Forbes on America's impending disaster:  Our kids face a lower standard of living because people in India are reading our CAT scans for us OHNOES!!!

OK, OK, They give it more depth and seriousness than that, and the facts are on their side...BUT.

As a country we aren't willing to value education. We love to talk the talk, but when it comes time to back it up, we eliminate funding for "Reading is Fundamental", or some other worthwhile program. Or allow our representative government to do so on our behalf.  Same-same.

A long time back I attended a Franklin seminar (before the Covey merger.)  There was an exercise there where you tracked how you actually spent your time/money and then compared it to what you said your values and priorities were. For me it was an eye-opener.  After such an exercise, if you refuse to spend your resources on the things you say are important to you, then they aren't really that important to you.   It is intellectual dishonesty of the first order to continue paying lip service to one thing and paying cash money to fund something else.

I want to vomit every time I hear a politico using education as an election gimmick. None of them are really willing to commit the money to it. Other stuff is just too urgent, other lobbyists wheels are just too squeaky. 

I know it's hard for a politician to sign off on good money being wasted on intangibles, especially while there's still some unpaved mountaintops in West Virginia or puppet governments to prop up/bomb into oblivion.  But you know what I would like to see?

I'd like to see a politician make a stand to let the citizens put the money into education that the government finds it hard to do.  I would love to see an America where every dollar spent on education, public or private, was deducted from your taxable income.  And I'd like to see it go farther than that.  I want an America where not only do education costs come right off the top of your taxable income, but your donations to scholarships do as well.  While I'm at it: If churches can be tax exempt, then why not universities and schools?   Teachers are at the forefront of our daily "War on Stupidity"?  WHY aren't their salaries tax-free, like soldiers' pay while serving in combat zones?  Hell, some of our inner city schools SHOULD qualify as combat zones.

Washington and our state/local governments need to put up or shut up.  The things you choose to spend your resources on ARE your priorities.   Collectively, our representatives have made it abundantly clear that this nation does not value education enough to spend any tax money on it; they are just too tempted to blow the money on other things.  So why not apply another time honored principle to the problem and PAY YOURSELF FIRST?  (ie let citizens spend what would otherwise become taxable income on the really important stuff before the government ever gets its mismanaging little paws on it.) 

I'm ready for a sea change, a culture shift.  I'm ready for an America that spends its time and energy (and money!) on the one thing we all agree is important: equipping our children (and ourselves as well) with knowledge and skill sets needed to succeed in a rapidly changing world.

And the only way it's ever going to happen is if we pay for what we value most, first.