Increasing Our Children's Potential. by Chris Corkery

Before we get into the emotional aspects of this argument, lets look at the facts. By first having these numbers on our minds, we can see the reasoning behind the points made. First off, in 2010, the US spent 1.32% of its national budget on education, while the Department of Veterans affairs gets 16.13, and the Department of Defense spent 18.74% of the budget. Social Security makes up 19.63% of the budget at the top of the list. On average, $10,591 is spent on each student in a school year. On average we spend almost three times as much on prisoners as we do on our children. In 2007 it cost about $30,600 to keep a prisoner in jail for a year.

As we can see there is a very high disparity in the budget allocations of this country. Not all states have underfunded schools. Many states receive high federal funding and it is matched with local government budget spending. So some states can gain access to rather decent education facilities. Some states however receive little funding from their states and the graduation rate shows. The New England region has seen wonderful increases in graduation rates and have some of the highest per student spending in the country. New York has an interesting problem. They spend the second most money per student yet they still fall behind on graduation rates. The reason this happens is because the urban areas of New York City receive very little funding in comparison to the suburban parts of New York State. Thus the majority of people live in the urban part of the city and thus the graduation rate suffers. In areas like the Southern US, spending on education is at a minimum. The only place worse than the south is Idaho, Utah, and Arizona where they spend just a little bit less than Tennessee. The graduation rates in the South very much reflect the spending they put into it. Idaho and Utah are strange as they both have graduation rates over 70% yet spend some of the least on education in the country. The main reason for this is the population size of these states is tiny in comparison to their southern counterparts. While Tennessee may spend 6,000 dollars on a student, Utah spends only a little over 5,000 dollars, but there is a big difference in having 5000 dollars per student for a class of 12 -15 students in Utah, while Tennessee has 6000 dollars to spend on 40+ students in one class.

So what should be done? First there needs to be a massive budget reallocation. Education should be one of the top three things our federal government spends its money on. It is so important to educate people as it leads to better social environments for people and allows for them to make better decisions when voting. The way we find answers to problems is by using our minds and figuring it out. If we cut spending to education, this skill of the American people will atrophy. Second we need to make sure that there are enough teachers who are paid well for their hard work to teach classes no larger than 12 students. Putting more than that many people of any age in a room and you will find yourself having trouble keeping all of them interested in what is being studied. A teacher cannot be effective in their occupation when they are stretched thin.

As tax payers, we all have invested money into our nations education. As investors we should all be interested in protecting our investments. Our schools should be protected from budget cuts and the teachers should be well compensated for doing such a difficult job. Some may retort saying that we shouldn’t protect bad teachers, and so not allowing them to unionize will do just that. Inside of a union there are systems in place to evaluate the effectiveness of each teacher. It should not be the federal governments job to police teachers and their evaluations. That should be left to the actual educators involved. Parents and staff should work together to find the path best suited for their child. In this country, protecting our education system is the same as protecting our children.

Works Cited

" 2011 Budget of the U.S. Government.." United States Office of Management and Budget. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Feb. 2010. <www.gao.gov/financial/fy2010/10frusg.pdf>.

"Background & Analysis." Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2012. <http://febp.newamerica.net/background-analysis/school-finance>.

Lips, Dan. "Does Spending More on Education Improve Academic Achievement?." Conservative Policy Research and Analysis. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2012. <http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2008/09/does-spending-more-on-education-improve-academic-achievement>.

Wilde, Marian. "The Ins and Outs of School Finance - Fundraising | GreatSchools." GreatSchools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Parent Community. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2012. <http://www.greatschools.org/improvement/volunteering/101-the-ins-and-outs-of-school-finance.gs>.