Today we'll be flying the last plane out of Afghanistan, ending our longest war ever. To those who've lost family in Afghanistan, thank you for your sacrifice. I'll never understand loss of life on foreign soil, my condolences are with you.

To those who made the decision to spend 300 million a day every day for the last 20 years, I am afraid my sympathies don't run so deep.  As an educator, a parent, an advocate, I can't help but look at the Brown University Cost of War numbers and wonder kind of impact a daily 300 million dollar domestic investment would make.

According to the National Priorities Project, we spend almost 10 times more on military than on education. In fact, over half of the 2019 federal discretionary budget was devoted to military spending. What does that say about our priorities? We say that we prioritize education and our country's future but we don't invest in it.

The next time you have a chance to vote in a local election, I hope you'll consider what you learned here and vote your priorities. 

Find out about your candidates and their priorities at Ballotpedia.