the Informer

Education is the foundation of our society. It is fundamental to the advancement of this country and its future success.
To keep our world status and compete in the ever-expanding global economy, education is the key component. If all these things are true, then why is education the first thing to be cut when state’s cut the budget?

Yes, we are college students and though some of our siblings are still in elementary, middle and high school, you might be thinking that it has no direct impact on us as college students, but it does. As scary as it sounds we will be having children in the near future and these current budget cuts are not only detrimental to the current students in public schools but also to the future students who have yet to enter school.

Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey made his budget speech last week and intends to cut almost $1 billion in state funding to school districts. For many districts this means at least 50 to 100 percent of their funding for the next school year.

How are they going to make up the deficit? By cutting teachers, support staff and programs that don’t fit the traditional mold of English, math and science courses.

So a child receiving a well-rounded education is out of the question. Psychology shows us that there are many different kinds of intelligence and with these cuts some children will never reach their full potential with their intelligence.
I was talking to one of my friends who I went to high school with and she was telling me about a lecture she attended. The lecturer had stated the biggest problem with education reform is that it doesn’t have the backing of the elite. In the past, most reform has a surge of support from the elite class but that’s not the case now.

The elite class and the middle class are further divided because of the different options for education. If the elite class doesn’t approve of the public education system, they can just opt out. They can afford to send their children to private schools and avoid public education, which only hinders public education reform.

This also leads to public education getting shafted when it comes time for budget cuts.
Christie is making these cuts to public education but his children attend private school. So what investment does he have in public schools? Apparently he doesn’t place much importance on it. I understand he is trying to cut New Jersey’s deficit of $10 billion but education is not the way to do it. Not only are you hurting the children’s education you are also hurting taxpayers.

The loss has to be made up somehow. Schools can’t survive on zero funding from the state so they will need to raise taxes in order to make up some of the loss.

But it’s only public schools that are suffering, charter schools are not receiving any loss of funding. Charters schools are an alternative form of public education, there is no tuition and they are usually specialized programs. Charter schools get funding when states transfer the per-pupil aid from the public school to the charter school.

This is not only happening in New Jersey but around the country, many states are sacrificing education in light of the poor economical times. Some have gone so far as to close some public schools completely. But don’t you need educated individuals in order to preserve and create a more stable economic future?

Wouldn’t it be prudent to invest in education? This investment will have long lasting effects of at least 60 or more years based on the average life span.

It is frustrating to see how the state governments can treat education as means to reduce state debt. This will ultimately hurt the children and the future of this nation.