At work, some of my colleagues periodically organize a fund and materials drive in order to donate to one of the local school districts. My first inclination is, like most folks, thinking of how to contribute.
Source: Flickr Hivemind
But I have second thoughts on this one. As a society, we should be adequately funding our schools, not because our students deserve it or some such empty phrase, but because, if society doesn’t make adequate investment in the education of our kids, we’ll become a pack of second-raters and the world will pass us by. Indeed, we might even be influenced by foreign powers in our corporations and our politics.
If that doesn’t make your skin crawl, you haven’t been paying enough attention to the outside world.
So I look at this drive and I wonder: Are we enabling the cheapskates who’ve not heard of TANSTAAFL[1] in the Minnesota Legislature to continue to “hold taxes down” in a penny-wise, future-foolish manner? Does bridging the gap I presume exists through these informal, non-guaranteed way really make do, or are we doing unforeseen damage to an educational system already under attack by conservative forces which have convinced themselves that teachers’ unions and secular education are the Devil’s tools, rather than the light and the way to a brighter future.
Or, if I with hold a donation, am I condemning children to an inferior education?
