TheOnly Thing More Expensive Than Education is Ignorance

We frequently hear the lament, "Our taxes are too high." Some, especially in the business community, have taken to heart the message of the Right, that we are over taxed and the money is frittered away in wasteful programs, inefficiency and graft. These same folks are happy to have our tax dollars spent on programs that will help them, up to a point. Construction firms love to be offered curb and gutter, turn lanes and traffic signals or sewer laterals, sometimes even tax free status until their developments are completed. That kind of corporate welfare is welcomed, even expected, whether we need another sub-division or not.
I think that if I were to reap those kinds of rewards, I might not complain either. It rubs me raw when those same recipients of my tax dollars balk at spending money for our schools. The fact that school buildings are woefully overcrowded and in need of repair, or that teachers keep receiving more unfunded mandates that take away from teaching time, or that we continue to churn out graduates that have dubious qualifications for any job, most likely the same ones that these business people offer.
To illustrate, I was recently speaking with the head of a solar installation company, his lead man at a job site couldn't figure out how to do Algebra, or he just didn't understand how important it is to angle panels toward the sun. He had blundered through an install, only to do it wrong. Then it took several workers a full day to rip it off and re install the system. Waste, waste, waste. Lack of education cost him more than a day of labor, it may have cost him his reputation, at least with that homeowner. Knowledge, even the insight that sometimes we don't know as much as we need to has power. I am the last person to defend the waste fraud and corruption that happens in our government, but the education of our children will have lasting effects for generations. Imagine the difference it would make if job applicants had a better background in spelling, math and communication skills.
I would rather pay taxes that were wasted on children than put to good use by corporate elites that have bonus checks issued to them from companies receiving bail-out money from the Feds. It is hard to not see the erosion of test scores, readiness for entry into the job market, and basic communication skills in our young people. I fear that this is a harbinger of what is to come, all over America (Sorry, Canada and neighbors to the South, for lumping you in with the U.S.) schools are attempting to do more with less. We have passed the point at which selling candy can turn the tide. Hoping for a rapid recovery without additional funding flies in the face of facts. Time was, every child learned the meaning of our patriotic songs, flag etiquette and enough history to realize that the Declaration of Independence is not the same document as the Constitution, or that the Revolutionary War was different than the Civil War. Sending our children unprepared into intellectual battle with the rest of the world is a menace.
Reason and intellect are given to us by Creator, squandering them, or allowing others to tell us what to think, puts us at odds with reality in very dangerous ways. The overpowering urge to cut taxes must not lead us down a path of cheating our children out of a future that is at least as bright as the one we inherited from our parents. Take time to study the history of the past twenty years and you will find plenty of examples of why we should not continue on the current course. Taxation without representation is what the Revolution was fought over, but only a small minority advocated war with Britain. The ultra-wealthy among us today, adept at bait and switch tactics, will always have reason to want more for less. Their tyranny more than any other fact drive the rhetoric of the "Conservatives". Business as usual has led to the greatest disparity between haves and have-nots since prior to the Great Depression. When trying to grapple with salaries of the top earners, ask yourself why one person would be worth more for a single day's labor than another could make, working two, or three years?