To the editor:

One of the most important issues threatening our quality of life is inadequate funding of our public educational system. We are short 400-500 teachers in state public schools this year and face the future reality that many of our children and grandchildren will be taught by untrained and uncertified teachers. Also, each year our college students are taught by graduate teaching assistants and faculty appointed for one year or one course.

Kansas University, for example, has the same number of faculty in 2002 as it had in 1981, while enrollment has increased by more than 5,000 students.

Few would deny the importance of qualified teachers, the most important factor in student learning. Yet schools have very limited resources for technology, instructional materials, and school safety to enhance learning. The pressures on educators because of federal mandates, performance standards, and diverse student needs relative to abilities, socioeconomic status and diversity in language are significant as well as expensive to address. While per-pupil allocations cannot be compared directly to the per capita cost of incarcerations, it is shocking to note that our state annually spends $20,196 per prisoner per year and only $3,863 per K-12 student.

While public education is under siege from many sides, the one we consider to be the starting point is funding of our schools at all levels. We need to understand that we “must pay now or we’ll certainly pay later.”

For the University of Kansas National School of Education Advisory Board,

Anne L. Walters,

Lawrence