Response to: Teachers Today Challenge Tomorrow

America's teacher's futures are once again being threatened with mass budget cuts. In Deserah Alvarez's post titled Teachers Today Challenge Tomorrow,  she explains the uncertainty of our future generations as a result of today's teachers facing more and more challenges in the workforce. To read her blog post, click here. She adds that teacher's salaries are being cut, jobs are being lost, and negotiations with pay raises and pensions are no longer being considered.  The most noticeable she states, is in the state of Wisconsin, although, this has been a national problem for years.  I agree with Miss Alvarez that there is a dire need for budget reform in our educational system.  Why isn't there a better policy in place for education?  Teachers have an important job in shaping our future youth.  Without the resources available to our educational providers, the future appears to be uncertain. As Miss Alvarez says,

"Our children and younger generation are the most important thing in the world so why wouldn't America want the best, no matter the cost"

I have to agree that education is not the place to be making drastic cuts.  This will ultimately lead to a massive drop in the supply of future teachers resulting in a youth that is poorly educated.  Do we really want our country being perceived by others as the dumbest country in the free world?  Unfortunately, teachers have been getting "the short end of the stick" for years.  This has caused a decrease in performance in many teachers causing less patience with students and perhaps, a loss of love for a career that was once held ambitiously.  Teachers have a very important job and additional allocated funds should be contributed by the Federal government and better handled by State and local governments to provide a proper educational foundation  for our youth and fair compensation for the teachers. Miss Alvarez's blog posting sums up the painful reality of how neglected our educational system really is.  I mean c'mon, do we really want Bart Simpson for President one day? 

The American Middle Class: Preparing for Another Squeeze

As the loom of a government closure is behind us, where does this leave our solution for our national debt? Or more importantly, how will government's budget agreement effect the majority of Americans? Well, with budget cuts totaling $38 billion dollars for this year alone, some Americans will suffer as a result of government agencies receiving less funding. Health care funding like, Medicaid and Medicare will most likely fall into these cuts, as well as Defense cuts. The budget plan is supposed to decrease our national debt by $4 trillion over the next decade but to What or Who's expense?  The American middle class will be pushed further towards the "working poor" and the wealthy will still get richer.  The middle class drives our economy and with less money to spend and more taxes to pay, we will likely be pushed back into a downward spiral of economic chaos. Me, personally, am seeing a flip flop on the Obama Administration's tactics for helping the American public recover to a new tactic of concentrating on the national deficit. Not entirely a bad thing, however, the past has shown that less government spending slows down the national economy.  Possibly, this change is due to Obama's announcement for the 2012 presidential elections or from the constant friction between a divided Congress.  I am leaning more towards the latter, since the Republicans in the House have been putting the "cholk hold" on the President about reducing the deficit. Our nation's debt has reached it's limit. According to the Department of Treasury, if this debt limit is not increased by the middle of this year, we will destroy all efforts in restoring our economy.  By raising the limit, this will allow government to borrow funds and not increase the costs of doing so. But, Republicans are standing their ground in efforts to not raise the debt ceiling until the White House shows signs in a decrease of the national debt. That sounds fair in theory, but to who? The deficit cuts will never work unless someone foots the bill.  The middle class. Though the Republicans say that tax increases will not be tolerated, I think their interests on this only applies to the rich.  To be fair, I also believe the Democrats need to spend, may not be beneficial to reducing our debt without increasing taxes on Americans at the expense of the middle class. In my opinion, something has to give, not someone.
 


Resources
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-johnson/budget-cuts-kill-the-midd_b_844807.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42566545/ns/politics-more_politics
  
*****UPDATE APRIL 14, 2011******
This update is in response to President Obama's most recent speech to the American people.  After viewing, it would appear that the President's plan is to not tax the middle class, but instead tax the rich.  However, this speech seemed, in my opinion, like an opportunity to rally support for the 2012 presidential election.  Only time will tell.  But, I still think the middle class should be prepared otherwise

Classmate Blog Review(Gas Prices or Bust)

Lately, our nations dependency on oil seems to be hitting Americans where it hurts most. The wallet. In Emily Nichole Cook's post, "Gas Prices or Bust", she captures how consumerism is effected by our nation's fuel prices and what it really means by supply and demand. To read the full article click here. Cook states that spikes in fuel prices at the pump instead of the gradual increases we are all used to, tend to cause a downhill effect on other products and services. For example, with the sudden spike in fuel prices, farmers costs are higher, therefore, corn goes up. Corn is fed to domesticated food animals, which costs more to feed, and not to mention the transport expenses to get from point A to point B. So this is reflected on the consumer with a substantial increase at the grocery. Just the other day, I couldn't believe that bacon was at $3 bucks for the off-brand and close to $6 bucks for name brand. I feel that Cook's blog post really summarizes how Americans spending is curbed by high prices at the pump and how business' suffer as consequence. I say open our nation's reserves to take some slack out of the sting and continue forward on rebuilding our already teetering economy. I feel that this post was very informative and Cook's thought process that went into it "hit the nail on the head".