2003 Year in Review

A Crucial Juncture

We, the citizens of Morrison, are at a crucial juncture in the education of our young. We must determine whether to continue our excellent educational system or let it fall into a decline reminiscent of other school systems in the area. Sterling recently lost its referendum for tax relief for the schools by a two to one margin. Such a shame. How is it that citizens take such a dim view of the fundamental underpinning of our society? The very success of our community, our state, and our nation is contingent on the education of our young people. Indeed, for the majority of us our own success, great or small as it may be, has been a consequence of our education in the public schools.

Is it not curious that we worship the gratuitous and denigrate the essential? We pay lip service to the values, virtues, the necessity of education; yet we begrudge any requests for money, however negligible, to maintain the standards of excellence students have a right to expect.

We see nothing amiss in paying outrageous prices for non-essential goods such as compact discs and Nike sneakers. Not to downplay the pleasure we get from a well-recorded music disc or the extra comfort we enjoy in a pair of top Nike sneakers, but the products are priced out of proportion to their value. Even on sale, these products are still overpriced, but we pay the prices without a serious second thought. The manufacturing cost of a CD from stamping to shrink wrap is less than a dollar. The cost for top-of-the-line Nike sneakers, including materials and labor, is approximately ten dollars.

Yet we question the request for a few dollars to maintain the quality of education in our community.

We tolerate without a quibble the outlandish salaries that mere actors make for run-of-the-mill movies. Mel Gibson, for example, made 20 million dollars (one-third the total budget) for Ransom, a film of dubious quality. Gibson was required to be available for filming for only three months. Cameron Diaz will be paid 20 million dollars to do a voice-over for the sequel to Shrek.

At current salaries, twelve teachers can be hired and retained for 30 years for one of those actor’s fees.

Many of us know Kelsey Grammer gets 1.6 million dollars per episode for his series Frazier, and each of our Friends makes 1.25 million per episode. Few of us realize we pay these absurd salaries in higher prices for goods and services. The money has to come from somewhere, and we are the somewhere.

In the United States, most teachers will do good to make 1.25 million dollars for a lifetime of teaching.

We take little note from week to week when we spend six to eight dollars for a movie ticket, three to four dollars for a bucket of popcorn, two dollars for a candy bar, and three dollars for a soda – in other words, a tidy sum of money - for two hours of entertainment.

If the school system, however, asks for money to keep its programs and staff at acceptable norms, we accuse it of being wasteful and frivolous in its expenditures. We conveniently overlook our own daily wastefulness.

Mediacom is scheduled to increase its fees to subscribers this year. How many of us will stop service because we feel the fees are unjustified? Can we tolerate a life without the opulence of cable television? True, cable television offers more options, but it is in many respects a mindless, ‘vast wasteland’ of repetitive programming, undeserving of the dollars we pour into it.

The vitality of a community is measured according to the education of its citizens. A well-educated citizenry is the result of a well-maintained public school system. We show our contempt for education when we offer bogus arguments against a tax increase to ensure the health of our schools.

Our education allows us to make and waste money as we see fit. We can throw it at whatever we like – entertainment, above all. Our education should let us see that our success is a result of a good education, not in spite of one. Our children deserve no less an opportunity to succeed than we enjoyed.

Surely, in light of what the community gains, we can afford a few dollars more to fund the Morrison schools.

by William Driver, Guest Columnist
March 3, 2003