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>This might sound nit-picky but I think we all (Americans) value education as a whole. That's a bunch of crap. If we (Americans) valued education as a whole,

by Arizhel 10y ago

>This might sound nit-picky but I think we all (Americans) value education as a whole. That's a bunch of crap. If we (Americans) valued education as a whole, we wouldn't vote for leaders who continually cut education budgets. It's very simple: we as a society do not care about education. It's not a top political issue ever, unlike abortion, defense spending, guns, and who uses what bathroom. We keep school funding and administration at the local level because we don't want "our money" going to "those kids" (i.e. poor kids) in some other district, so we all end up with terrible schools and horribly inconsistent results school-to-school. Public education in this country is completely broken, and there's absolutely no political will to change it, and voters don't make it an issue because they're more worried about Planned Parenthood and terrorists.

noxToken 10y ago
I misspoke. The sibling comment summed up what I meant: > We individually value getting a good education but far too frequently ignore how education as a whole is beneficial to society.
areyousure 10y ago
Some context in case anyone is curious: Education is the third-biggest item of (combined) US government spending, after healthcare and pensions. Defense is fourth. It accounts for roughly 15% of total spending and 5% of GDP. I found this history of education spending informative regarding "leaders who continually cut education budgets": http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/education_spending http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/education_spending Perhaps Politifact can be used as a barometer of "issues" during elections. They have rated 954 statements about education, 415 about guns, 390 about the military, 377 about terrorism, 316 about abortion, 64 about sexuality (including "bathroom bills"), and 20 or so about Planned Parenthood. Even statements about the federal budget in general (which include many of the previous issues) only totaled 938 items.

by Arizhel 10y ago

noxToken 10y ago

I misspoke. The sibling comment summed up what I meant: > We individually value getting a good education but far too frequently ignore how education as a whole is beneficial to society.

areyousure 10y ago

Some context in case anyone is curious: Education is the third-biggest item of (combined) US government spending, after healthcare and pensions. Defense is fourth. It accounts for roughly 15% of total spending and 5% of GDP. I found this history of education spending informative regarding "leaders who continually cut education budgets": http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/education_spending http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/education_spending Perhaps Politifact can be used as a barometer of "issues" during elections. They have rated 954 statements about education, 415 about guns, 390 about the military, 377 about terrorism, 316 about abortion, 64 about sexuality (including "bathroom bills"), and 20 or so about Planned Parenthood. Even statements about the federal budget in general (which include many of the previous issues) only totaled 938 items.