REFLECTIONS

OUR KIDS NEED THE BEST EDUCATION POSSIBLE

Congressional Democrats are wanting to help schools across the nation  because teachers an staff are being tossed out at a record rate.

The Democrats are right to sound the alarm.

These painful reductions will set a new low for schools in Missouri and across the nation. Kansas City School District has cut the number of schools in half. A number of teaching programs like music has been cut in school. It will take years before schools will recover.

Nationally about 275,000 education jobs may be lost by this fall because of budget shortfalls.  This contributes to our unemployment problems.

If our nation can invest in banks and the automotive industry, we have the moral obligation to invest in our kids.

Sen. Tom Harkin of  Iowa and Rep. George Miller of California see the school layoff as a threat to our  fragile economy and to our the education of our children. These congressmen have introduced bills to send the states $23 billion in order to avoid teacher and staff layoffs.

For the above reasons, I firmly support this legislation, despite my misgivings about how the $23 billion will add to the national debt.