| Maine has never fully met its financial commitments to education despite repeated messages about the priority of education. Our nation has not given priority to financing education despite platitudes about competing in a rapidly changing world. For all the talk about education as a prime priority, paying teachers well, and caring for the next generation, this state chooses broken promises over rational tax policies and this country chooses tax cuts over education. Both foist upon us unfunded mandates and unpredictable curtailments that essentially abandon education funding to local property taxing which in turn unfairly divides us. Both allow a myth of local control to morph into merely local control over devastation.
We ought to have a great deal of empathy for individuals on fixed income who are confronted with high property taxes. How we are being forced to pay for education at the local level is fundamentally unbalanced and unfair. This is precisely why the State of Maine and the Federal government need to honor commitments made and put money to their message of the vital and strategic priority of educational excellence.
There are also plenty of detractors those who want to reduce educational costs regardless of the funding sources. They tout concerns about federal financial deficits but ignore future impending deficits of knowledge. They are fretful about the outmigration of young people from Maine but not to the degree of investing in attracting people to our state using a reputation of commitment to educational excellence. These voices seem to believe that the inadequate is acceptable and their claims of representing "silent majorities" are suspect; yet we generously allow them to rule our politics.
In my own school district, RSU 38, we will lose over $1,000,000 in our 2010/2011 state allocation. Even worst in the following year, an additional $435,000 that is in the currently proposed 2010/2011 budget also goes away in stimulus funds. The stark reality is that we will be forced by the abdication of State and Federal commitment to education to implement a budget that is not one of "trimming fat" but rather "slashing muscle". Even if the economy improves, the hole to fill will be exceedingly deep and great damage will have been done. We are making short-sighted choices right now that a second grader in need of reading assistance will not get it, that a middle school student will not be introduced to the benefits of another language, that another high school sophomore will drop out, and that access to higher education will be out of reach for a young person.
When my family made the choice of locating in this district, we did so because of the school system. We were not seeking a tolerable education for our daughters but an excellent one. We came with history. We came from a neighboring state that did not fund public kindergarten; we lived initially in a Maine town that refused to deal with an overcrowded school. My children have now graduated but I still want and am willing to pay for in local, state, and federal taxes for a vibrant education system that produces knowledgeable citizens, enhances my community and state, and produces highly educated, skilled, and compensated workers in this country that add to the foundations of our society.
Thus I ask again of candidates for governor to publically comment here:
A pathway to having a renewed discussion on education and an emergence of leadership for educational excellence lies within this year's Maine gubernatorial race. A broad state conversation on establishing a genuine vision that meets our aspirations for the forthcoming generations could be best facilitated by a candidate for governor willing to lead on this issue with a focus on excellence and a willingness to forthrightly address the revenue commitments necessary to meet the investment challenge. Please step forward.
Yes, we must live within our means. Properly funding education is within our means in Maine using an appropriate revenue path: 1 temporary cent on the sales tax with a sunset provision, a choice with which we are experienced. And not properly funding education today will destroy our future ability to provide the means for our livelihood.
See also see a related prior post: Aspiration or Abandonment. |
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