 |
|
| "Any
other money we need will come from the rich, period! It will only hurt their
feelings, but it wouldn’t really hurt them personally, and
if it did, too bad, live with it". |
Where the Money Will Come From
Posted October 28, 2002 thepeoplesvoice.org
By DAN DVORAK
The
RIGHT is asking where the money will come from to fund education the way
McBride envisions it. Here are my thoughts. First
of all, we must agree that bringing Florida’s education system back from the dead as every measure of it demonstrates
must be a priority. To
that end I submit that EVERYTHING that ails society today is tied to
education or a lack of it. Think about it. Drug use, drug sales, violence,
family values, quality of jobs, jobs period, crime, ignorance and we can go
on forever. There is NOTHING more important than a good education for all
our people. As we improve it we reduce our ills proportionately. We have to
look at education as “an investment” in our children and the future. You
people understand investment don’t you? Same thing. We do with less today
so we have something for tomorrow. Sounds simple to me! And it’s good for
everyone. Even those without kids, that can feel
safer from the things that happen when the kids grow up to criminal age. We
invest in our POLICE. We invest in our clinics, our jails, our hospitals,
why not our children? We
can debate “what is a good education” another time. So
it really DOESN’T MATTER where the money comes from, it has to be spent.
This shouldn’t be an alien concept for you right wingers. You wrote the
book on spending money for things YOU considered important without regard to
where the money comes from. Witness $400,000,000,000 spent in 2 years on God
knows what, and at the same time not having a DIME of your own money to
spend. Oh sure, the war on terrorism MUST be won, and the war on drugs must
be won and taxpayers MUST get to keep their OWN MONEY and such, what makes
educating our children who ARE our future, any less important? FIND THE
MONEY! CREATE THE MONEY! But GET the freekin’
money. They know how, just do it. The
state pulled a fast one on the poor taxpayers (and non tax payers) with that
lottery scam. It was supposed to SUPLEMENT education spending not replace
it. So the state has been getting a pretty good deal, for a long while. Time
to pony up.
BUT
I promised to tell you where the money is going to come from didn’t I? Well,
first I would go to the programs that would be less necessary if our
children were better educated. Scrap
the war on drugs. It doesn’t work. We are pouring trillions down a black
hole. ALL the money designated for that ridiculous war goes into an
education fund consistently. Want
to smoke, drink and gamble? Well you’re going to have to pay more so our
kids won’t want to. You can still do it, but it’s going to be more
expensive. Every
dime, and every asset confiscated in drug busts
goes to the education fund. (The confiscated drugs can be sold back to Turkey
and
Columbia
for recycling LOL) Fines
for crimes involving the legal system will be tripled. The money collected
will go to education. Lawyers will pay a 10% system users tax on their fees.
(they can raise prices to their clients) Public
schools could charge tuition of say $150/child/year. Not a big deal, PKY
does that and no one squawks because parents know there is a good quality of
education there and it’s worth the price. Traffic
tickets, all of them would have a $25 education fee tacked on to them. Not a
virgin concept. A typical
Florida
traffic ticket is divided up among some 20 different agencies and
governments. If operating a motor vehicle safely is not connected with
education, I don’t know what is. Empty
the jails of non violent offenders and make them pay stiff fines or work it
off. I don’t mean the Manson’s, I mean the
drug users, the dead beat dads, the traffic ticket people, and a host of
silly stuff. I’ll bet that a full 20% of inmates could be released with no
danger to the public. Significant savings! Significant! And those released
have to PAY into the education system, ostensibly to assist future children
from enduring the same fate. And
we could all sit down honestly and add greatly to this list. Those things
that are connected to the benefits of a grade A
education. But we would have to be honest. Can we do that? Any
other money we need will come from the rich. Period! It will only hurt their
feelings, but it wouldn’t really hurt them personally. And
if it did, too bad. Live with it. We
have no problem spending a billion dollars a day on a war that no one wants,
but we do because it is assumed that it is in the public good. What’s the
difference when it comes to education?
Of
course you could argue or criticize every idea, mine or anyone else’s.
There is NO perfect plan. But it doesn't matter. The fact is and the point
is, money can be procured from various sources to fund education is such a
way as to make a profound difference in the future and some if not most of
the "investment" can and would be recouped while making the state
(world) a better place and give it a brighter future.
Look.
Anything worthwhile is painful to some degree. The end justifies the means
SOMETIMES. Savings and loan bailout, Chrysler bail out, going to the moon,
various wars, star wars, whatever. We are willing to spend money without
regard for where it comes from or If we even HAVE
it to spend. Why not extend education, arguably the most important concept
in our society today, the same considerations. Hell with the cost. Hell with
where it comes from. DO WHATEVER IS NECESSARY to insure that the next
generation and generations after them, has the tools, morals and
intelligence to be self sufficient, motivated and a benefit to society
rather than the drain on society and its resources that the right
(rightfully so) hates so much. Instead of writing them off and abandoning
them, make them useful citizens. Let this be the last generation of massive
amounts of people on the public dole. Give our kids a chance, whatever that
entails. Everything else (except our safety) must take a back seat.
© Copyright 2002 All rights reserved by Dan Dvorak
|
