Comments on: The State Budget

By: SWGA Politics » Breaking: State Budget Worse Than We Could Ever Have Imagined

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:48:30 +0000

[...] everything I said Friday and amp it up about 150%. Apparently House Appropriations Chairman Ben Harbin has already told a [...]

By: kirawillis

kirawillis — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 01:59:53 +0000

As far as budget cuts, teachers are already having to do more with less. 35 in a classroom is too many. There aren’t enough books, there aren’t enough supplies. The furlough days came; teachers took it. The pay cuts came; teachers took it. More furlough days came; teachers took it. What the state and local schools are NOT doing is cutting all of the postiions that do not have direct contact with students. These are positions that earn upwards to 100k a year. Yes, teachers are angry. They are in the trenches teaching the kids, and there are millions of dollars being wasted on positions that create more work for teachers so that they, the people who are in in those onerous positions, can keep their jobs.
This is another example of the federal government implementing mandates on states when the states and the local schools are highly capable of handling their own educational policy.

By: Cartman

Cartman — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:22:09 +0000

It is a good post Jeff. No one argues the fact that education is important. That’s why we have always addressed its shortcomings by throwing more money at it.

Revenues are down drastically, across the board. Cuts must be made. To pretend that there is not much fat in education to be trimmed is less than honest. We could eliminate half of the administrators in education without a ripple in the classroom. But cutting education costs have always been hard for the legislature to do for two reasons: (1) Education is a sacred cow; and (2) Teachers are a large voting block. I love and respect teachers individually, but politically as a group, they will selfishly hold a legislator hostage over teacher pay issues.

By: wilson

wilson — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:31:29 +0000

“Another legislator, who chooses not to be named, has discussed the possibility of merging various departments and eliminating redundancy.” (As governor Carter did this in a big way and government got bigger.)

Regardless of the organizational chart it will still be government. Inefficiency is unavoidable in government. We can have more or less government but efficient government is an oxymoron.

BTW: good post