Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts."
Ronald Reagan said, "Facts are stubborn things."
When it comes to our children we are often guided by our feelings and opinions rather than the facts. When confronted with the dilemma of how to fund education in a horrible economy, we use emotional arguments such as "we can't afford to put a price tag on education" or "we have to fully fund education - it's for our children".
What are the facts here in the Valley?
> All of our towns spend more than half of their tax revenue on education and when they have to cut back on their budgets, other services, not education, are the usual targets.
> The average taxpayer does not want their taxes to go up.
> Public education is not meeting our standards or goals, i.e. we aren't doing a great job.
> A clear correlation between dollars spent and educational quality has not been shown.
Those are the stubborn, unique facts surrounding education today - in the Valley and elsewhere across the Nation.
No comments:
Post a Comment