I would like to respond to Johnathan Lott's column regarding public schools. As a side note in his column Lott wrote, "I'm still not sure how spending over $100 billion in deficit money on education will be a short-term economic stimulus."
I take great issue with the implication that this stimulus should be spent solely for short term gains. The economic stimulus plan does need to immediately boost our economy. It does need to put people to work now, but it also needs to ensure that we won't face this problem again in the future.
Rather than slapping on a Band-Aid, we should look for a cure.
Obviously, we need significant public education reform, but we also need to increase education funding. We don't have to look further than our own colleges here at UF to see the negative effects of the budget cuts.
Then, I would encourage you to look beyond the bubble of our campus and see the immense difficulties facing truly underfunded schools across America.
If you give a man a fish, you have fed him for today. If you teach a man to fish, you have fed him for a lifetime. It's time we teach our country to fish. It's time to properly fund our schools so that every child has equal access to a good education and every child has a chance to succeed.
I can't think of a better stimulus package than one that truly invests in our future, namely, our children.
