In recent years most of the states have been gerrymandered to win elections for republicans. All of these states have seen republicans not only win Senate and House seats but also governor and state legislator seats. In every single state where republicans have won the majority funds for education have been drastically reduced. Schools have been closed and money has been shifted to private education programs that pay teachers minimum wage or even worse religious schools. This is a concerted effort to break Teachers unions and do away with public education. It is a direct attack on minorities and the poor. Finally, teachers have had enough. In West Virginia, the teachers held the state hostage until they got at least a 5% raise but also classroom funding was increased. Kentucky followed suit and now Arizona. Soon you will see even Texas bringing down the republican anti-education machine.
Years of whittling away public school funding doing away with art and physical ed programs and syphoning off public school funding for private education for profit has decimated our schools. The biggest and best investment we as a society can make is the education of all children,...yes even the illegal aliens. What do you think happens to those illegals when they get a quality education? They become very productive citizens!
This is another issue that I am sick and tired of hearing how bad our schools are, and the ones complaining are the ones stripping the schools of resources to educate. Yet football gets not only fully funded but gets treated like a professional team!
Academics, art, physical fitness, should be the priority in that order. Sports and extracurricular activities should come WAAAAY down the list!
Oh, and I don't want to hear ANY fucking libertarian bullshit about education for profit. they tried on a city-wide scale in Philly and it was a huge failure!