I caught the end of a commercial by (I believe it was paid for by the) DCCC that described NH Congressional District two candidate Marilinda Garcia as an education risk not worth taking. Seems the Dems are working the rope line on “Garcia wants to shut down the Federal Department of Education” and hey– that’s bad for children.
Is it? I bet they can’t prove that?
Parents! When was the last time you interacted in a positive way, in any way at all, with the Federal Department of Education? Ever? Did you know they have a $70 Billion dollar plus annual budget. ( It was around $35 billion before Obama and the Democrat Congress doubled it in 2009.) Have you felt the doubling in value, I haven’t.
Seventy Billion. Isn’t that New Hampshire’s entire state budget for about 12 years? So Riddle me this. What might happen in education if our share of that 70 Billion never left New Hampshire in the first place? Would education collapse?
You know what would happen? It would free up almost 400 million per school day in funding, nationally.
I don’t actually know how much leaves NH to finance whatever they do for public schools from DC but for our purposes lets keep it simple.
In our example New Hampshire’s annual per capita share of the Department of education budget would be $295 Million dollars. (Their budget, divided by the estimated US population, times the NH Population, rounded.)
Why does 70 billion need to go to DC? Why does the $295 million need to go there instead of staying here? What will they do, that we can’t do? They can hold it hostage. Waste it. Pay bureaucrats to push paper around. But we could do that, maybe do more of it. But we could also keep a closer eye on the spending and try to ensure it goes to paying our teachers, for better facilities, more education, and not waste, fraud, or abuse.
But anyone who suggests it is pilloried by Democrats who insist we prop up this distant behemoth for $70 Billion a year (and always growing). That it is better for our children if we give away 300 million a year for the privilege of being lorded over or having to fight to get some of it back.
What kind of message does that send?
Democrats are telling New Hampshire parents, school boards, and teachers, that if Granite Staters were allowed to decide for themselves how to spend an extra 300 million a year on education, that we’d screw it up. They don’t trust you.
They are saying that without Democrats like Ann Kuster to help them siphon off hundreds of millions of dollars annually from local families and small business owners that the schools in New Hampshire would cease to function in our state.
Why else would you create ads scaring parents and voters into believing they can’t manage education without the Federal Department of Education?
I can’t speak for Marilinda Garcia, but I think parents, teachers, and voters who elect their own school boards in the Granite State are not just smarter than Ann Kuster and the Federal Department of Education, they’d be far more effective at meeting actual needs in their diverse and respective communities, and could probably save themselves some money for other local priorities in the process, none of which would include paying bureaucrats in distant DC to tell them how to run a school or teach a child.
Democrats, the DCCC, and Ann Kuster do not agree with me. If you can find Ann Kuster you can ask her why?
