Watch where you step!
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 By Beth Lear
The Governor ended his State-of-the-State address with lovely story about geese flying in formation which allowed them to fly further than one goose could alone. It’s a nice sentiment and a decent analogy. Now for reality: geese, like big government, are messy. Relying on the Feds to come riding in on a white horse with big bucks to bail out our years of irresponsible spending is not guaranteed. It’s like a college student with a new credit card relying on mom and dad to bail him out when he’s gone over his limit! Add to that all the new programs, especially in the area of education, and a taxpayer should wonder where is this money really going to come from?
Reality with geese and big government is similar: someone else is always left cleaning up the mess they leave behind!
January 28th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
Beth:
Exactly right. The 23 mill to 20 mill item alone would increase the state education budget by 10%. I wouldn’t have a clue how to put a price tag on:
All Day Kindergarten
10% longer school year (all school salaries increase 10%?)
10% longer school day (all school salaries increate 10%)
LPN’s, Nurses and a family/community coordinator in each building
Teacher collaboration, mentoring and professional development
And taking the state share up to 59%
All of these are laudible goals and the Governor is to be commended for the vision, but he may have to make good on his threat to take it to the voters in November. It will be interesting how his vision coexists with his budget when it comes out next week.