| Disingenuous Daniels Gutting Education
dis·in·gen·u·ous // (dsn-jny-s)adj.
1. Not straightforward or candid; insincere or calculating: "an ambitious, disingenuous, philistine, and hypocritical operator, who ... exemplified ... the most disagreeable traits of his time" (David Cannadine).
2. Pretending to be unaware or unsophisticated; faux-naïf.
A Loyal Opposition has been telling you for weeks that Governor Mitch Daniels intends to cut public education. For months he has dribbled out funding cuts always with the promise that he was doing everything he could to not cut education, but he has always known that he would have to cut education or dip into his surplus.
It's spelled d-i-s-i-n-g-e-n-u-o-u-s.
The governor hasn't been forthcoming. He hasn't told Hoosiers this from the start because he wants Hoosiers to think it is his last resort and that he had no intention of ever cutting education. He has put together this slow movement towards what he knew was inevitable so he could make it look like his hands were tied even when he has long been a proponent of getting the state out of the business of schooling.
In today's Indianapolis Star he continues to pump out his party line:
Schools must slash spending by at least 3 percent - about $300 million statewide - under emergency budget cuts that Gov. Mitch Daniels called a necessary "last resort."
The State Board of Education will meet Thursday, and Daniels said he wants recommendations on his desk by Friday on how to make the cuts without laying off classroom teachers or increasing class sizes.
The governor said the decision was forced by continued shortfalls in state tax collections and a new revenue forecast, delivered just before his announcement Tuesday, that projects Indiana will take in $1.8 billion less in revenue during the next year than expected only six months ago.
Without spending cuts to match it, that lost revenue will eliminate the state's surplus, projected to be $1 billion at the end of the two-year $27.6 billion budget passed in June.
"We have already cut state agencies by 20 percent and higher education by 6 percent. We are now forced to our last resort," Daniels said. "K-12 spending is half the entire state budget, and it will have to contribute something to keeping us in the black."
He said schools will need to cut a minimum of $300 million, and probably more.
He suggested schools consider joining the state's health insurance program, procurement contracts for buying supplies - and foregoing teacher pay increases.
Every time there is a crisis, privatization Republicans like Daniels and Superintendent Tony Bennett view it as an opportunity to defund public education and shift public resources toward private schools. At the same time as he is about to cut an enormous amount of funding out of public education, which, contrary to his rhetoric, is not likely without firing teachers, he is still pushing for a tax break for private schools. The blog for the right-wing Heritage Foundation practically drools over the possibility:
Hoosier State Governor Mitch Daniels included a $5 million school choice tax credit program in his budget, which will be considered in the state legislature's special session. According to The Brazil Times:
Facing a large state budget deficit, some may be wondering why Governor Daniels would be supporting providing a new tax break.
Make no mistake, this governor has always wanted to move state government out of public education. He has always adhered to the philosophy that public education is some type of negative indoctrination in which the state should have no part.
Read the whole piece at http://aloyalopposition.in/200... |
