Stage 6: Comment on Education Cuts

In her post “Budget Cuts in Texas Public Education”, Caitlin Huber speaks out against the recently proposed education budget. She cites that education has already been suffering in our state compared to others and this budget will only continue to make things worse. She points out that entire school subjects are being completely cut from some schools resulting in an abundance of teacher lay offs. As a result, hope has dwindled for aspiring teachers like her who have begun to ditch their dreams and look for different careers. Finally, she proposes that reform was necessary rather than cuts in order to help the states education, along with a variety of suggestions.

I cannot be more sympathetic to Caitlin, as well as many of my other classmates who spoke out against the education cuts. I think it is horrible that students are losing life-enhancing opportunities in the classroom while teachers are being forced to rethink their lives. I was heartbroken to hear that UT recently cancelled the scuba diving program where I first got the chance to learn and experience one of my current favorite hobbies. Indeed, the economical and personal affects of these education cuts go very wide.

However, I will pose a question to Caitlin and my other classmates that share her view. Though the budget cuts are very tragic, are they not necessary? Texas, as well as the entire country, is fighting desperately to not dig themselves deeper into the hole of debt they are currently in. It seems to me that in order to preserve what’s left of the state’s economy, cuts needed to be made. Of course the tough part is deciding where to make these cuts. No matter which aspect of the state was going to suffer, people were bound to be pissed off. Say it was the law enforcement budget that was cut, people would lose jobs and others would be pissed off that crime would rise. Say it was the public transportation budget that was cut, people would lose jobs and others would be pissed that they cannot get to work. In this case, it happened to be education that was unlucky, and guess what?- People like Caitlin and I are pissed off. It goes to show how difficult it is to make up for past mistakes by getting out of debt. The unfortunate truth though is that there is really no other option.