Texas Gov. Perry refuses $700m for education from the Fed. (Lubbock: public schools, tax)

[Dopo]

Can somebody please explain this s.... to me?




http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010...n-Funding.html

Texas won't compete for up to $700 million in federal stimulus money for education because the program ''smacks of a federal takeover of our public schools,'' Republican Gov. Rick Perry said Wednesday.The funding is from the U.S. Department of Education ''Race to the Top'' program, a $5 billion competitive fund that will award grants to states to improve education quality and results. The program, created in the economic stimulus law, is part of Democratic President Barack Obama's efforts to overhaul the nation's schools.

[richb]

Loss of local control and future unfunded mandates. Too many strings attached. I can see why they are taking a pass on it.

[michigan83]

Good for him!!

For one, he is right that there will be strings and federal government control that comes along with it.

Two... where is the money coming from? It's borrowed/printed money. We don't have $700 billion for anything. We long ago stopped spending money that we actually have. Our nation is completely broke. At some point we need our leaders (like Perry) to stand up for the greater good and turn down the monopoly money that the government is throwing around. You do realize that the taxpayers actually have to foot the bill for this stuff somehow/someday, right? We haven't even begun to pay for things that are coming 5 to 10 years down the road.

[jfre81]

I like Gov. Goodhair about as much as I like Milli Vanilli but I actually agree with the grandstanding fool for once. He's doing this to further his pointless ideological war with Washington, but there's a sound reason behind it. Last time the feds got involved in public schools, it was called No Child Left Behind and it was the brilliant idea of the last governor we had after he became president and there was a different gang of thieves running Capitol Hill. And it screwed up the schools even worse than they had been before.

[Poltracker]

As part of the program, you have to 1) accept their idea of a "good" lesson plan which I certainly do not agree with; 2) implement a whole new program that you are left having to find money to pay for when the funding runs out....and it will; 3) a whole host of other strings. I'm with jfre. I am not fond of the current governor, but I believe he is doing the correct thing in this.

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by michigan83

We don't have $700 billion for anything. We long ago stopped spending money that we actually have.

I believe that's the same tax money that we already gave the Feds.
Now thanks to Perry is gonna go to another state.

But he accepted this stimulus money

Stimulus funds to help repair governor's mansion - Lubbock Online.com

[orbius]

The strings that come with that money are metrics to make sure kids are getting educated. You know the thing that Republicans always bleat about in regard to education.
Perry has gone past stupidity to being downright evil. He is willing to sacrifice childrens education to make some vague political point. Sick stuff.

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by orbius

The strings that come with that money are metrics to make sure kids are getting educated. You know the thing that Republicans always bleat about in regard to education.
Perry has gone past stupidity to being downright evil. He is willing to sacrifice childrens education to make some vague political point. Sick stuff.

That was my initial reaction too, but pushing more power over education to the feds is not the way to go. Unless you suppose it would be something other than a fiasco like NCLB; feel free to expound upon that if you think so. Like Ross Perot, I'm all ears.

[orbius]

So you're all for letting your vague paranoid delusions about a nefarious federal government trying to indoctrinate your kids stand in the way of 700m in cold hard cash that the crappy education system in this state desperately needs?
The money is tied to improvements in education because states like Texas are doing such a crap job at the local level of educating children. Particularily poorer children. Check out how Texas ranks nationally in education things are woeful.

Perhaps you should actually look at the details of this initiative before you let your weird prejudices overtake your mind? You know facts. I seriously doubt any state would have agreed to the money if they truly believed the proposal was meant to indocrinate their children.

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by orbius

So you're all for letting your vague paranoid delusions about a nefarious federal government

To be honest, I stopped reading right there.

Let me ask you this - how well do you speak Mandarin Chinese? Not that well? But I can assure your Mandarin proficiency is greater than your understanding, loosely speaking, of my political views. So don't even step to me with that ****, ya dig?

Anyway, what did NCLB do other than wrap public school systems in yet another layer of bureaucratic nonsense? Are the schools better off before it? I really shouldn't even glorify it by its sweet-sounding given name and call it what it really is - No Child Gets Ahead.

I'm going to ask you again - how do you suppose these strings attached to this stimulus money will turn out differently, as in for the better? If you don't have a more intelligent response than your last one, save yourself the trouble.