There were two events yesterday by Democrats that promoted more taxpayer funding of education. Senator Tim Johnson was in Mitchell covering the federal government’s role:
U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson said during an education roundtable Wednesday in Mitchell that money being used for the Iraq war is hurting education.
And while the state’s senior senator visited Mitchell, he also gave his endorsement to presidential candidate Barack Obama.
Johnson, D-S.D., made the bullets-vs.-books allusion in opening comments during a press conference on education at Dakota Wesleyan University’s McGovern Library.
…
Johnson called President George W. Bush’s veto of a November education funding bill unfortunate.
"It was $11 billion over his budget request, compared to $200 billion for the war in Iraq," Johnson said. "Consequently, the Senate was forced to pass an omnibus bill which entailed a1.747 percent across-the-board cut of all education programs."
Shouldn’t protecting our Nation’s security be the primary concern of the federal government and education be more of a local and state matter? Ronald Reagan promoted the idea that we dissolve the federal Department of Education. The money saved could then be used to reduce the debt that we passing on to children.
The Democrats of the South Dakota legislature also talked about education yesterday:
Democrats in the South Dakota Legislature say they'll push for an education package this session that rolls proposals from pre-kindergarten through university graduate programs into one bill.
Senate Democratic Leader Scott Heidepriem of Sioux Falls said the goal is to balance the discussion of all issues involving education this year.
"We should look at the entire spectrum of education together," Heidepriem said Wednesday at a news conference in the Capitol. Most Democratic legislators joined Heidepriem and House Leader Dale Hargens of Miller for the conference.Heidepriem said Republican Gov. Mike Rounds has been a strong supporter of Board of Regents' technology and science laboratory plans on the public university campuses. The Democrats want those proposals combined in a bill that directs funding and programs for K-12 schools, technical institutes and pre-kindergarten proposals.
The Democrats also want increased funding for K-12 education and say they'll have a plan ready to go public next week. Money appropriated to schools is an investment, not an expense, Heidepriem said.
Governor Rounds’ proposal already had a $50 million increase for education and another $40 million increase for the Board of Regents. The Executive Management budget is also asking for over $12 million for the Higher Ed’s REED. And the Democrats are saying that they need more money for K-12 while pursuing additional expenses for pre-K programs? While Pat Powers present the premise that there is no separation of powers in Pierre between the Executive and Legislative branches (and I agree with that), there are Republicans who are with the Democrats big is better in regard to government:
Senate Republican Leader David Knudson of Sioux Falls, who plans to sponsor a bill requiring a 4.25 percent increase in state aid to K-12 schools, said he doubts a one-big-bill approach would work.
"I don't think that's a wise thing to do," he said. "In part, there are different funding sources for the different areas. The regents obviously have a significant source of student tuition funds that K-12 doesn't have. ... It makes more sense to look at individual areas of education one at a time."
And Knudson also promoted expanding the government schools into the Daycare business. And this will only further open up the door for the federal government to exercise even more control over South Dakota families, and put more demand on taspayers. Education is breading the bank, and unfortunately the resources are not going for education. It is going to fund the plutocrates "economic development".
Before we continue to through money at a failed system, perhaps we should look at reforming it first by putting the focus on education in the academic sense of that word. The plutocrates are licking their chops as the look at expanding the government schools by including pre-K students. We should better understand why fourth grade students perform better than other countries, but eight graders do not…and twelve grade performance is lower yet. The obvious answer is the lack of resources veing applied to academics, and instead being used to further far-left agendas. It is time for the "quiet taxpayers" to speak up.
