Education can be your life’s greatest treasure. It’s something nobody can take away from you. For years, parents struggled to send their children off to school whether they have the support of the government or not. Education enabled their young minds to think out of the box and learn things they would never have known had they stayed at home and not frequent the four corners of the classroom. Educated people have a wider understanding of life as they learn what makes the world go round. However, getting an education remains to be a big hurdle that many families face until today.
You can change your life with a good quality education. Unfortunately, it may come at a high price tag. But as the world progresses and technology starts to take over the world, society needs more educated people to help run the affairs of the state and most businesses too. The government has been doing its part in subsidizing the children’s education for decades now, so Americans continue to be globally competitive someday. Then there is a growing middle-class that does not always rely on the government for help in putting their kids to school. Yet despite all these changes, many still struggle to get an education in America, more so in other parts of the world.
Texas House Speaker Joe Straus chastised the state Senate on Wednesday for fighting improvements to public education and called on this summer’s special session to include work fixing the state’s beleaguered school finance system.
Straus said he hopes school finance is added to Gov. Greg Abbott’s special session call, which currently includes 20 issues, including a committee to study school finance but not a demand the Legislature pass a series of fixes pushed by the House this session.
The San Antonio Republican told a ballroom full of school board members they should complain often and loudly to pressure state lawmakers to prioritize public education and branded the House as the chamber that “still believes in public education.”
The education system is in dire need of reforms to address the issue of underfunding in public schools. It also won’t help that the education sector is included in the list of President Trump’s budget cuts considering that many are already struggling to meet the growing education needs of today’s youth. If this goes on, more Americans will go into adulthood lacking the education they need to find better jobs for their families and struggle even more in their day-to-day lives.
In a stinging speech that slammed the Senate’s focus on school vouchers and bathroom bills, the San Antonio Republican told a hotel ballroom full of school board members that they should pressure state lawmakers, and run for election to the state’s upper chamber.
“In many ways, your hands are tied and state government is holding the rope,” he told more than 200 attendees at the Texas Association of School Boards during their opening dinner at a conference to review legislation from the 2017 legislative session. “One of my biggest concerns coming out of this year’s session is that we are starting to send the wrong signal about who we are as a state.”
Branding the House as the chamber that “still believes in public education,” Straus said he had looked forward to speaking at the Wednesday night conference so he could be around elected officials who are “sincere, hard-working and committed to education. It’s quite a change for me,” he said to laughs in the Marriott Rivercenter in downtown San Antonio.
Legislation is needed in order to realize these reforms not only when it comes to funding but even when it comes to the hiring and firing of teachers too. Meanwhile, the controversial bathroom bill is likewise taking up too much time of the legislators that it shadows other more important issues faced by educators and the school system in general. Even issues on property reform taxes should also be addressed as many schools get funding from them rather than from the federal government itself.
The government should no longer turn a blind eye to the myriad of problems faced by schools nowadays. The president may not value the importance of supporting the education of the youth but it does not mean that his opinions speak for the reality we all face. After all, he is a billionaire who has probably been out of touch of reality for the longest time as he looks down on the masses from his high-rise Trump Towers. Meanwhile, many kids will lose the opportunity to advance in life because one person in power thinks otherwise.