Chris Christie understands economic reality. Speaking about the rail project he had to cancel:
“We don’t have the money,” Christie explains, “we literally don’t have the money.”
Our state legislators may have realized we financially can't afford the goals set forth in the new educational plan "Educated Citizenry 2020". According to the Missourian, there is recognition from the committee these goals may be financially unattainable at this time:
On Friday, the Missouri Senate's Educated Citizenry 2020 Committee produced a report setting forth some ambitious goals to improve the quality of public education offered to Missouri residents. But the committee chairman acknowledged there probably is no money to carry out some of the initiatives — at least not in the next few years.
Pay raises, new programs and expanded government services all have become a rarity in recent years — replaced by layoffs and spending cuts as state officials have patched together budgets with federal economic stimulus funds and falling state sales and income taxes collections.
That federal stimulus money is about to run out. And tax revenues, though finally showing signs of growth, remain far below the levels of just a few years ago. Gov. Jay Nixon's administration is projecting a $500 million to $700 million shortfall for the fiscal year that begins July 1 — a gap equal to almost 10 percent of the state's general revenues.
As we wrote about in our previous piece about these new proposals, citizens should be asking the following questions to the legislators:- What is the total cost of the program?
- If there are unfunded/underfunded mandates in this program, how will these be addressed in this climate of budget cutting in the state?
- How does this plan promote smaller government?
- How does this plan promote more local control?
- Does this plan promote more parental rights and involvement?
- How are charter schools considered a viable alternative as they will operate under the same mandates as traditional public schools?
It was recently revealed that a $48B "earmark" on Emanuel Cleaver's web site was a request by a constituent for an urban reclamation project that would make Disney look like Potterville. Who wouldn't want an instant reality make-over like that? It sounds like the EC2020 project is a similar overreaching request and should be rejected like Cleaver's earmark. All govermment projects must be tempered by fiscal reality. And massive change is better accepted and retained when introduced slowly and allowed modification as unintended consequences are discovered. I believe we will see little change in student performance over the next few years, even though local school districts have had to make drastic reductions in their budgets, because good education is rarely about the money.
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