EDUCATION: Cuts will hurt economy

We moved here from the small redwood mountain town of Boulder Creek, Calif., 36 years ago and never looked back. My husband has always worked in Spokane as a machinist because Idaho pays so much less. (On average $3 less an hour.) Idaho is a right to work state. Now there is an ad on TV with a man saying that he cannot always get trained and educated employees in Idaho and he must send his work to Seattle and Silicon Valley in California to get the correctly educated workers he needs. My grandson has a learning disorder and was sent to New Visions High School in Post Falls where one teacher repeatedly suggested he quit. (He did and three weeks later had his GED.)

What is the topic of this letter? Education in Idaho. The only thing that I agree with in the current legislature is to put to an end to tenure. There are teachers that have lost their zest for teaching that are tenured and are just working for their retirement. I have talked with a lot of parents that have had experiences where the teachers just did not care. Do not get us wrong, there are a lot of wonderful teachers out there that give and give to their students, but a teacher should never tell a student that because he has so many students he does not have time to help her as she requested.

Now the legislature wants to cut student access to teachers by sticking them on computers for a couple of classes a day. Are the people in Boise NUTS!? Idaho ranks near the bottom in education already. We should be adding teachers so that we can get a more educated populace for Idaho.

With lower education employers pay lower wages. We do not need to lower our educational expectations, but raise them. The better the education, the better the wages; that leads to better tax receipts that in turn leads to better education.

All over the country states are cutting education past bare bones. Big business should advocate for better education, as they need good workers for their business. Who will buy the products from big business if too many people are not educated and have only the buying power to feed, clothe and house themselves? We are entering a time of huge have and have-nots. Big business will survive for a while, but as the great middle class shrinks in America we will become a nation of rich and poor. Education is the great leveler. We must not have quiet voices at this time. We need to speak out for education.

It seems simple to us. Fund education, have an educated workforce that earns a good living and the economy grows. Seems like simple economics to us. If we continue to cut education, this great nation will become a land of the rich and the home of the working poor.

WARREN and JOANNE ANGLIN

Post Falls