Public School Funding and Natural Resources

Many times this last week employees of public education have asked me to find more money for public schools. This is a polite way of saying, please raise taxes.

I tell them that I cannot; but, I do explain the link between economic activity and the five natural resources (mining, logging, manufacturing, agriculture, and energy). Our economy cannot improve until at least two or three of these industries start growing. Simply increasing the money supply cannot cause long-term stimulation of the economy; only primary production can.

The natural resource industries cannot grow until the EPA backs off and allows use of the land. The EPA has so many regulation that, in effect, they are stopping most new economic activity. In other words, radical environmentalism being taught in our public schools and in the media needs to be replaced with balanced environmentalism where natural resource industries can use the land. If this does not happen, funds to public schools and other social programs will continue to decline. I don’t see any other outcome.

Will public school teachers and the public at large demand the government to allow the use of the land by natural resource industries? When they do, we have hope the economy will improve and public funding can stabilize.