Weighing in

Washington state school officials are looking nervously toward the end of hundreds of millions of dollars in stimulus funding from the federal government – money that has helped schools avoid the worst of budget cuts arising from the state’s revenue crisis.

The concerns of educators, reported last week, provoked a lot of comments at spokesman.com. Here’s part of the discussion:

Uptight_Spokanite: If push comes to shove, kids can be home-schooled, but I’m pretty certain that dangerous prisoners can’t be home-prisoned. Or damaged bridges home-bridge-repaired.

Megan_B: When push comes to shove, kids who have a single, working mother in a lower-income neighborhood can’t always be home-schooled or afford to go to a private school. Having a safe place for our children and providing valuable education should always be our No. 1 priority. A quality education is the key to a quality future. It is a nurtured, brilliant child that grows up to become the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, providing a means for hundreds of future jobs. Instead of always thinking about the here and now, and short-term results, education is the best means of investing in the future of this country.

spoketucky: The currrent public education system is broken, and that is a comment coming from a teacher with over twenty years experience. District 81 has structural budget deficits that needed to be addressed because of decreases in enrollment. Look again for major cuts in teaching positions (and larger class sizes as a result) while the administration remains completely bloated.

lewis: spoketucky, since you are a teaching professional: could our kids be taught right at home off the computers? It would be cheaper to put a computer in every home with school-age children with a networked Internet. As our economy falters, we will need to still educate our kids, but at what expense?

Megan_B: The problem is that juggling the budgets as they are currently is more complicated than plopping kids in front of a computer, to make sure that all of the bases are covered – including the valuable portions of education that include the arts and physical education. Money-saving measures need to be thought out for long-term improvement of the entire system.

spoketucky: Most of the countries that are exceeding the U.S. in academic achievement do not have athletic programs. … The U.S. needs to get rid of sports in schools, extend the school year, cut administration and permit teachers to actually run the schools rather than elected school board members who often have zero experience in education.