Always an issue is the so called 'balancing of the budget.' I am not even sure when the last time our budget was actually balanced, but it has been a reoccurring problem ever since I started paying attention to politics. Not that I am surprised or anything. Its not like I expect us to wake up one day and say "Oh look, government fixed all our problems." However, one can hope that they can at least put their money where their mouth is.
Politicians are famous for saying whatever it takes to get elected, and in Texas, the magic words are "Education is a top priority." One might ponder why those words are so magical, but the answer is quiet simple, education is not a top priority, which makes constituencies unhappy and gives perfect fodder for politicians to call it their platform. If they were to ever actually resolve this issue and make education a top priority then the magic words would not work and politicians might actually have to work to get elected. Ok, that is pretty cynical, but the lack of effort to make education a top priority really shows Texans where our politicians stand on education. We really need to stop listening to their campaigns and we need to start paying attention to their actions.
An Article in the Texas Tribune by Ross Ramsey really drives the point home. Our politicians continually say education is the top priority and while saying that to TV crews and newspapers, they go up to Capitol Hill and pass a budget that goes from $25.4 billion dedicated to Education down to $21.9 billion. Education is but one example of how its is obvious that our legislators refuse to own up to what they sell. It is frustrating to know how short our government falls sometimes, it almost makes you so ashamed that you want to pretend it isn't happening and stop reading the news. I suppose that brings up the cognitive dissonance issue, though. What we find hard to reconcile, we try to avoid.
All that said, I am sure there is hope somewhere. We could always have an uprising of another party that creates a demand for accountability and authenticity in all parties. Who knows what will happen in the future, but going back to one of my original comments, I really wish politicians would just put their money where their mouth is.
After reading Olive's blog about Texas' money issues and hasty cuts from our education budget, I can agree wholeheartedly where she stands. Education, time and time again, has been claimed to be our number one priority yet we have slashed our budget by a significant amount and are seeing cuts in places that I find unnecessary. As taxpayers, isn't education what our money should be going to? We sit on a Rainy Day Fund that could solve the cut crisis and give back to schools who are now overpopulated and are cutting hundreds of jobs, but do we see anyone trying to do that? No.
ReplyDeleteAs Olive states, it would be ideal to have an audience actually paying attention to the actions of politicians when it comes to our money and where it's being cut and pasted. However, that isn't the case. Maybe if we cut things from education like a few liberal arts classes or certain sport teams with little enrollment per school, we could churn that money to going towards political awareness courses and not only getting the students involved, but motivation to get their families involved and stop the future of our youth from being under-educated about government and the power we have if we utilize it.
For now, we see our money cast astray to other "priorities", but hopefully a politician who is true of his word for education being most important will come along and make sure Texas is in the best of hands.