We live in a free society, so we all have the luxury of our personal beliefs and personal politics. These are mine.
Walker’s motto, Wisconsin is open for business, remains to be seen. What doesn’t remain is any question about the direction in which the state is headed. The budget repair bill is reality and the state budget will be approved with a host of devastating cuts that go far beyond education.
This is a narrow-minded, short-sighted, and greedy approach to solving the state’s deficit. Those who have more, keep it. Those already struggling will have less—not just less income, but less in the way of support programs and other valuable services (like mass transit and a good public education, for example). Progressive projects like high-speed rail are off the table. Environmental standards will be lowered, endangering our already compromised waterways. How can anyone champion this? Brag about it? Say it’s the way forward? We’ll be 100 years backward at this rate.
Maybe if I was earning a high, six figure income I would feel differently—but I doubt it. There is so much wealth in our society that no one here should go hungry or be denied medical care. No one should claim we, as a state or nation, can’t “afford” to educate all of our children or provide a safety net for our elderly. Every day, we all make choices about we value enough to financially support, whether that means donating to a cause or shopping local instead of going to a national chain. This is no different.
Since this blog is supposed to focus on higher education, I will leave with this: A public education gave me a chance in life. I went to an average public high school, ended with a pretty average GPA and very average college entrance scores. I spent some time in a two-year college and eventually went to a fairly large public university. I then did well enough to go on to graduate school.
If not for these public options, my life would surely be different because there was no money for anything else. Taking money away from the schools means taking away a lot of chances, chances that might not come in any other form.
Think about it.
