Let’s get stupid
Here’s a novel approach to a recession tied at least in part to the nation’s inadequate schools: Cut education!
The AJC’s James Salzer does a nice job of covering a powerful lawmaker’s advice that school systems furlough teachers on their planning days to make up for the Georgia Legislature’s failure to meet their funding commitment to school systems.
Rep. Edward Lindsey (R-Atlanta), chairman of the House budget subcommittee on education, said school officials should consider furloughing teachers on “planning” or training days in hopes of saving the state up to $200 million.
That money would then be plowed back into school system budgets to help keep local officials from having to lay off teachers and other staffers.
“If we could give these (school) systems more flexibility, we could avoid some of these layoffs,” Lindsey said Tuesday during state budget hearings. “We would be remiss if we did not consider it.”
Salzer points out that teachers and school officials aren’t particularly excited about the idea. Lost in the discussion, however, is the bigger question: How will this affect students?
Won’t school plans be skimpier and not as well thought out if teachers aren’t paid to prepare them? Won’t good teachers find work elsewhere once they tire of being treated this way?
Meanwhile, legislators are more than happy to use the state’s stimulus money to give tax breaks to homeowners and are busy using poorly defined business tax cuts to hamstring the budget without even knowing the impact.
Lindsey’s balance-the-budget-on-the-backs-of-school-children idea isn’t a law. It’s a suggestion based on the fact that he hatcheted shcool budgets. It’s sort of a tacit admission that, no matter how you look at it, Republicans have pulled the schools’ budget noose so tight that they can only propose unreasonable ideas when asked how school systems are supposed to make these budgets.
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