For the past handful of years America has had its fair share of problems. Most recently, however, angry strikes from frustrated, underpaid citizens have been in the headlines. Surprisingly, it was found that most of these demonstrators were teachers; angry with the government and the economical approach that was taken to “improve” fiscal issues. The approach was called the Deficit Reduction Plan (DRP). This solution imposed lowering debt by reducing spending and raising taxes. In 2009, US deficit was at an all time high, peaking almost $1.4 trillion. Since deficit reductions have not worked in the past, many individuals and politicians were skeptical with the DRP but Goldman Sachs, in an April 10 report, writes that in the first three months of 2013 the deficit was running at .4% lower from our $16 trillion from the previous years. Goldman says that by the end of this year our debt is projected to be lowered to $744 billion! This should be fantastic news but, according to a private-sector and government economists, “The nation’s unemployment rate would be nearly a point lower, roughly 6.5 percent, and economic growth would almost be two points higher this year if Washington had not cut spending and raised taxes.” Writers from Economic Times also say that the DRP will affect us negatively, bringing our deficit to almost $20 trillion by 2015. Overall, the cut in spending and increased taxes has hurt the educational sector harshly. Architects, accountants, and mechanical engineers were also affected, but not significantly so. The damage was more closely attached to teachers and their already low salaries. According to the Department of Education the average teacher’s pay is around $56,643; however, in our little state of South Dako...
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...st option. We should not be reaching that point when desperation transpires into our actions. The way to help make teaching a desirable job and improve our societal moral, is to cut unfavorable expenditures. Such expenditures include the overpayment of athletes which, if we can cut them to a reasonable amount, we can redistribute to teachers. This does not need to be a vast increase, but even a few thousand dollars can help.
Works Cited
http://useconomy.about.com/od/fiscalpolicy/p/deficit.htm http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/05/09/1985811/deficit-reduction-higher-unemployment/ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/09/us/deficit-reduction-is-seen-by-economists-as-impeding-recovery.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nctq.org/tr3/docs/nctq_recession_salary.pdf http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/story/2012-01-12/NCAA-student-athletes-college/52524454/1
Over the course of time, schools have invested all their finances on sports like football. Primarily, the sport had initiated as a form of recreational fun, but therefore lead into a trend. This popular trend later spread into competitiveness and in some schools, even idolized. At Premont High School, a small school in Texas, it was threatening to be shut down for the neglection of academics and a misuse of finance. All money funded was focused on being used to support all sports and the money raised, was a large amount of money. The solution was to suspend all sports and with that, changes were made. Teachers were retrained, the curriculum was raised to the appropriate standard, and too much avail, academics improved significantly. According to the article, when sports have been dominating, only 50 percent of the students were passing their classes. After changes were made, 80 percent were now passing. The author argues that with the suspension of sports, academics would be at a higher level than they are. With this argument, I agree with Ripley’s motion to cancel all sports. To many students, such as myself, it may seem irrational and absurd at first, but realistically it is a reasonable solution. Tons of money is being spent primarily to a sport and most times, aren't even at a winning season. Sports should not the prime focus. Schools are not instituted to emphasis on sports
The American public school system faces an education crisis. According to Benjamin Barber, American children barely surpass the lowest standards set for education, especially in literacy, throughout the county’s history. Barber supports the existence of this crisis in his essay “America Skips School”, but argues against a solution to remedy the numerous problems facing the system. Although he acknowledges no solution, Barber suggests a smarter flow of financial resources will address many of the issues, however, he fails to acknowledge the distribution of this money. Barber’s suggestion for smarter financial resources for schools can be effectively implemented through a structured committee focused solely on the distribution of money.
