29 October 2009

Schools are economic madness!

"Building schools is not the answer when the cost of education is too high already. Building a school creates jobs one time. Everyone has to pay through the nose for it for years to come in staffing and administration costs in addition to paying back the bondholders with interest for the upfront money to build the schools.

Such proposals are economic madness." Michael Shedlock


This struck an emotional nerve. I respect Mike Shedlock as someone who calmly analyses the data, and perhaps I am over-reading this statement, but to argue that building schools is economic madness says to me that economics is madness. If there is a need for better education in Utah (I take that as a given -- everywhere on Earth needs a better education system by the way) the good people of Utah cannot afford not to invest in education. If they wait -- and it could be the best part of a generation if things are as bad as Mike Shedlock suggests -- and thereby hope to save money, that uneducated or poorly educated generation won't know shit from shynola, will probably be bad parents with a negative attitude to education generally, will not be able to compete in the increasingly global market place, and will reduce chances of building a better future considerably. Utah will have more money (maybe) and fewer properly educated people. Doesn't sound like a win win to me.

How can money be so very important that everything takes second place to it!? To think so is insanity. I hope I am misreading the man...

Anyway, I had to get that off my chest. In my opinion there is nothing more important than education (apart from the ecosystem). That money-glasses can see it otherwise tells its own story.

1 comment:

Martin said...

Yes, typical. Shedlock himself is surely a product of an educational system that favors math scores at the expense of the arts, of an education in history and philosophy.