Transthought

Economics and Education

Well, I've been away from blogging for a few days and now I am back, ready to create some more transthoughts. School has now begun for most of the grandchildren and we are in the transportation business. I never realized what a big business education is -- busses that don't take the children from home to school with the convenience families require; politics gerrymandering school zones; lawmakers enacting uninformed policies; overppaid administrators who foul things up and underpaid teachers; etc. etc.

I cannot justify underpaying teachers, no matter what the taxes might be. If the public can afford to produce an industry like professional sports and money can be found to pay those outrageous salaries, why can it not be found to pay teachers a higher salary? There is more value, I think, to learning than spectating sportmen. Politicians, too, are overpaid for their worth, i believe, espcially when you hear of lobbyists and payoffs and the like. Economics is a funny world. The rich do indeed get richer and always at the expense of the poor.

I drive our granddaughter to and from school every day, about fifteen miles round trip twice. $3.00 a gallon for gas, plus the real estate taxes our children pay. Who gets all that money? The oil companies are reporting record profits and we are reporting hard times! It is just not fair! Somehow, someday, someone will come up with an answer that will rid this world of this inequity.

So they think they captured and arrested the slayer of little Jon Benet Ramsey! He is in Thailand teaching school. Where did he get the money to travel like that, or to enjoy the child pornography he is alleged to view.? People seem to get money for things they want, even if they don't have it for things they need!

Education is supposed to make us better citizens, and here is a teacher who is under arrest. Here are schools that have to raise taxes to support their administration, buildings, staff, supplies and athletic teams. Was it Plato who wrote, "All you need to have a school is a teacher on one end of a log and a pupil on the other." We have a long way to go to get back to that simple idea. Who will lead the way?

Wayne's words for August 17, 2006.

posted by Wayne Olson @ 3:08 PM