wants to refund some of this money back to the taxpayers, but every special interest group with its hands in the public till wants that money for itself. Anyone want to make a bet on who’ll get the money?

The college and university system and the schools are the first ones with their hands out of course. Now I have a few questions for them. Do the universities really need to provide each president with and excessive salary, housing allowance that could buy my house, and a car every year? Do tenured professors that don’t teach a class really need to be on the payroll at exorbitant salaries? Let’s not forget the schools. Where does all that money go every year? It certainly doesn’t go to educate our school children! Which brings us to another topic.

Education

I’m a member of the baby boom generation and I believe that I received a fairly good education. In high school, I remember that you were required to have so many math and science courses, English every year, a foreign language, history, civics, geography, and physical education. The school year was from just after Labor Day until Memorial Day and we didn’t get a day off for teacher conferences, etc. Class sizes were large at 30 to 40 each and the teachers seemed to be able to teach.

What do we have today? Schools that don’t require enough math and science, English is taught but only if they can’t find an excuse not to, geography is a joke, history is revised almost daily to fit the latest version of the revisionist and no physical education. Is it any wonder that I wouldn’t hire a high school graduate for anything beyond the janitor position?

As for class sizes, I wonder why it is that a teacher today can’t teach unless the class has 14 or fewer students and they have a teachers aid with them? On the other hand, maybe I can when you think about the education that these teachers have had getting their degrees! I don’t think I even need to mention this English as a second language garbage!

The solution to this is obvious of course. First, get rid of the teachers union. A number of dedicated teachers I know would jump for joy if this happened. Second, require real courses with real grades in schools. Third, get rid of English as a second language. Lastly, let qualified people without degrees in “education” become teachers without going back to school. I’m sure that with these actions taken the quality of the course content would rise along with grades, test scores, and the general knowledge of our children. They might even be able compete in today’s world.

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