Education

To those who don't know.  I live in the reddest of red states, Idaho.  This state has been conservative since God was a pup.  I don't see that changing, but that doesn't mean there are few of us screaming in the wilderness trying to get people to see logic.  I know it may be a lost cause, but I gotta keep tryin.

Today, I noticed in the paper that Canyon County's education program is taking a 'forced 1.5 million dollar cut' in their budget.  In another column, I see that the principal of Middleton's High School [small town near Boise], has retired and moved to an school administrative job in, of all places, Battle Mountain, Nevada.  No, don't get me wrong Nevadans, but Battle Mountain?  Who would leave a metropolitan area to go live in Battle Mountain.  The only thing I can think of that would force a person to do that would be a cut in wages or sweetheart programs.  I believe that is the case with the good Principal.

We have an education guru who is our new voted in Czar.  Here's a guy with a degree garnered out of a McDonald's Kid Meal.  I'm serious.  He graduated from a no-name on-the-internet school with a BA in education.  He's never taught.  He spent a few years on the board of education and most people on the board paid little or no attention to him.  Now, he is directing the state to cut the already underfunded education program in our state by million of dollars.

Here's the logic -- if you can call it that.  We will balance Idaho's budget on the backs of the poor and disenfranchised and, get this, our children.  Here's what our lovely governor and Education Czar don't realize.  Businesses look closely at the educational programs within the state that they are considering setting up their operations.  How good are our high schools and colleges?  If they find them lacking, they move to a more progressive state.  We lose those businesses and we lose the jobs and incomes and our state's budget gets worse not better.

Luna [the Ed Czar] is another conservative that doesn't understand basic economics.  You do not cut services to necessary programs like education or medicaid or health and welfare.  If you want to balance the budget, target the people who can afford it...the rich fat-cats who get all the tax breaks in the world.  Some don't even pay taxes at the end of the year.  But the intelligentsia in Idaho's legislature think that if you cut taxes for these people they will "give back" out of the goodness of their hearts.  What Crap!

So as our children take it in the shorts, I bid you adieu.