From foundingfathers.info
Laws for the liberal education of the youth, especially of the lower class of the people, are so extremely wise and useful, that, to a humane and generous mind, no expense for this purpose would be thought extravagant.
John Adams, Thoughts on Government, 1776
After President Obama's speech last night I thought I'd share this idea with my friends here.
The gateway to our future is through a world leading educational system. "What could be more economically stimulating than an intelligent and informed public?", as one of our fellow Kossacks so eloquently put it.
Gone are the excuses of "Where will we get the money? There isn't enough money in this years budget. " That excuse will no longer fly. I have seen that money can be handed to the private sector with no strings attached in order to stimulate the economy if necessary. I believe an injection of stimulus bailout to the nation's education system can revive our nation's economy in a way no other bailout plan can offer.
Simply put, if the bailouts can go to tax cuts for private businesses it can be used for the Public and State level education system
A Federally financed effort to rebuild and renew our State and Public education system can incorporate every aspect of renewal that our ailing nation yearns for.
The concept that private sector operators are always preferable and more efficient has been utterly rebuked, not only by our nation's financial collapse, but also in health care, in education and many other instances. Those industries and Government services that are privatized have not been more profitable or capable of providing their services to the public than state owned services, and in no other area of our nation's economy is this more glaring than the nation's education system.
I propose a $200+ billion American Educational Growth Investment Stimulus Plan, or A.E.G.I.S. for short. This plan would encompass the need to address our failing infrastructure. It will create energy efficient and sustainable resources that the public uses directly, particularly that section of the public which is our nation's obligation to protect and nurture, our nation's youth. If The Federal Government were to buy property and build state of the art, energy renewable and sustainable Schools and Colleges and the facilities they require to maintain themselves, such as parking, water and other technologies, we could create shovel ready jobs tomorrow as well as addressing one of our nation's forgotten needs, old and outdated infrastructure.
Investing heavily in education will create a strong and affordable market for computer technology, which should be available in all schools nationwide, and should also be affordable enough to be available in many of the homes across our nation that still have not made the jump into the information age. Every school in America should have enough state of the art computers that each student can use multimedia learning resources for at least an hour a day. Every school should have physical education from 1st grade through 12th, so that our nation can remain physically fit, thus lessening the burden on our ailing health care system. Every school should be able to provide a free and healthy meal from sustainable resources such as local farms and grocers during lunch hour, so that minds hungry for knowledge do not got wanting for sustenance.
Although $200+ Billion is a rough figure and should be higher in my opinion, the A.E.G.I.S. plan could be divide into four packages to grow and sustain our nations educational and economic needs.
- $100 billion in building new state of the art schools and libraries at the public and state level. All of these schools should be built in safe areas of cities relative to the population of the prospective students. The money per school should not be relative to the area the school will be placed in. The building should be done by local contractors and small business rather than large contractors, but union contractors should be given consideration. All of the buildings should have new and sustainable environmentally friendly features, such as energy efficient windows to save on heating costs, water efficient plumbing systems to save on precious public water resources, and solar and wind energy paneled roofing to reduce the new schools future energy costs, as well as to lessen our nation's dependence on sources of foreign energy.
- $50 billion dollars in technology and research investment at public and state schools, as well as increased spending in public libraries. Every public school should have enough state of the art technology to allow one third of it's students to be sitting in front of a computer at any given time. State colleges should get a stimulus to invest in research departments across America, so that we can get closer to vital and necessary health and green energy breakthroughs. We should create a new market for the technology sector at the state level. By spending $50 billion dollars on the Federal Level to stimulate state spending on technology and research in public schools and state universities we can create jobs that will last, as a informed and innovative public will always have need for more and better technology. When schools must replace that technology to keep it up to date it can be sold back to the public or recycled in order to give those who have yet to catch up to the information age a chance to move on into the twenty first century and the age of information and knowledge.
- $25 Billion dollars in subsidies to State colleges and Universities to pay for cheaper tuition costs to the public as well as to subsidize student teachers at universities and public schools. This will both encourage the public to pursue careers in education, but it will encourage those with college degrees to pursue a second diploma and add to the number of teachers who can be placed in classrooms that are so often overcrowded, and so often the places where children who need help are overlooked. I would suggest $18 Billion of this $25b to go for subsidies in the public tuition costs, and I would suggest that all tuition rates are frozen until three years pass where the financial situation of today has subsided and the markets have returned to a more stable state of affairs. This would lower tuition costs to the public and open up consumer capital at once. I would also suggest that in years after the tuition freeze lifts that state budgets require that state colleges and universities do not raise tuition costs more per year than the inflation rate of that year compared to tuition costs so that tuition costs per year reflect last year plus inflation. I would suggest the other $7 billion dollars of the $25b directed at subsidies for education should go to the salaries of teachers nationwide, so that America's teachers can afford the health care they and their families need, so that they can have free time to pursue their own educations and bring more knowledge back to their class rooms and thus enable the children they teach to know all the more. The teachers of America are the life raft and rescue team of our nations youth, they should be equivalent to those that run into burning buildings in our esteem, and paid so that they can afford the necessities and a good standard of living, with retirement in the future and savings put away for tomorrow, therefore providing them in their lives that which they hope to give those students they work with everyday the ability to achieve.
- $25 Billion dollars in income tax cuts to the nations teachers, student teachers, college professors and researchers. The tax difference will be paid offset by decreased costs in energy and water, as well as income, sales and other taxes generated by the AEGIS Plan itself.
None of this money should go to private or religious schools since those schools already have their own investors and patrons who can bring about improvements in their private infrastructure without government assistance.
Investing in education has benefits for both today and tomorrow. A more informed and intellectually curious nation can solve the problems of tomorrow that have been left to them by the generations of yesterday. The problems our nation faces today, economically, ecologically, nationally and internationally, they will still be there tomorrow, but, if we give our nation's youth the chance at a quality education, despite where you are born or to whom, despite income level or any other factor, we can create a better and more sustainable future. This is the stimulus that keeps on giving, and it will give our nation an edge on the world in innovating a better world for years to come.
Although the numbers are rough estimates, I truly believe a huge investment by our Federal Government into our State public and college education systems will be the beginning of a different America, and a better one. Not only would this give budget relief to states and municipalities ( such as California ) that are struggling in this financial crisis, it would stimulate sectors of our economy that have not seen substantial growth in a long time. What better stimulus could their be? It is the model for everything, more sustainable, more efficient, and it offers investment both to the public and private sectors that will benefit from this one time investment of our Federal Government both today, but for generations to come. Therefore I invite you to voice your opinion of the A.E.G.I.S. plan as it is proposed, and to add your thoughts and comments below.
If someone else has already proposed something like this, please inform me who it may be.
Thanks.