My Proposed Solution

I feel like federal government should install a national process where decisions for spending (how much on what) should go through a ballot (or referendum type) process from a majority of citizens taken from each state. I feel like this would reduce the problem of prioritising spending in the wrong places because the American people would have a voice. This solution (like mentioned previously) would get enacted in each state and majority vote would decide on spending proposals. This should take part on federal, state, and local level. It seems nowadays that when we leave important decisions up to the federal government, they either have a hard time agreeing to a mutual decision, or they put something into affect that a lot of people disagree with that has over time learned to be ignored. Something like the crisis for funding education can't afford to be ignored.

Looking Into The Problem

Our society has come across many issues facing the U.S budget, debt, taxes, and spending crisis in the past decade. One particular issue is that the national government is spending too much money on prisons rather then schools and education. Education should be a high on the United State’s priority list; as of right now it’s on the bottom. According to an article from CNN called “University of California seeks alternatives to 16% tuition hikes” it is shown that if “the state doesn't increase funding next fall beyond this year's $2.37 billion, the UC system (in California) would have to raise tuition by 16%, according to the plan”, this is due to the educational system’s lost of $650 million in state funding after lawmakers reduced a budget shortfall from $26 billion to $5 billion (Martinez 2011). It may not seem like a big deal now but lets look at future generations, our children's' education. I also found according to the article “2011 budget gives federal prisons $528M” from U.S Today, “The Obama administration's $3.8 trillion 2011 budget proposal calls for a $527.5 million infusion for the federal Bureau of Prisons and judicial security” (Johnson 2011). This would push the Bureau of Prisons budget to $6.8 billion dollars a year, this means that the government spends $4.43 billion dollars more on prisons then the states budget on education. Since this problem individually effects a majority of people in today’s generation, especially young adults in college (like myself) with our never-ending tuition rises and budget cuts on classes, the American people should at least have the right for direct democracy for government spending. According to an article from the Sacramento Bee called “UC seeks more funding from cash-strapped state”, the California UC President Mark Yudof said, “The system needs $2.8 billion to hire more instructors, reduce class sizes, boost enrollment and avoid raising tuition”. The president also goes on to say how “the university, which lost $650 million in state funding this year, is likely to lose another $100 million because state revenues are coming in below projections” (Chea 2011). This is an obvious and problem that is just going escalate unless direct action is achieved.