My View: It's Becoming Harder to Educate Children

Teach Your Children Well.

It's a great lyric from a great title of a great song by a great group.

And the Crosby, Stills and Nash song also applies to education. But this year, we wonder how well our children might be taught with all of the subtractions of staff in the .

While the school board is trying to make sure the math adds up in closing a huge deficit in next year's budget, the subtractions of over 100 staffers and about 65 teachers will make the schools seem a little emptier.

My son goes to Shawnee Elementary School and my nephew goes to

I already know my son is sad that one of his gym teachers, a really good guy, won't be back. And, from last week's decision to slash staff at the middle school, I'm sure my nephew won't be seeing so many familiar faces.

But what are school districts to do?

When state funding goes down and municipalities try to hold the line on taxes, school boards are faced with difficult choices. Or decisions they must make.

The board knows it's not a popularity contest. The members were elected to make some difficult decisions, decisions that some of us, as parents, may never agree with.

We all want our children to be taught well.

So we'll put our faith in our educators to be able to suck up the staffing losses and move on to the best of their abilities, ensuring that children will get the best education possible even if the grim reaper has struck the school district.

This is the price we pay for education these days. And that price is costly.

But enrollment is declining and school districts are coping in tough economic times. So we must make due.

The Easton Area School District faces a very difficult year. The school board is trying to get the budget in shape. And we don't know what more action might follow.

Let's just hope that when our children enter their schools in September that they come out smarter each day. It's all we can ask for.

Teach Our Children Well.