I've been spending a good bit of time trying to figure out Colorado’s budget. It is dire, and there is little relief on the horizon. Taxes can't be raised because of TABOR. Revenue has fallen because of high unemployment and business pessimism about hiring or expansion. Despite that, school funding is required to go up per a formula built into the state constitution with a voter initiated amendment to the constitution.
Colorado was a finalist in the first round of Race to the Top funding, which could relieve some pressure on school budgets, but there is no guarantee Colorado will actually get funding. Finalists get to present their plan in person, in Washington, to a panel who will decide who gets actual cash. Absent that funding, the outlook for Colorado schools is not good. Schools are in a dire state of repair, and dropout rates in places like Denver are 50%. Our local school district is better, but we are still losing 30% of our kids. College tuition is increasing to the point that many kids can't afford college, and if they can it is because of student loans that will bankrupt them before they get started. An uneducated populace is a poor populace, which requires community support for survival, further draining state coffers.
I was reading about Newt Gingrich's 10 point plan for America back in the Clinton years, and one of the points was a requirement that the US have a balanced budget every year. It is the requirement for balanced budgets that is creating all the havoc in state governments. Right now the federal government is the only entity with the ability to turn things around by filling the gap in state budgets and stimulating the economy. If Gingrich had gotten his plan passed, that light at the end of the tunnel would be extinguished.
What we get with Republican anti-government ideas is poverty and all the misery that comes with it. People die because there is no health care or because they are collateral damage in an unnecessary and illegal war. Even Democrats lack the political will to cut defense spending. Pork projects that benefit individual Senators re-election campaigns get funded even if the Pentagon doesn’t want the weapon system or military vehicle being funded. Democrats are equally reluctant to point out that we are spending more on international folly than we are spending on the very taxpayers who fill the coffers in the first place.
We’ve spent roughly $713-billion on the war in Iraq. We’ve spent roughly $260 billion on the war in Afghanistan. That’s $1-trillion dollars spent on blowing people and things up half a world away, but we can’t spend an equal amount on the health of our own citizens over the next 10 years? Or to educate our citizens? The stimulus package provided $44-billion in funding for schools. The health care bill about to be passed by Democrats provides some relief for student loans. This is an apples to oranges comparison, since the war figures cover multiple years, and school funding highlighted is one year of one program, but I think I’ve made my point. Our priorities are all wrong, and Republican ideas will only make things worse.
Homework:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/20/opinion/20herbert.html
http://www.cbpp.org/search/?q=State+Budgets&cx=016330936052859641237%3Aidfqsyyhid4&cof=FORID%3A10&ie=UTF-8&fa=searchResults#982
http://www.nsba.org/MainMenu/Advocacy/FederalLaws/FederalFunding/Funding-Brief.aspx
http://www.cbpp.org/files/1-22-09bud-ed.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_States_federal_budget
Colorado was a finalist in the first round of Race to the Top funding, which could relieve some pressure on school budgets, but there is no guarantee Colorado will actually get funding. Finalists get to present their plan in person, in Washington, to a panel who will decide who gets actual cash. Absent that funding, the outlook for Colorado schools is not good. Schools are in a dire state of repair, and dropout rates in places like Denver are 50%. Our local school district is better, but we are still losing 30% of our kids. College tuition is increasing to the point that many kids can't afford college, and if they can it is because of student loans that will bankrupt them before they get started. An uneducated populace is a poor populace, which requires community support for survival, further draining state coffers.
I was reading about Newt Gingrich's 10 point plan for America back in the Clinton years, and one of the points was a requirement that the US have a balanced budget every year. It is the requirement for balanced budgets that is creating all the havoc in state governments. Right now the federal government is the only entity with the ability to turn things around by filling the gap in state budgets and stimulating the economy. If Gingrich had gotten his plan passed, that light at the end of the tunnel would be extinguished.
What we get with Republican anti-government ideas is poverty and all the misery that comes with it. People die because there is no health care or because they are collateral damage in an unnecessary and illegal war. Even Democrats lack the political will to cut defense spending. Pork projects that benefit individual Senators re-election campaigns get funded even if the Pentagon doesn’t want the weapon system or military vehicle being funded. Democrats are equally reluctant to point out that we are spending more on international folly than we are spending on the very taxpayers who fill the coffers in the first place.
We’ve spent roughly $713-billion on the war in Iraq. We’ve spent roughly $260 billion on the war in Afghanistan. That’s $1-trillion dollars spent on blowing people and things up half a world away, but we can’t spend an equal amount on the health of our own citizens over the next 10 years? Or to educate our citizens? The stimulus package provided $44-billion in funding for schools. The health care bill about to be passed by Democrats provides some relief for student loans. This is an apples to oranges comparison, since the war figures cover multiple years, and school funding highlighted is one year of one program, but I think I’ve made my point. Our priorities are all wrong, and Republican ideas will only make things worse.
Homework:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/20/opinion/20herbert.html
http://www.cbpp.org/search/?q=State+Budgets&cx=016330936052859641237%3Aidfqsyyhid4&cof=FORID%3A10&ie=UTF-8&fa=searchResults#982
http://www.nsba.org/MainMenu/Advocacy/FederalLaws/FederalFunding/Funding-Brief.aspx
http://www.cbpp.org/files/1-22-09bud-ed.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_States_federal_budget
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