Editorial “Booing educators” opines: “…Serving on a school board has long been a thankless job. It requires long hours with no pay and involves settling disputes between students, parents, teachers and administrators.
It’s even worse today. The recession didn’t help. Gov. Tom Corbett’s $1.5 billion public education funding cut really hurt.
Tuesday, an estimated 800 people turned out to boo Lancaster school superintendent Pedro Rivera and his team as they attempted to address a $10 million funding gap created largely by the loss of $8 million in state funding…”
WATCHDOG: A wag of the tail for the Intell. We weren’t there but we suspect that deep down the boos were about the outrageous cuts in education for our children rather than for the members of the board.
But blaming Tom Corbett only deserves part of the blame. Think of the wasteful spending of his predecessor Ed Rendell. Even more relevant, reflect on the current cut back in federal aid to states resulting from the “W” years when taxes on the rich were slashed and the senseless Iraq War and Medicare’s expansion to cover drugs went unfunded.
Then there was the “W” era Great Recession which required massive deficit spending to avoid a depression.
But even more so, it is the culmination of three decades of a massive shift of the wealth of the nation from the middle and lower class to the top ½ of one percent of our population, largely through federal government failure to maintain and enforce past laws and regulations. Had real family earnings increased by 50% over the past three decades instead of remaining static, families would be able to afford higher taxes to support the school system.
What we are experiencing is the result of decades of avarice and folly.
