You are at the pinnacle of your single or married life. You do not have kids, you may have a house or may not, and you are not that interested in public education reform. In fact, you are tired of friends or friends of friends talking about education cuts. These cuts are unfortunate for friends and maybe even family, but they will not affect your life in the slightest. You may have muted one of those posts, but somehow this one got through. I ask you not to disregard this one. The truth is that you should care, single or married, kids or no kids, you should care about education. Education has both indirect and direct affects towards your life. If you are so inclined I have included links to the articles that I pulled from for my plea. Just click and feel free to go down the rabbit hole of facts and figures.
But wait, what about if I do not have kids? Schools are nice, but I have to pay taxes for something that I do not even use. I cannot say that I did not have that thought before I had my son, or before I worked in education. In Texas, you pay school taxes based on your property, so even if you are living in an apartment you are paying taxes because the landlord is paying taxes to schools. Here is a quick 7 step state funding guide for the overachievers (Learn How Texas Funds Public Schools In 7 Easy Steps). The reason that you should care about these funds for schools is that they have a direct effect on the community. A study done in Wisconsin looked at the economic impact of schools. I know Wisconsin, but stay with me. It stated that if you live in a community of under 300 people there and the school closed down that “you might as well just shut down the town” (Sederberg, 128). Now, I do not live in a small town of under 300, but I do live in a suburb and there happens to be a lot of economic growth.
Economics and education go hand in hand. First of all they both start with E, and have some other letters in common as well. The Wisconsin study showed that there was a direct correlation with the economy in a rural school district. This is tied to the percentage of money that is spent in the town as well as the amount of money and income that teachers and other members of the education workforce bring to the local economy. Put simply, those people help support stores and businesses with the dollars that they earn from the schools. The smaller the town the larger the impact of education on the town. This holds true in a suburb as well, though the amount of money that they bring in is lower, but the economic impact it there. Teachers and other employees of districts spend money and help to fuel the economy of places that they live. This means that reduction of the number of teachers in the economy would result in a decrease in the economy of the community by where you live.
The high school that I work at has around 200 employees. Most are teachers, but there are also administrators, secretaries, paraprofessionals, and custodians. There are two traditional high schools with roughly the same size population. This does not include all the middle schools, elementary schools, and alternative programs in a district. Large districts employee large numbers of people to help it to run. All of these people make money from the school and spend it in communities adjacent to or in the school they work in. With the large number of teachers in the State it is likely that you know at least one teacher. Districts also grow with the communities helping to bring in more jobs and people into the community. This helps to support the community as a whole.
Growth needs money. A district can have the growth, but if the money is not there it will not grow right. Money drives decisions in the workplace and in districts. In 2009, cuts to state funding for education costs teachers jobs and only widened the achievement gap. This leads to larger class sizes and less resources for schools overall. Unemployment rises due to teachers being laid off, and teachers either leave the area or find a job in the private sector. People start to get skittish about spending money in the community and businesses are affected. This also can affect how businesses invest in particular areas and help to drive the future of the community. Back in 2012 a report was filed by the Obama administration (Trump supporters stay with me.) It stated that 300,000 educational positions had been lost since the recession due to state and local budget cuts (Archives of Obama White House). Think about the impact that these jobs in the period of a few years have had on your community.
Businesses closing or not investing in an area is a pretty weak argument you say. You are right. The direct effect for the average person comes in property values. See property values are greatly affected by schools. The stronger the schools the greater the property values in the area. This is one of the first things that a Realtor tells you when you start to look for a house (How much do school real estate prices affect property values.). You may not care about schools but it does matter for the house that you will buy or currently own. These cuts at the state level directly affect property values when schools start to falter. Housing prices start to decrease when schools are rated poorly. That makes selling a house more difficult, and makes any home improvement loans harder to get. Banks base loans of any type on the property value.
It is not a large jump to say that high school graduates contribute to the econony. The rise of vocational programs like welding helps kids that are not college bound earn money straight out of high school. High School graduates help to contribute to the economy. Without a high school diploma students have a harder time finding work they “are twice as likely to be unemployed and receive well fare assistance” (The Social and Economic Benefits of Public Education.). The more we short change kids the more that we cause ourselves societal problems. Higher unemployment rates lead to greater amounts of crime (The Effects of Unemployment on Crime Rates in the U.S.). Not all uneducated people become criminals, but when options are limited and crime pays it is not a huge leap for people to make.
The funding of schools in Texas had a large impact on a lot of things that affect everyone. We have seen an economic boom in Texas with underfunding education, but we have not thought about what could happen if we fund it. I am an educator with a kid that is going into public education. I am not the enemy. I talk with kids everyday that are just trying to do the best they can to make things work. They dream of that better life. I ask you to look and see what affect lack of funding does to the community and to the kids. We can do better.
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