School funding is a recurring issue in the modern era. Debates ranging from give schools more money, to get rid of the system in place and reform a new idea have been plaguing the world over the years. “The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed in 2009, provided more than $100 billion in education aid to offset budget cuts..” (School Finance). Later, “Congress provided an additional $10 billion in 2010 to avert mass teacher layoffs (Education Week, "Total Recovery Act")” (School Funding). These numbers are just a sample of the struggles in school funding, that is costing a ton of money to keep afloat. “There are many ways schools fund varying from state to state and even school to school. Income taxes, corporate taxes, sales taxes, and other fees provide 48 percent of the elementary and secondary school funds. 44 percent of local districts draw money from local property taxes. The federal government makes up approximately 8 percent of state education budgets. These funds are a dealt out on a per-student basis, and categorically to ensure enough resources for each special program or facility” (School Funding). These funds play a huge role in every student's education, either positive or negative. The three main areas that need to be addressed in the school budget are extracurricular funding, building and equipment maintenance, and last but not least staff funding.
Sports provide a nice source of money for the college but some of the money is given to the coaches where coaches are given much more money than professors that do make an effort to teach students. The money can be potentially be used to promote more departments and of the like, but to see that coaches get paid more than professors, it makes a statement of how sports are more important than education. Colleges are made to educate students and ensure that education are the highest quality valued, but to have professors who are the basis of education being paid less than coaches. Colleges are made to enhance student’s education and should not focus too much on its sports
Allan and Davis mention the spike of college cost since 1995 has increased by 150 percent; student debt has increased 300 percent since 2003, and with education, second to the mortgage industry in the nation’s debt, America needs to redirect their attention to the future and focus on education (Allan n. pg). Budget cuts from national to state
“The data suggest that removing the Pell Grant from less-prepared students will not compel many of them to forgo college. Instead, they will enroll, and without grant aid, they will take on debt, even more than they already had to” (Goldrick, 3). This will make a serious impact on the economy because students who didn’t perform academically well in high school will have a tougher time paying of the mass debt at the while they attend
Paul Dietzel, former head coach of LSU, once said, “You can learn more character on the two-yard line than anywhere else in life.” Ever since the beginning, not only children but also college athletes have been playing sports for the love of the game and have used it as a way to grow character, teamwork, and leadership. Although when playing for a University an athletes job is to bring in profit for the school, this is not why these young men and women have continued with these sports they love. It is usually these students passion, a way for them to express themselves like others have art and music. The question has been up whether these college athletes should be paid for their loyalty and income for the University but by paying these students more than their given scholarship, it would defeat the purpose and environment of a college sport versus a professional sport, cause recruiting disputes, and affect the colleges benefits from these school athletics.
Today in America, “The average Class of 2016 graduate has $37,172 in student loan debt, up six percent from last year. $1.28 trillion in total U.S. student loan debt...44.2 million Americans with student loan debt”(U.S. Student Loan Hero, 1). We spend our lives working, learning, and trying to survive. In order to survive, we need to be educated. In order to be educated, we need money. To collect money, we need a good paying job. And in order to have a job, we need to be educated. It’s a large cycle that goes around in circles, and we can’t seem to find a steady way to help provide these things for everyone. While we all strive to make the best of every situation, money has become an issue, creating problems in many lives around the world. “According to the College Board, the average cost of tuition and fees for the 2016–2017 school year was $33,480 at private colleges, $9,650 for state residents at public colleges, and $24,930 for out-of-state residents attending public universities” (COLLEGEdata, 1). And it’s not easy to have a positive look on the American dream when our own president in spouting things like “Sadly, the American Dream is dead” (President Donald
... past decade has not only affected teachers and valuable elective programs, but mostly importantly the education of today’s youth. The Georgia school districts have exhausted almost every way to make up for the billions of dollars of lost state financial support and they have reached the tipping point. Since over 9,000 teachers have lost their jobs, students are being forced into already bulging classes where they do not receive the kind of individual attention needed in order to boost student achievement. If Georgia leaders expect student achievements to improve, they must invest the necessary economic resources needed to achieve this goal. At the end of the day, one of the most important things in life is a good education, so we need to start putting more money into the K-12 school funding and help build back what years of austerity cuts have nearly destroyed.
The payment of NCAA student-athletes will deteriorate the value of an education to the athletes. The value of an education for a young man or woman cannot be measured. It is our gate way to success as...
