Cuts in Education NEVER Heal!

Principal Mike Armbruster, Ocoee High School, Ocoee, FL regarding funding or lack of funding for education.

"You have a vested interest!" This is the comment I hear most when I share my opinion of the current travesty occurring with the funding of education in our state. You see, from the perspective of those I am speaking with, they see a high-school principal who will be charged with doing more with much less in the upcoming year, and who is feeling sorry for himself. While their perception of why I have a vested interest is wrong, the assertion that I have that vested interest is right on target.

Each day I get to walk with greatness and to work for young people who constantly amaze me. Whether through their academic excellence, athletic abilities, ability to perform in the arts, willingness to serve or their resilience to the world around them, they are truly amazing. The thought that much of what they have will soon be taken from them is reprehensible to me. As I stand among 2,700 children each day, I would hope that these children would be a "vested interest" for all.

I would hope that it would not just be the dedicated educators and parents with school-aged children who care, but that business people, community members, retirees and, most importantly, our elected officials would see the importance of serving all children to the highest possible level. Understand that I am not an activist; I am not one to spend time fighting for causes. I simply get in the trench and do what must be done with what I have. I was raised that way.

I am an optimist. I get up every day with a belief that all children can learn, most people are good, and my elected state officials will honor our state constitution and "adequately" fund education. On this last one, I have been sorely disappointed.

Every child deserves the best that we can give. Our state Legislature has used the oldest tactic in the world to literally take from our children. Lawmakers have distracted us by dividing and conquering us. What better way to move the attention from them than to make local school boards have to choose between cutting small schools, athletics, social workers, media specialists, guidance counselors and all the other emotional items up for discussion.

So we begin to battle each other: The athlete's father screams for athletics; the troubled teen's mother screams for the social worker; and suddenly we are at each others' throats. We forget about those who force us to choose. Their strategy had been working well.

But then a few people here and a few there realized that it was not the school boards that were the problem, but rather those who decide how to fund education. Those whom we elect to serve us. With that realization, a small movement started that is growing in leaps and bounds. Many have come to realize that we have the power to change this education crisis. Many are fully prepared to do whatever it takes to realign the priorities of those we "hired." Soccer moms, lacrosse dads, students, principals, teachers, Parent Teacher Student Association/SAC members, and concerned community members in our district and around the state are moving. The sleeping giant has finally awoken, and will be heard.

On Friday, there will be a sea of red as schools across our district make the point that "cuts in education never heal." On the surface, it is tee shirts and a slogan, but deeper, it is the people speaking out for the rights of those who cannot speak out for themselves. It is America at its best, with the people running government, not government running the people.

If we don't act now, we will have no one to blame but ourselves when our students lose what they deserve.