Campaign Dollars and Education

I was speaking to a FL educator earlier today about purchasing a professional development package. Of course, funds are tight right now and so they're not sure if they have the monies to buy. They then made a comment about the politicians getting free insurance and how their insurance rates might even be going up. I tasted their bitterness and can't say I blame them. One politician said they are providing a public service- well so are educators.

Then I saw an article about how much money the presidential nominees are spending on their campaign and how the DNC wants McCain investigated for on the legality of McCain's decision to reject $5.8 million in taxpayer funds.

That's a lot of money. McCain is spending about Two Million a week on advertising on TV. In eight weeks, that's over sixteen million. That's the shortage of about four counties in Florida for their education budget.

But schools are made to do without, find a way to cut the budget. So they don't purchase Microsoft Office, and instead use online office tools like Zoho or Google Docs. They become very creative in their spending to make the most of the situations for all of the people involved in the realm of education.

So what if instead of spending Two Million this week on advertising, he donated one million to education, posted his videos on YouTube, blogs, and other websites, and then focused the last million on fewer time spots.

If he did that - can you imagine the praise he'd get, which in turn would be free advertisement. Obama could do the same thing. Maybe he could choose health care to donate his million too, since that's another hard hit area with the budget hits.

Could each candidate do one week of campaigning where their expenses reflect the current economy and budgets our PUBLIC SERVICE AGENCIES are being forced to deal with?

Great math activity for students when they come back. Find out how much does it cost to air a commercial, how much to create the commercials, and other campaign expenses. Place it in a spreadsheet and make suggestions on HOW to cut their expenses. Hmmm - they could even give monies to state colleges that have video production courses/majors and have them create equal commercials and benefit by getting scholarship monies. The monies and video production would have to be equal - and it's a great learning experience for those students.

I know they are using Web2.0 tools like Twitter, YouTube, and blogs - but something has got to give.

Just me rambling and ranting.