Warning: This is a rant.
Yesterday, the Cobb County School Board passes the budget for the 2012 - 2013 school year, and to be quite honest the entire budget process rests upon the belief that we should NEVER raise the property taxes in the county.
Why?
What is so wrong with paying a little more money to provide for better education? Are we so greedy and self-centered that we begrudge the school district a mere $50 more per household? Is the future of our society too "distant" for us to at least attempt to plan for it?
Children are our future. Period. End of discussion. Cats and dogs, while wonderful pets, cannot maintain society after we are too old to work. Flowers and perfectly cut green lawns are really only decorations. HDTVs will eventually break down. Computers and the Internet provide a modicum of companionship, but no face-to-face, hand-holding comfort.
But in our greed and arrogance, we refuse to acknowledge that children need help, need money to get a decent education so that they, the children, have a chance at a decent future as well.
I live in East Cobb, where people have money. To compensate for the lack of funds from the school district, the parents in most of the local elementary school form school foundations. These foundations not only raise money for the school, but several of them have professional grant writers as parents. These parents write grants, thereby securing even more funds for the local schools to use.
But what about the rest of the entire county? Why should East Cobb students have such a monetary advantage?
Our Founding Fathers did not fight the British to avoid paying taxes. They understood that we need to pay taxes to maintain a healthy, growing society. They simply wanted a say in what money was collected, and where that money was spent.
Where did that bit of common sense go?
Yesterday, the Cobb County School Board passes the budget for the 2012 - 2013 school year, and to be quite honest the entire budget process rests upon the belief that we should NEVER raise the property taxes in the county.
Why?
What is so wrong with paying a little more money to provide for better education? Are we so greedy and self-centered that we begrudge the school district a mere $50 more per household? Is the future of our society too "distant" for us to at least attempt to plan for it?
Children are our future. Period. End of discussion. Cats and dogs, while wonderful pets, cannot maintain society after we are too old to work. Flowers and perfectly cut green lawns are really only decorations. HDTVs will eventually break down. Computers and the Internet provide a modicum of companionship, but no face-to-face, hand-holding comfort.
But in our greed and arrogance, we refuse to acknowledge that children need help, need money to get a decent education so that they, the children, have a chance at a decent future as well.
I live in East Cobb, where people have money. To compensate for the lack of funds from the school district, the parents in most of the local elementary school form school foundations. These foundations not only raise money for the school, but several of them have professional grant writers as parents. These parents write grants, thereby securing even more funds for the local schools to use.
But what about the rest of the entire county? Why should East Cobb students have such a monetary advantage?
Our Founding Fathers did not fight the British to avoid paying taxes. They understood that we need to pay taxes to maintain a healthy, growing society. They simply wanted a say in what money was collected, and where that money was spent.
Where did that bit of common sense go?
