[Winona Online Democracy] Hello Winona Online Democracy, What is happening in St. Paul is almost surreal to me. All this talk of cuts in education and kids is almost maddening while our State runs a budget surplus. Minnesota does not have a public school funding problem. The reason our kids and schools are being hurt is not because of a lack of money. The money is available to invest in our kids and schools. We do not have a school funding problem, we have a problem with our democracy and our morals. The school funding problem is a democratic problem because our political system is controlled by the rich and powerful who can buy their politicians through legalized bribery, a.k.a. campaign donations. Our kids and average working families can't afford to buy politicians. If they could, our kids and schools would not be hurting because education would be viewed as the best kind of economic investment and more importantly, a shared responsibility we can not hide from. We would not be trying to give more money to the richest people in our state. It's possible to make our tax system more fair and efficient and adequately fund schools at the same time. (Publicly financed elections and third parties are badly needed, please consider the Green Party and other political parties during the next election.) The school funding problem is also a moral one because many people have come to view public schools as unimportant or hopelessly flawed. We place more value in new cars and fancy gizmos than we do in our kids. We have also been led to believe that schools are to blame for the failings of our unfair economy. Our greed and selfishness have blinded us to what is really important. We don't need more money for schools, we need a real democracy and a moral evolution. If those things were to happen, there would not be a school funding problem. What do you think? Dwayne ---------------- This message was posted to the Winona Online Democracy Project. Please visit http://onlinedemocracy.winona.org to subscribe or unsubscribe. Please sign all messages posted to this list with your actual name. Posting of commercial solicitations is not allowed on this list. Report problems to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
