Now I've gone and lost my temper...

I have officially had it with the new governor of Pennsylvania, and he's only been in office for a few weeks. He's right up there with a couple of other governors you may have heard about lately. The new budget is out, and what's the first thing he has cut? EDUCATION! At the K-12 level, he has slashed a huge amount of each districts' annual income from the state, and in our fair city of Philadelphia, he has, among other cuts, dropped all funding for kindergarten. This in a school district that has close to a 50% dropout rate, and that has too many of its classrooms trying to function with no textbooks, no computers, no A/V equipment. Arts and music curricula will no doubt have to be eliminated, as will after-school activities. All the added latch-key kids will have the dear governor to thank for their time at home alone.

I'm waiting for the discussion of vouchers to show up. That will no doubt be one of the next steps. Because, after all, a $1,000 voucher will do ever so much good in helping local families send their children to private school. The last time I had to come up with private school tuition, which was in 1995, the cost was $12,000 per year per child. Would those who keep suggesting this idiotic "solution" please tell me where families are going to find the other $11,000? I know how we paid tuition: we re-mortgaged our house, drove cars with 150,000 miles on them, and furnished the living room with second-hand furniture at a total cost of $73.08. That doesn't count the rugs, which I trash-picked.

As for the college-age folks, they are also getting royally screwed. The budget has taken 50% out of the money for state colleges, like Penn State and Temple University. That means a tuition hike of around 20% for students who already are scraping the bottom of their families' financial barrels. I have to wonder how many perspective students will just give up trying to afford their dreams of a good college education.

Oh, and by the way, our new governor has firmly stated that there will be no corporate taxes for the natural gas drillers or other huge commercial ventures. That's okay, they'll probably go out of business eventually because they won't find any educated engineers, project managers, accountants, office managers, or administrators. His rationale is that he doesn't want them moving to other states to do business. Duh. How does he suggest they move the natural gas deposits to take them along? Maybe he's being advised by someone who went to a high school with cost-cutting firmly in place. Yeah, the one with no books and no after-school science club.

I have a suggestion for the political mavens of our fair state. The next time you go out looking for a candidate for office, put on your list of requirements the following: The individual will not have made any more than $50,000 per year for any of the previous ten years. That way you will get people running for office who really understand the kind of life most of us are living. Most of the state's residents are hard-working, middle class families who are struggling to put food on the table, gas in the car, and tuition payments in the bank. For the vast majority of these families, their best shot at an educated child is a good, well-equipped public school system. It has just been proposed that the chance every child deserves will be gutted.

Oh, and for those who think teachers are overpaid? I dare them to spend one week in the classroom. I have been a teacher for the last 19 years, and it is the toughest job you can imagine. That is, if you really care about educating your students, and most of the teachers I have known really do care. They take money out of their own pockets to equip their classrooms, make sure their students are well-fed and sometimes even warmly clothed. All of their time "off" is spent taking courses, correcting papers, developing classroom activities, reading possible textbooks, and finding ways to improve their own classroom performance. Anyone who has been in the trenches at any level, whether K-12 or college, can only react with horror and dismay at finding out that once again, the budget axe has fallen squarely on their shoulders. When the hell are we going to stop short-changing our young people and start making those who can afford it pay a bit more for all of our futures?

Dear Mr. Governor, you can't possibly have gotten it more wrong.