Education Law

Do we have the right priorities?

In his weekly column for The Washington Post, Matt Miller, a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress questions if extending tax cuts for the wealthy are more important than transforming the teaching profession:

It was depressing enough when the president caved on extending $120 billion in tax cuts for the highest-earning 2 percent of Americans at a time of war and surging debt. As proof of White House fear and timidity, and Republican greed and myopia, the news doesn’t get much worse.

That’s $120 billion over two years that won’t go to boost job creation. Nor will it fund a portion of the $300 billion we’ll spend on wars during same period – instead, we’ll borrow that abroad and hand the bill to the kids. Worse, none of that cash will be available to lure America’s top young talent to the classroom by finally making teaching a prestigious, well-paying career.

Oops – I forgot – no one in the tax and budget talks was talking about transforming the teaching profession as part of America’s long-term economic recovery plan. After all, that would mean thinking beyond 2012.

BoardBuzz thinks it is bigger than just increasing teachers’ salaries, adequately funding of education must be a top priority to advance student achievement. For schools to succeed in the long run, we must reexamine how public education is funded at the local, state, and federal levels.

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on December 10, 2010 (boomark / email).