(With apologies to Lord Tennyson for the title.)
The Indiana School Superintendent sent out a memo indicating that no state funding cuts are expected for K-12 education in 2011 as compared to 2010. Mikel Livingston, reporting for the Lafayette Journal & Courier reported on that memo, along with a story discussing how financial problems have hit Tippecanoe School Corporation especially hard.
Because of last year’s state cuts and its own budget problems, TSC has increased class size – by about 37% in the class cited by the article; and has cut art and music instructional time in half.
When I read about our struggle to maintain funding for something as basic as education, it’s hard not to worry that we are a society in decline. Cutting education is like eating your seed corn; you just don’t do it unless there aren’t any other options. In the past, we, as a society, were able to be productive enough to have the resources to educate our children at a certain level. It seems to me like our ability to fund schools has been stagnant or in decline for at least a decade; and it does not appear that any return to vigor in that area is likely in the near future.
Of course, it could be that we are still productive enough, but the fruits of that productivity are accumulating elsewhere. But, I’ve been advised, that suggesting such things is class warfare and irresponsible.
Why can’t we just cut salary and benefits for school employees, including teachers? With so much of the school budget consisting of salary and benefits, that would seem to me to be the way to make cuts without negatively impacting eduction.
If I were in a position to have to make these cuts, I’d simply make teachers and administrators pay more for their health insurance and pension costs, and freeze their salaries.
Having teachers incorporated into the same catastrophic/ consumer directed health insurance program that state employees can get would also be a no-brainer.
An absolutely EEEEVIL idea would be to dump teachers into the insurance pool that Obamacare will be setting up soon. Since the teacher unions are such big Democrat supporters, it seems like justice to me.
Seems like at every turn, the solution is to put ever downward pressure on compensation for working people. Half of the justification for screwing teachers is that workers in the private sector have been getting screwed for a good long time.
It’s easy to forget that there was a time not so long ago when a single worker could support a family, complete with health insurance; maybe even a pension if they were lucky. Worker productivity is higher now than it was then, so where is the value of that production being allocated now?
Where is the value of production being allocated now? The top 1% in the US keep getting an ever larger share of the pie, while we, the remaining 95%, are barely staying even. Between 2002 and 2007, the top 1% went from average earnings of 1.08 million per year to 1.87 million per year, the rest of us went from 39400 to 41700 (approximate).
See maddow show blog
http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/11/30/5550835-chart-if-you-want-to-help-the-nation-help-the-unemployed
By Laura Conaway – Tue Nov 30, 2010 9:28 AM EST.
Rachel also has some wonderful analysis of who the gop tax cuts will help-remember when mitch and bush and the rest of the gop now in charge were in charge of the senate and house and voted to pass and then end the tax cuts this year? Yes they did, but they seem not to remember.
As for being able to afford and support a family on one income, you must not be part of the gop because they know these types of families, they do not understand why we little people complain so much.
Maybe I’m just too cynical but I think the GOP hates education because if they keep people dumb they won’t get in their way.
‘Seems like at every turn, the solution is to put ever downward pressure on compensation for working people. Half of the justification for screwing teachers is that workers in the private sector have been getting screwed for a good long time.’
Way to sum up our economic system,sometimes referred to as ‘Reagonics’,or ‘free market’ with one nail driven in with one solid blow.I wish Obama would come up with an insightful ‘cynical-wise’ comment just at the right time that would refocus the argument on the common folk who truly are in need..Through all this we hear too much from those who caused the mess,as if teachers on pension is what is leading us all into poverty.
Today’s conservatism carries water for international corporatism,and they have mosty been successful limiting it to a ideological debate of ‘redistribution of the wealth'(dont let the poor people rob us).
The real reason we have to cut public pensions ,if we do, is so that Communist China and corporate America will be happy. .That’s the case that should be debated in public forum by those who understand the lingo.
This is no time to worry about a national deficit. Cutting public pensions permanently to fix a temporary economic problem would only serve ideology by restribituting wealth in the wrong direction. Pensions not being funded is what the problem is.So find ways to fund them. Not much can be done til the economy comes back,except to help those who are in need..That’s the duty of government at this time of need.
I probably sound a little radical,but Im responding to what is around me ,and things are very bad for so many ,and the fools always have the floor. Where the H. is President Obama? Obama is the least liberal liberal I can remember.If only he had accomplished what he’s accused of!
Doug: great question. I don’t have an answer for it, but do have a couple of thoughts. One is…. have you noticed how the standard person lives nowadays? Compare today to 50 years ago…….
Today: Americans go out to eat once a week, house sizes have doubled in a generation, holidays have become more and more materialistic (granted, the people saying this might be the same people that complain about today’s kids), cars are nicer and nicer, and require more and more equipment (seat belts used to be optional – now we require expensive air bags), most people now have monthly television bills, cell-phone AND land-line phones, etc.
Sure, worker productivity is higher now than it used to be. However, our consumption has gone through the roof. We even have television shows dedicated to our ridiculous consuption, like Cribs, Monster Garage, etc. If someone wanted to live like people did in the 1960’s, they might do so a bit easier than today’s consumption-focused lifestyle.
He who controls the money controls! Now that the state has assumed responsibility for most of the cost of education there is likely to be even more tweaking of the system–for example: just saw possible proposed bill (goes to your article on LSA) that would require early grade student to have homework. Now if bill is proposed it is difficult to imagine the content of the debate and even farther the nature of the amendments–katty bar the door. With the observed lack of confidence in the local school administration held by the governor, DOE superintendent, and many legislators why not just wipe out requirements for teachers being licensed and all requirements for administrator license. The legislature becomes the defacto school board for every school and the governor becomes the superintendent. Then we can see how they handle the variety of problems faced throughout the state.
Sorry to resurrect this thread, I’ve been a little busy. ;)
To Doug’s question, where is the productivity going, I would say that with so much of the economy going to areas that productivity is not easily measured (government, education, health care), you cannot say that productivity is increasing. And larger and larger shares of the economy are going to government, education, and health care. Something has to give.
We need to acknowledge that government workers and teachers are generally union members, and those unions have been getting raises for their members over the last couple of decades. A 2, 3, or even 4% raise in any one year is not all that significant, but over time they really add up.
So these workers used to be underpaid (and were compensated for it by perks like tenure and early retirement), but these days are not overpaid and overbenefited.
Thus, that’s why we need to trim pay and benefits for teachers, in a nutshell.