Top 10 Reasons to Support Public Education
10. An educated population is the cornerstone of democracy. This nation's well-being depends on the decisions of its educated, informed citizens.
9. Education reduces costs to taxpayers. For every dollar spent to keep a child in school, the future costs of welfare, prison, and intervention services are reduced. It can cost less to educate a child now than to support a teenage parent or a repeat offender in the future. Education monies help to secure the future of all citizens.
8. Public schools are the only schools that must meet the needs of all students. They do not turn children or families away. Public schools serve children with physical, emotional, and mental disabilities, those who are extremely gifted and those who are learning challenged, right along with children without special needs.
7. Public schools foster interactions and understanding among people of different ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
6. "Education is the best provision for old age"-- Aristotle. The future support of our aging population depends on strong public schools. In 1954, there were 17 workers to pay the Social Security cost for each retiree. By 1995, there will be only three for each retiree. It is likely that the productivity of these three workers per retiree will depend on the strength of our public school systems.
5. More than 95 percent of our future jobs will require at least a high school education. There is no question about the need for an educated work force.
4. The nation pays a high price for poorly educated workers. When retraining and remediation are needed to prepare a worker to do even simple tasks, the cost is paid by both employers and consumers. This process raises the price of American products and makes it more difficult for this nation to compete in the world marketplace.
3. The cost of dropouts affects us all. This nation loses more than $240 billion per year in earnings and taxes that dropouts would have generated over their lifetimes. Well-supported public schools can engage all students in learning and graduate productive and competent citizens.
2. Children are our nation's future. Their development affects all of us. Good education is not cheap, but ignorance costs far more.
And the Number One reason to support public education. . .
1. Public education is a worthy investment for public funds. We can invest now, or we can pay later.
-- from the Illinois Coalition for Public Education, June 1994.
