|
[Date]
Dear
[title and name of elected official]:
I
judge the importance of public education in a simple
way: by how it affects our standard of living and
quality of life. If
it makes life better, it’s important to me.
Fully
supported public education is the basis of our society,
culture, civilization.
Successful public education teaches us
responsibility and civility, how to get along, prosper,
and thrive.
The
history and tradition of Michigan and the United States
illustrate that effective public education is also the
engine of successful economic activity.
It informs and trains us to succeed and excel.
It gives us the tools to raise the standard of
living and improve the quality of life.
It’s the first ingredient of effectiveness,
success, and wealth.
High-quality,
fully supported public education makes life better.
We want to gather our resources and invest in
what makes life better.
High-quality public education attracts and
retains employers, smartens and trains employees, so
that business throughout the economy creates wealth,
which we spend on improving our lives.
Not only directly, through employment, but by
providing and supporting other important programs for
our benefit – health, seniors, social services,
infrastructure, etc.
It’s not just students and parents who benefit
from excellent public education and subsequently
improved life. Everyone
does. That’s
why everyone has to get behind it.
To
set this series of events in motion, we must put the
horse before the cart and enthusiastically,
intelligently, generously, and effectively invest in a
crusade to achieve peerless public education throughout
Michigan. Peerless,
yes – to be the best so we can benefit the most.
A
strong Liberal Arts scholastic tradition that included a
broad, full, solidly based Arts & Science curriculum
– for over 175 years this approach led Michigan and
the United States to the top of the heap, making them
rich and powerful. It’s
doing so in other countries today.
We used to rank as the smartest and richest in
the world. We
used to have the highest standard of living and quality
of life. No
more. We
abandoned what was working.
We continue to abandon it, tinkering constantly
and trying to fix something that
wasn’t broken. And
our rank among states and nations, our wealth, standard
of living, quality of life, security, good teachers,
high standards, high quality, budget money, and
everything else we value so highly continue to diminish
and slip away.
Let’s
do something about it.
Besides whine and point our finger at everyone
else. Besides
bicker among ourselves in Lansing and Washington.
We know what we have to do.
So let’s turn things around and let’s start
immediately. We’re
not helpless. Of
course we can’t revisit the past and its successes,
but we can emulate them and achieve our goals today by
applying what our ancestors used to take us to the top
yesterday. Let’s
educate ourselves properly, stop our decline, and climb
to the top of those state and world rankings
again. Now,
while we still can.
As
a government official
who represents me and those who believe as I do, please
work hard to do what it takes right now to increase and
maintain the state’s budget for public Liberal Arts
education with a strong, broad, and traditional Arts
& Science curriculum, so that instead of losing
ground in every area that matters to us, we again
steadily raise our standard of living and improve our
quality of life. Actively
support public education, academically and financially.
Respectfully
yours,
[Jane
Q. Public]
[Mailing
address]
[City,
State, ZIP] |
A letter to the
politicians. Below that, the <