All manner of public education apologists are coming out of the woodwork bemoaning proposed cuts in education, maintaining that any cuts will irreparably harm the public schools. What they consistently fail to acknowledge; however, is that we’ve been increasing the amount of money going into public education exponentially in every legislative session since the dawn of time and yet our public schools overall still - how to put this gently - suck.
So if increasing spending on education hasn’t helped, doesn’t that mean that money isn’t the answer and that maybe, just maybe, it’s time to try something else; something, like, maybe…school vouchers?
That being said and suggested, let me sorta concede one point in this discussion to the other side. The fact is, all government spending isn’t created equal…and simple across the board cuts to every department is the wrong way to go. Unless, of course, as suggested by Budget Czar Andrew Clinger a couple months ago, the law REQUIRES that all such cuts by the governor be across-the-board cuts.
Otherwise, it’s time to acknowledge that things such as education are more important than the Nevada Arts Council, the Onion Growers Board and the Equal Rights Commission.
Rather than cutting everything across the board, it’s long past time to look at everything the government is doing and decide what is truly legitimate and necessary and start chopping from the bottom up. Once and only once all non-priority, non-essential, non-legitimate spending has been eliminated completely can or should the state even remotely consider tax hikes or using the tobacco settlement money to plug holes in the budget.
If only we had a commission whose mission was to set government spending priorities and make recommendations as to what to cut rather than just ways to make government more efficient…
Posted on June 9th, 2008 by chuckmuth
Filed under: Nevada
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