The issues of public funding for education are among the most hotly debated in the state of New Jersey.  Sweeping budget cuts aimed at reducing the state’s $10.7 billion deficit have caused an outcry from educators, but slashing funding for the intellectual future of America is nothing new.  Despite what we have learned from yesterday, tomorrow always suffers for the tough times today.  Keeping a roof over our metaphorical homes and food on our collective tables means the kids and those who lead them into our shared destiny will have to make due with less.  Would our state and country be in any less dire straits if the focus of the past were on the future and not the present and money was spent more liberally on instruction and sacrifices were made elsewhere?  It is an experiment as yet untried.  Surely no one truly wants to live in a society of ignorant people.  Who will cure us when we’re sick?  Who will inspire us with their poetry?  Who will lead us out of the darkness?  There are arguments on both sides of this issue.  No one wants to see the development of our most precious resource, our children, suffer and yet it comes down to matters of commerce and it becomes a political hot potato.  We must pay, one way or the other if we want to have an informed citizenry.  So for now, just like in the past, fingers are crossed and our breath is held.  And our teachers, those with hands closest to the fire, the sparks in the eyes of our children are compelled to do what statesmen and women so often fail to do, be tireless and creative with what little there is to make much of what they have.  Meanwhile 60 percent of New Jersey parents polled support more aid to public elementary and high school education.  And children learn and still dream of what they will be when they grow up. 

Driving Jersey has been visiting school kids and school teachers, not to discuss budget cuts and slings and arrows, but to appreciate the institution and wonder of learning.  DRIVING JERSEY: LESSONS LEARNED (to be released in early 2011) is a conversation of that celebration. 

This short preview is what we were treated to in Mr. Rogers’ fifth grade class in Stafford Township.  Rogers is one of those educators that looks beyond the issues and instead sacrifices his free time to tutor students, any and all, after hours.  He regularly schedules reading and study time in the school library in the evenings, after the day is done.  What started with a few interested kids has grown to a small legion who have no idea that the dollars and cents of education are causing much hand-wrenching.  The number one reason they go to school after school, “Mr. Rogers makes learning fun.” 

Enjoy our preview of DRIVING JERSEY: LESSONS LEARNED and support your local public schools as if the future depends on it.

Music for DRIVING JERSEY: LESSONS LEARNED by s.amantus.