Let me preface this rant...and I am afraid it will indeed be a rant... with an explanation of this picture. Last week, the Governor of Georgia Nathan Deal (R), and his secretary of state Kemp, announced that the Georgia State Archives would be closing and thus archive employees would be laid off due to budget cuts in upwards of 700,000 dollars. This announcement caused a wave of protests from all over the state, country, and world where on the day of this photo op, a petition with 10,000 signatures was presented to the Governor asking him to keep the archives open... What is even more disgusting is the fact that on this day, he pronounced that September would be called Georgia Archives Month (I am not kidding).
Now, after all of the protests, news reports, and constant persistence of thousands of Georgians to write and call their local representatives, Nathan Deal backed off of the archives closure and promised that the Georgia Archives would remain open, though maintaining the firing of 7 archives employees at the end of October 2012, right in time for them to be unemployed during the Holidays. In addition, it is important to mention that Georgia has some of the most rigid Unemployment rules in the country, and that they have voted to cut unemployment benefits...so not only is the State releasing these people into one of the most difficult economic climates in years, but in a state where they are not exactly supportive of those struggling to find work.
To ADD to the damage... the Atlanta Journal Constitution today announced this...
4.5 Million dollars to build a resort with state money....
To me...this sort of thing, when the State is cutting funds from education left and right kind of gets under my skin...
How hard is it to understand that if you do not properly fund education then you run a high risk of damaging the state's ability to compete in a global job market in the future? How hard is it to understand that the lack of knowledge and opportunity is not a good thing? How hard is it to understand that when times get tough, you can't pull all of your cuts out of an area that maybe you don't value because you are not educated enough to understand the importance....
I am frustrated and becoming more and more angry at the fact that once a lot of these guys make enough money to be comfortable, get everything they can out of the government, they immediately cut things for the rest of the population, don't care, and when people start to suffer...they call them lazy and victims and wipe their hands of them because they believe they don't want to be helped.
With Education, a lot of these people would have the opportunity to better themselves, cutting their chances may line a politician's pocket, but in the end it destroys the state.
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Hear hear. It's extra frustrating to me as a parent because I see these things affecting our kids. You and I both know how inadequate this school system already was... we're products of it. It scares me to death to think that budget cuts are making things even worse!
ReplyDeleteGEorgia's at the absolute bottom of the barrel as far as education goes. And it shows why when we place it at the top of the priority list for cuts!
K-12 isn't the only victim either, our University system faces cuts yearly that impede the progress of higher education which is vital now for a person's ability to compete in a job market. Over my last few years of college in Georgia I witnessed the anguish and frustration these cuts after cuts cause educators... and with family members who are teachers, I see them working so very hard with no resources and no pay raise in years... its terrifying... what should I do, educate my own child?
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