Education

A number of years ago, when my son was in public school, I canvassed our neighborhood to ask for support of the school levy—maybe costing my neighbors a $100 or two. One neighbor responded that he wouldn’t support the levy because he was sending his children to Catholic school. He did not know that half of my regular contributions to the parish—about $3000—were supporting his children in school.

The recent strikes of teachers in a number states force us to move from “my children’s education” to the education of all of our children. Most school levies are still probably at the level of a couple of hundred dollars for most of us. If we look around our houses or look at our credit card receipts, I’ll bet there are a couple of hundred dollars of stuff we can do without.

If there’s one thing that can reduce crime, improve the economy and strengthen the country, it’s a quality education for every child. Every system has its flaws. A poorly funded educational system is flawed from the start.