Wednesday, January 28, 2009

It's Raining Ed$   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

From the New York Times this morning, on the stimulus party:

WASHINGTON — The economic stimulus plan that Congress has scheduled for a vote on Wednesday would shower the nation’s school districts, child care centers and university campuses with $150 billion in new federal spending, a vast two-year investment that would more than double the Department of Education’s current budget.

The proposed emergency expenditures on nearly every realm of education, including school renovation, special education, Head Start and grants to needy college students, would amount to the largest increase in federal aid since Washington began to spend significantly on education after World War II.

Critics and supporters alike said that by its sheer scope, the measure could profoundly change the federal government’s role in education, which has traditionally been the responsibility of state and local government.

Responding in part to a plea from Democratic governors earlier this month, Congress allocated $79 billion to help states facing large fiscal shortfalls maintain government services, and especially to avoid cuts to education programs, from pre-kindergarten through higher education.

Obama administration officials, teachers unions and associations representing school boards, colleges and other institutions in American education said the aid would bring crucial financial relief to the nation’s 15,000 school districts and to thousands of campuses otherwise threatened with severe cutbacks.

Michael J. Petrilli of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute tells NRO in response:

Those who believe that this level of federal funding for our schools will disappear two years from now are similar to the people who still think Rod Blagojevich did nothing wrong: they are delusional, ill-informed, or totally naïve. And once Uncle Sam becomes a larger investor in our education system, he will no doubt make even greater demands on states and school districts, bending them to his will. No Child Left Behind was the beginning of the end of federalism in education; this stimulus package is the end.

The quote of the day, though, may come from Rick Hess of AEI, in that NY Times piece:

Frederick Hess, an education policy analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, criticized the bill as failing to include mechanisms to encourage districts to bring school budgets in line with property tax revenues, which have plunged with the bursting of the real estate bubble.

“It’s like an alcoholic at the end of the night when the bars close, and the solution is to open the bar for another hour,” Mr. Hess said.

(Well, the D.C. set might not think that too crazy, considering?)

01/28 09:28 AMShare