Defense receives the most support and money. Politicians support military spending, mainly because it is “the only form of large-scale public investment that can consistently win political support” (Pollin). However, the heavy support for military spending is counterproductive for our nation’s economy. Since military spending increased in 2001, several industries and programs have had to “bite the bullet.” The Department of Education often gets fewer funds each fiscal year to cover the military budget. Then again, the United States leads all countries in money spent on education. The U.S. education system is well funded, but that statistic is very misleading. If the high cost of college is excluded, the United States ranks slightly above average in education spending (OECD). Per the OECD, U.S. spending is decreasing at a 1% average (OECD). This doesn’t seem like much, but it is still a step in the wrong direction. Only Mexico, Iceland, and Ireland have cut more (OECD). Coincidentally, the percentage of teachers that quit within five years is extremely high at 46% (OECD)! This isn’t surprising considering all teachers in the U.S. work so many hours and are still underpaid. U.S. primary school teachers spend the most time in the classroom amongst all PISA countries
It is not as simple as it sounds, student debt may go down, but how many other people are we putting in debt to make up for the loss of funding going to schools through the tuition that we have
The Chicago Public School District is the third largest school district in the United States educating around 400,000 students. Back in 1987 CPS was named “the worst in the nation”(). Moving its way up to the top, since then, CPS had completely rebuilt its structure, appointing leaders and reformed ideas. Now, with a deficit projected to be around $1 billion CPS is headed back in a downwards path, money being the biggest issue. The United States Federal Government already has financial issues of its own, which makes dealing with a CPS budget a problem within a problem. CPS, with a $6.6 billion FY2013 budget, is now taking a new strategy based upon a flawed “Student-Based Budgeting System”. The Board of Education is also struggling to solve the debt they have reached, and with their FY2014 plans this year’s budget book is argued to be “one of the most poorly written budgets”(). The way CPS is handling their budget is not benefiting the lives and education of students and is leaving CPS at a loss with giant financial issues.
Even in this time of struggle, with billions of dollars going towards various war efforts overseas, America still has managed to keep taxpayer investments in education higher than that of funds for national defense (U.S Department of Education). In the 2004-05 school year, there was an estimated amount of 536 billion dollars set aside from taxpayer investment for education purposes. Without a doubt, education is a priority for the American government, and if these funds are used in the correct way, there is no reason why each and every kid in the United States shouldn’t be getting a quality education. However, the organization of the financial system is flawed, funds are not handled proportionately at the state level; rather, this system favors the wealthier districts and hands more funds to them while the less wealthier districts are handed a smaller pool of funds. This really affects America’s quality of education, which also reflects upon how America fairs on the world stage when it comes to competition in education with other countries. The disorganization of funds in the United States can be seen in the Hoover City School district, which has bought every student in that district an iPad for use in school. The first problem with this is that this school district does not even have a viable bus system that can transport students to and from school. Secondly, not even 20 miles from this district lies the Birmingham City School district where a little more than half the students are graduating, compared to Hoover City Schools where a bit more than 90 percent of the students are graduating. If anything, the state should be working towards improving educational standards in lower-income communities rather than debating on the log...
Supporters of budget cuts for Wisconsin expect that their will be similar results if Wisconsin schools employ a similar strategy. Also, budget cuts have been shown to cause schools to reduce spending in areas outside of teaching practices, such as more fuel efficient bus routes and reducing paper usage by utilizing technology in the classroom (Coleman, Walker & Lawrence 4). The increased fuel efficiency and reduced paper usage not only save money, but are better for the environment as well. Furthermore, reducing paper use leads to the modernization of schools, and integrates technology as a more efficient and effective alternative to using massive amounts of paper. In addition, in an article for the magazine USA Today, Charles Murray, who has a Ph. D. in political science, asserts the increased government funding “does not have any credible evidence for a positive effect” on education. He claims that most of the government spending on education is wasted, and spending less would make the school systems more efficient without decreasing quality of education (Murray 2). Supporters of budget cuts believe that spending less money on schools will encourage them to use the little money they have more effectively, leading to less money wasted and smarter, more efficient