WHY SHOULD WE CARE ABOUT EDUCATION, THE GOVERNMENT DOESN'T

The article I read was from the Mercury News Editorial section.  The article Retraining Workers must be Silicon Valley's number one priority is a short argument that states that until we put our focus back on education, we will not begin to see an improvement in our local economy.

This article speaks to a harsh reality that all of us realize, but many of use take for granted.  Education in American is slumping behind other developed nations.  California is slumping behind most states--we are 47th in the nation.  

All of our successes are due solely to our education and therefore, it is only fair that our failures, or lack of ability to extend our successes, is due in large part due to our lack of education.  For this reason I do not understand why we are falling behind in education.  It seems to me that education spending has become just one of those things that we must do, instead of the most important thing that we must do.  In our country the most important things are never the "sexiest things", which is sad.  In California the first item to be cut when the budget is short is higher education (thank god that k-12 is mandated spending), instead of raising taxes, or cutting other spending.  Politicians focus on the things that get them elected, such as making sure that the other guy looks bad, or making sure they get their face on CNN, or making sure that they support the most popular stance on the war.  But they never spend their precious time debating the most sacred thing, education.  It is sad.