The kids are alright, but…

This is a continuation of earlier comments that education in America is not properly funded.

I had pointed out that we need to rethink the value of teachers and the way we fund education, teachers included.

I read a distressing article the other day that said many of our large cities in the U.S. will have to relocate by the end of the century because they will be unlivable due to climate change. The writer pointed out that regions will get so warm as to make them too hot for people to reside there.

What makes this, if true, so distressing, is that half of our population doesn’t believe in climate change.

Yet just recently over 170 places in the West reported record hot temperatures and places in the East are suffering from 100-year-flood records. The other day, a place north of Atlanta had 10-13 inches of rain in a 12-hour period, and a disastrous flood resulted. We had a flood in Kentucky, and other international weather disasters are coming with an alarming regularity.

The writer stated that regions that are becoming unlivable will see mass exits of population to regions where climate is somewhat steady.

That means that populations in cities like Phoenix (1.65 million), andLos Angeles (3.9 million) and the population centers around them will have to move to places with a more livable climate.

Our kids are alright. But we need to help them prepare for the future. If we don’t have an impending crisis, then I don’t know what you would call it. Imagine the full population from L.A. and surrounding cities moving to Montana. Think they would be welcome? Think of millions of people moving to eastern Washington.

Now that would be interesting.

We probably have waited too long dealing with climate change. But at least we can do more in preparing the next two generations of kids to help deal with it.

New major cities could spring up in very different places.

At the same time, nationally we are facing severe teacher shortages. We need to make it easier and more attractive for today’s students to take on teaching roles. In some places in Florida, they are recruiting people without degrees, or any college training, to be teachers.

In too many places, school boards are more concerned with what books they have in school libraries than they are about teaching our students how to cope with the future.

Our legislators need to properly fund education. What is distressing is there are no signs of this happening.

Locally, as in the state, we seem to feel that education on the cheap is sufficient.

That will never prepare our students to deal with the future.

Our kids are alright, but need financial support in our schools to prepare them.