You couldn’t help but to hear him yelling, “I am hurting! I need a dvoctor!” Swiftly, he was rushed to the emergency room and was told that he would need minor surgery the next day. As night transitioned into day, the patient became more nervous than ever before. The time had come for surgery and the patient was terrified.  He found himself vulnerable in the hands of the physician.  As anesthesia was administered, all the patient could think about were the risks of the procedure.

Just as the patient, educational and public workers in Alabama find themselves in the intensive care on life support. For the past few years, teachers have gone under the scalpel. Since 2007 teachers have not received a pay raise, textbook funding for students has been drastically decreased, and now more cuts will take place.

When it comes to the proposed cut of the Education Trust Fund, debridement might protect all state-funded teachers but the scalpel cuts deeper by underfunding transportation, utilities, operations and support workers such as secretaries, cafeteria, custodial, and maintenance workers.

The “Rolling Reserve” bill, which was the second surgical incision, left Alabama’s education system bleeding profusely. You cannot help a bleeding individual by cutting them again. While the education budget bleeds, this bill cuts away from classrooms by building a $1 billion legislative slush fund. Our children’s most immediate need is for a physician, not a savings account.  Instead, we should choose to give our last because it is more important that our children survive than for us to have money in an account and no children at all. Local school systems are being asked to find fat that they can cut. It is time that we give them a much needed blood transfusion.

If the scalpel is used again, state workers and teachers may have to pay more for their pension and health insurance all while working for low pay. One must ask the question, will the physician pull the plug on education, state employees, the working and middle class? Before pulling the plug it is wise for the physician to consider another opinion. We offer to suggest that large corporations, who have evaded paying taxes, pay their fair share in order to get our education system off of life support.  During this tough economic time, cutting education is not the answer.  It is time for us to take the education of our children seriously.