Lawmakers Share Blame

For once, Dr. Harner and the Greenville County, (SC) School Board got it right. Or should we say, they got it partly right when they single out the state government as the cause of their financial mess.

When the school district talks about budget cuts, they are revealing no real factual information to the public. This is a game the people in Congress, especially liberal Democrats, play all the time. The game is also played at the state and local levels. A budget, until it is funded and approved by the appropriate elected officials, is little more than numbers on a piece of paper. In the formative stages, it could be called a "wish list".

Strictly speaking, the Legislature could not cut the budget of the school district because no one knows what is in a budget that has not been finalized.

There is no reason to doubt that the district may get $28 million less from the state for the coming school year than someone projected at some point in time.

The Greenville County School Board held the first reading of their 2003/04 General Fund Budget Tuesday, June 3, 2003. It will likely go through many revisions before it is finally approved about July 1, 2003. Currently, the board does not know precisely how much money it will have to spend during School Year 2003/04. The only thing for certain is that they can be expected to use their limited taxing authority to increase taxes on property owners.

Part of the current discussion of teacher cuts is to prepare the lawmakers for a request to exceed the limited taxing authority the trustees have under current law.

Why is the school district considering the elimination of up to 290 teachers? Is the district actually getting less money from the state for the coming school year than they were given for the current school year? Where is the additional money going?

The general answer to these questions is that the federal and state governments continue to add programs that were not traditionally part of the 12-year public education program. Lawmakers have added K-5, K-4 and "Early Childhood Development." The addition of numerous preschool programs has added hundreds of new employees and millions of additional dollars to the payroll of the school district. Many of the new employees hold teacher's certificates.

Tragically, the talk of cuts involve teachers in the critical middle and high schools and not the child development programs that independent evaluators have proven have little or no education value in the long run.

The powerful National Education Association, (NEA) shares much of the blame. It is the largest and wealthiest union in the nation. Through intense lobbying efforts and political activism, the union, exerting pressure at the local, regional and national levels, usually gets its way with elected officials.

The NEA is pushing preschool programs in order to change the world view of future generations from that of their parents. Using the newly implemented tests, children are now being tested on their beliefs and attitudes. Those traits are created in the minds of very young children traditionally by parents.

Now little Johnny and Suzy will be programmed to give politically correct answers to test questions and reject the teaching of parents that would result in an incorrect answer to a question testing beliefs and attitudes.

Finally, the entire education establishment, from top to bottom, has been part and parcel of diverting state schools from their original mission of educating children by imparting facts and teaching them to be comfortable in a socialist society where people turn to the government for their wants and needs.

Of course lawmakers share the blame.

Bob Dill
The Times Examiner, 6-4-2003