Education | Tom Balek - Rockin' On The Right Side

What do you want your child to be able to do when he or she becomes an adult?

Let me guess: How about “make a good living, have a nice home, raise a family?” Perhaps “have a comfortable lifestyle without being burdened with debt and insecurity?” Maybe “save some money for a comfortable retirement?”

You may have other, more fuzzy aspirations for your child, such as “happiness” or “love” or “fulfillment”. But I’ll bet the items I mentioned above are at the top of your list.

Then why have you and I and every Montana parent not DEMANDED that our schools teach our children about money?

Except those who are on welfare, or are retired, or are so disabled that they are excluded from work, every American wakes up each morning and sets out to improve his or her family’s standard of living. It’s the essence of life. We have wants and needs, and we strive to fulfill them within the economic system in which we live. One would think that our education system would be geared toward that top priority of life, and our children would leave school with a fundamental working knowledge of the role of money, finance, and economics in our free-market democratic republic.

But no. Our state requires high school students to learn mathematics, language skills, social studies, science, health, art, world languages, and vocational/technical studies. An extensive array of fine arts is recommended. But my search of the Montana Office of Public Instruction website did not find the word “economics” mentioned EVEN ONCE.

The OPI website includes numerous articles trumpeting the importance of Indian studies, but none about how to make our Native American students financially successful and independent.

Can you name one human activity that does not involve money?

Can you guess how many high school athletes become professional athletes? Basketball: .03% . Football: .09%. We know how much attention and money is paid to those pursuits.

But how many high school students will need to earn a paycheck or make a profit, file a tax return, handle financial transactions with confidence, understand how their government handles their money, buy insurance, manage a family budget, make intelligent borrowing, saving, and investing decisions? 100%.

(By the way, most professional athletes are bankrupt within a few years of the end of their playing careers, because they weren’t taught economics in school either.)

Some Montana schools offer consumer economics classes or a make a minimal attempt at teaching economics within other courses. But I’ll bet the participation rate is miniscule where offered.

The biggest failure in our education system is the refusal to provide our children the financial literacy they need to thrive and survive. As we continue to matriculate generation after generation of walking economic victims, our nation flounders in debt, our dependency on government explodes, and we elect whichever pandering politician promises to give us the most free “stuff”.

One can only conclude that Montana parents either haven’t seriously thought about the importance of economics, or they think their kids are destined to become professional athletes. Either way, the kids are screwed.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

We don’t need no education
We don’t need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave those kids alone

Another Brick In the Wall – Pink Floyd

“Get Out the Vote”! It’s a good thing, right? Everybody should vote! It’s your responsibility as an American. It’s patriotic. It’s for the good of the country.

Ask anyone you meet – should every American be allowed to vote? The automatic, enthusiastic, unequivocal response is always: “Yes!”

Just for the exercise, let’s set aside our rigid posture (and the Constitution) and ask, “What is best for our country, and our childrens’ futures?”

Should a person who has never paid taxes get to vote? Where else in the circus of life can a person decide how another person’s money is spent? Half of US citizens pay no federal income taxes, but they still get to elect those who spend the money taken from the other half. Isn’t that a golden opportunity for corruption? I’ll break this down: “Vote for me, and I’ll give you somebody else’s money.

I VOTED! WOO HOO!

Should a person who has no understanding of candidates, issues, government, history, or economics be allowed to vote? Let’s be honest, a large percentage of our citizens are economically and politically illiterate. They don’t read or watch any news. They don’t know who the vice president is. They can’t find China on a globe. And they are absolutely not able to make an intelligent decision about how our government should be run for the benefit of all.

We don’t let children vote. Why? Because we assume they have no clue what they are voting about. Unfortunately, when it comes to important events, many of our adult voters are child-like in their understanding of the world. An astute and well-educated fifth-grader is more qualified to vote than many adults.

Should a person who can’t prove eligibility get to vote? A state legislator from a college town here in Montana was recently testifying against stricter identification rules for state voters. “This is so unfair!” she wailed. “If we lengthen the registration period, how are our out-of-state and international students going to be able to vote?”

In a world where personal identification is a requirement of daily life, asking a voter for ID is just common sense, and everyone knows it. Those who oppose it clearly intend vote fraud.

It may seem that I want to take away the average guy’s right to vote. I don’t. But I do think that every voter should have skin in the game – when each voter pays at least some taxes, he will be more interested in how the money is spent. I think our education system should be dramatically improved so that by adulthood, each citizen knows our country’s history, understands economics, and is equipped to vote intelligently. And I think we should protect the sanctity of our electoral process by making sure that only eligible voters cast ballots.

Call me a rebel.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

I’d like to help you son,
But you’re too young to vote!