You mean Republican Governor Charlie Baker of Massachusetts is starving the public school system? There are plenty of states with Republican governors who are not starving the public school systems. The issue is right-wing Tea Party legislatures in a handful of states who appear to not be able to perform simple budget math. Some of these states (e.g. Kansas) also have a Republican Tea Party governor to compound the problem. Sadly, a century ago the Republican party was the leader in driving free public education across the U.S.
Because people -- regardless of their political philosophies and affiliations -- are scared (ordinary people, that is). They've been scared since '08. And people who are afraid turn to those who know how to pander to that fear. That's been the case for millennia. Nowadays the panderers are Christians and Republicans, but the names and faces aren't important. Witch doctors and shamans were around long before C&R. At least C&R aren't throwing virgins into volcanos. Yet. Eventually "the people" figure it out, and the pendulum swings. If there's time. Many believe that time is running out.
It is good to be reminded, I need it anyway, that generalizations are often too broad. Thank you for reminding me that not all Republican governors are undereducated nitwits! I live in Mississippi, so I think you will understand why my view may have become quite jaded.
Kansas House appears poised to vote down tax increases By JOHN HANNA and NICHOLAS CLAYTON, Associated Press Updated 12:41 am, Thursday, June 11, 2015 "TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas House members were to reconvene Thursday to finish voting on a bill that would raise taxes to close a budget deficit, appearing poised to vote it down and increase the likelihood of deep spending cuts." ------------------------- NEWS North Carolina Tax Revenues Increase After Tax Cuts June 5, 2015 " State tax revenues in North Carolina have increased roughly 6% this year, despite the state having recently instituted several major tax cuts. The state budget office has reported that North Carolina will enjoy a roughly $400 million budget surplus because of the major increase in tax revenue.... ... according to a report from the state budget office and the nonpartisan Fiscal Research Division, the state is now on track for a surplus because of “higher income tax payments and lower refunds from the 2014 tax year.” The report explains that although sales tax receipts and withholdings from paychecks have stayed level or decreased, there was an increase in business activity, which fueled the surplus. Critics of reducing income taxes have pointed to Kansas, which has also recently instituted broad income tax cuts, as proof that lowering income tax rates leads to economic downturn. The difference between Kansas and North Carolina appears to be the fact that North Carolina also focused on expenditures in addition to revenue. As says Art Pope, North Carolina’s former budget director, “we cut spending too. Kansas didn’t.”" =================== The gravy train for public unions is over, or soon will be. The only difference is that some states recognize it now, and some will be forced to confront it when it hits them upside the face later. The USSR command economy lost. The US incentive economy won. It's that simple, contrary to all the learned academic studies that try to convince otherwise.
Ricter is quite correct here. Immediately after WWII US debt was near 110% of GDP while today it is near a little over 70% of gdp, and it will drop of course as the economy continues to recover from the great recession. If you compare how the central bank and treasury responded to the challenges of the great recession (which ironically was caused to some extent by central bank, i.e., Greenspan's, insouciance to mortgage underwriting) compared to how the CB and Treasury responded to the great depression, one marvels at the comparative skill with which the more recent crisis was handled. Apparently very important lessons were learned during the Depression regarding what not to do!) When comparing public debt levels it is no good to use nominal dollars. You have to normalize the data in some way to make any sense at all of it. Usually that is done by comparing to the GDP, but there are other valid measures as well. For example, one might choose to do the comparison in discounted dollars.
During the lost depression of 1920, the gov't did nothing, let the economy deflate and liquidate, and that depression was over in 18 months. That's the depression that marxists would like you to forget. During the only depression that they want you to remember, the one in the 30s, there was something called a New Deal, as I recall, and while the economy did undergo deflation, the gov't did everything in it's power to stop the crucial liquidation phase of it. If anyone says it didn't, maybe they could explain what the gov't control of business and the New Deal was "really" all about. LOL Contrary to the nonsense that passes as current economic wisdom, the 30s were not about 'everyone on their own'. The thirties were about the great experiment of gov't intervention in the business cycle. And the business cycle beat the gov't to a bloody pulp. And praise be to obama and the fed, guess what we're doing this time. Doubling down on the 30s. We not only don't want the liquidation, we don't want the deflation, either. And if anyone expects this to be anything other than a long drawn out miserable affair like the 30s, they're smoking some of that colorado weed. Iow, when the gov't did nothing, it was over quick. When the gov't tries to help, heaven help us. About that debt in 1940s. Are we ready to bomb out the rest of the world's industrial capacity so that we're the only game in town again? That's what it will take to pay off 18 trillion of debt you know.
Here's the explosion of school funding, and it's inability to produce what it promised: Here's the long term gdp growth of this country. Notice how gdp per capita simply continued on it's long term trajectory since the beginning ov this country's existence despite the absence of public schools in it's earlier times and despite the explosion of school funding in later times. School funding is more about a jobs program for teachers than it has anything to do with the growth of the country. The gravy train is going to end one way or the other.
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. - Alexander Pope --------------------------------------- fhl, I'm guessing home schooling.