Education is an investment, not an expense

(UNEDITED)In these hard times, I can understand the temptation for legislators to cut the largest single expense in the budget: education. I also understand the reluctance of people with few or no children to pay for children of large family. However, all of these people are forgetting the education is an investment, not an expense.

Every dollar invested in education is returned many fold. While failure to fund education is very costly; higher welfare costs, increased crime and lost productivity is just the beginning of the costs. The world is far too competitive for us to cut back on educating our children.

Cutting education funding may seem like an easy way of balancing the budget without raising taxes, but like most easy answers, it doesn't work.

Floyd A. Newsom

Clearfield