Doug Porter blames Sacramento Republicans for defunding schools in California

Below is a small excerpt from an excellent article by Doug Porter, a parent of children in the San Diego City public school system. Doug Porter also writes for the Voice of San Diego, our fine local online newspaper and the OB Rag which is a breath of fresh and balanced air in a sea of local newspapers whose editorial staff are rabidly anti union and anti union pay.

The political challenges facing area schools are daunting. The only real solution is to increase funding, yet the Governor is defining the current revenue shortfalls as a “spending” crisis; slightly more one third of the State’s Legislators are pledged to oppose any steps that might be taken that could resolve the shortfalls. (blog editor note: Sacramento Republicans) This representative minority will likely remain an effective deterrent to continuing educational programs unless parental groups can make their voices heard in a manner that implies that political winds are changing around the State. After all, the one thing that politicians all try to excel at is getting re-elected (or, in these days of term limits, continuing their philosophy of governance).

The arguments relating to budgets need to be re-framed, and quickly. The cost of education is not about “spending”; it’s an investment. Each dollar spent on education returns three in future taxpayer dollars. The cost per pupil of education in California has fallen from slightly less than $6000 per year to under $5000, putting the State on a par with such bastions of educational excellence as Mississippi and Alabama. Further cuts in education will increase the dropout rate in high schools, which will in turn lead to crime rates increasing. (Consider that the average inmate in a California correctional institution costs taxpayers over $60,000 per year!) And then there is the matter of having a competitive and competent workforce as a bulwark against further exportation of jobs in the face of globalization.

Read the rest of Doug Porter's incites here:

Education Budget Goes Bust – Drastic Cuts Likely in 2010
by Doug Porter on December 4, 2009
http://obrag.org/?p=15527