The Money Mantra

"Throwing money at the problem isn't the answer."

How often have those of us in education and other tax-supported public services in America heard that stingy, rotting proposition over the past 40 years. It has become a mantra, in fact: a self-fulfilling prophecy of tight-fisted, mean-spirited money men and women for whom building fast profit and hoarding gigantic wealth are far smarter and more glamorous than spending their fair share to help meet needs of ordinary men, women and children who form the fabric of society.

For the better part of my 45-year career as an educator and teacher advocate, the "can't throw money at it" mantra was what peers and I heard anytime we campaigned for modest tax increases to meet crisis situations, e.g., ordering new textbooks, lowering class sizes, repairing leaky ceilings, improving salaries, buying computers, upgrading practice equipment, or seeking more academic freedom in which to engage our students. Nope. Can't do it. Wouldn't be prudent. On and on to the point of gagging fatigue every time we heard the "money isn't the answer" reply (and not incidentally, it seems, almost invariably accompanied by "teachers are the problem" attitude).

Serves 'em right, this "can't throw money at it" crowd. Now they're blowing their brains out, falling on their golden swords and eating greed for breakfast. Unfortunately, in so doing, they're also soaking us modest taxpayers for gazillions, once the dollars, francs, marks, rhiyals, rubles, yen, and (especially) the yuans are counted. Which counting continues worldwide as we write.

So is throwing money at it the answer? With apologies to Bill Clinton, I guess it depends on what the meaning of "it" is. For me, "it" in this case is Greed personified and--sadly--magnified and dignified by an undereducated, barely insightful American press and daily broadcast corps.

Proof, perhaps, that we teachers needed better textbooks, computers and academic freedom in which to teach that generation of students after all!