Friday, February 6, 2009

Closing schools, keeping bridges...

I read something very alarming. At first sight, it looked very funny to me. I found out that one of the effect of the economic crisis in the US is that states are trying to cut on schools and education, while trying to revive the economy. So, the idea of the stimulus package is to reduce the priority on education.

Nicholas Kristof writes in the New York Times that Bernanke, Summers and Geithner were close students of the mess in Japan from 1995 to 1999 and they realize the need to act decisively. Kristof says that it is Ok to sacrifice the small stimulus for a big one.

I don't know.

I am sure the big stimulus is important. I am sure the Colin Powell style carpet bombing of the economy with huge stimulus packages is necessary. However, I wouldn't lose sight of education, essentially primary school education. Education is a very important resource and it is something that builds human capital.