March 4th: Education protests

Yesterday there were national protests regarding education cuts. It started in California and exploded to College campuses across the country. There were arrests, and injuries, and rubber bullets.

There was also a political blog from Mark Mardell from the BBC asking if this year's election (and 2012) would be the most partisan US elections ever. He compared it to the Nixon era, asking if we could surpass ourselves in rage and division the way we did a few decades ago.

Oh yes. Oh yes I think we will.

We have protests over education, bank bailouts, foreclosures, health care, Iraq, Afghanistan, the deficit, gun rights, gay rights, civil rights and whatever else is the public rage du jour.

I used to think that the protests were all some kind of fruitless zealotry, and five years ago it was really the province of people I didn't know, and frankly didn't care to know.

Things are different now. Life is harder, people are poorer, the government is apparently incapable of actually helping us beyond promises, handfuls of borrowed money and poor planning and even worse performance. And people are getting much, much, much angrier and desperate.

Some of the things that the state governments' have decided to focus on leave me mystified as to what priorities they are focusing on. The federal government also. and the public.

We are being whipped into a frenzy by neglect and anxiety only reinforced by a decidedly panicked distrust of a government running wild and a media desperate to maintain relevance in an internet age. Negative news and over abundant "expert" commentary (of which this gets fairly close to, though I would call this barely amateur) have informed us of all the dangers of being alive in this age of crises. Without excessive research or multiple view biased news sources we fall into the pretty trap of information overload and "knowing" the answers.

The city/state government (at least Chicago/Illinois) has forgotten that in order to create jobs, there needs to be a demand for services and products, which require money willing to be spent. Our taxes have increased, our state and city fees keep climbing city services are cut, but the department of revenue is still roaming around booting and ticketing like the army of ravenous meter maids they are. They are making sure they are getting every free penny they can to stay alive and keep the people who work for the state are still employed.

But it is self defeating if they keep driving people into bankruptcy and insolvency, preventing them from paying taxes, owning cars to fee and fine, affording public transportation, or even living or working in the city. The CTA wants to increase the costs of public transportation while at the same time reducing services. So now it is cheaper to drive and even more convenient. That seems like a recipe for even greater failure.

Maybe I am missing the "big picture" or I don't understand politics (which i obsess over enough that I think I at least see a little of the pie), but doesn't it seem not only counter productive, but outright destructive for the federal government to borrow money we can't afford to pay back to give tax cuts and incentives and checks to individuals which then almost immediately go to state or local taxes, fines and fees which have been raised to cover the state's deficit (which was an issue during the "golden years" of the last decade, and only made worse now by the loss of jobs/income). The state then begins cutting services, costs, funding, jobs and programs in an attempt to curtail the enormous amount of money they are inefficiently flinging at god knows what.

The argument for privatizing a government program is to increase efficiency and lower costs paid by the local, state or federal government. To increase competition and employ more people. For a boom time, this makes a little sense for some things, and certainly when it becomes clear that the program in nearing obsolescence. But for a disaster like the last few years it becomes relatively obvious that the argument for government control and spending is necessary. For price control and a suspension of supply and demand.

I am rambling. My point is this: During the boom time was when the government should have been taxing the shit out of us. Subsidizing growth markets. Investing in infrastructure. and paying off bills. Tax cuts when we are flying to record highs is irresponsible. And now that we are at a new low, and getting worse, no one who should have the ability to help us, to fund us, to carry us through this recession caused by idiocy, immorality, and intentional sabotage of the american people, does.

Education, arguably the SINGLE most important aspect of HAVING a state or federal government beyond protection of our borders, is DYING. Something that was being run poorly and inefficiently was fed a ton of money, which used that money, poorly and inefficiently, to expand. And then that money was removed and teachers pay got worse, and test scores got worse and everything started to fall apart. Instead of discipline, personal attention, study habits and individual growth we had... epic failure.

Now our over worked, underpaid, unappreciated teachers and our over capacity, crime filled crumbling public schools are facing furlough days, pay cuts, job cuts, funding cuts, program cuts and generally speaking, being driven towards inevitable collapse. I firmly believe that healthcare reform is necessary, and that immigration reform is necessary. Most certainly that our political structure needs reform. BUT MOST OF ALL, OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM NEEDS REFORM AND FUNDING. And here we are. completely incapable of doing anything about it besides protest the failure we have been complaining about for 30 years.

Without education expansion into realms of personal finance, art, and sciences we cannot hope to compete in a global marketplace, avoid a recession like the one we are in or advance mankind. Without education maintenance (continuing as was before No Child Left Behind) we may barely get ourselves out of the mess we are in. And without minimum funding (where we are heading) we are 100% totally fucked.

I do not support a gigantic federal government, or a bloated state bureaucracy, but there are a few things that are rights for every developed country's citizens. Defense, education, health care, electricity and an infrastructure capable of supporting its size (road network, sewers, ports). Maybe internet falls into that as well in this new era.

Both of our two parties have largely ignored long term planning for the better part of 40 years, aiming instead for quick fixes and public balms created to ease our fears. Increased spending and funding to bloated programs that merely create a dependence on assisted living, which increase the standard of living for our poor, but steers money away from the advancement of the poor.