MO Money

Apparently, Jay Nixon, Missouri governor, gave his "state of the state" speech last night, once again pandering to public sector unions, especially the teachers' union.  Nixon proposes a budget that projects a 5.2% increase in revenues and that gives another $278 million INCREASE to public schools from state taxes.  Roughly three-quarters of what I consider exorbitant real and personal property taxes I pay to my county go to the local public school.  The local high school is a modern, state-of-the-art physical plant with dozens of administrators and support personnel. 

In all, Nixon’s proposed $28 billion budget would increase education funding by nearly $500 million. Big infusions of cash would go to performance-based funding for colleges and universities, college scholarships, preschool funding, Parents as Teachers and school transportation, among other areas.

I'm still working -- partly because I like to, partly because I may have to help out the grandkids, and partly because I find the future financially uncertain.  A good friend of mine is a couple of years younger than I am.  Bless her heart, she was cute as a bug's ear and a great kisser when she was young.  It's hard to begrudge her anything.  She was a music teacher in public schools.  She has been retired for ten years.  I doubt that her annual salary ever matched mine, but the public pension fund that teachers pay into provides the ability for people like my friend to receive a substantial percentage of their annual salaries after only twenty or twenty-five years of working in the system.  I don't object to that so long as it is reasonable and not guaranteed by continuing inputs of tax monies. 

But that's not necessarily what happens.  The teachers and other public sector workers are going to get their pensions regardless of how the funds' investments perform.  Somebody is going to pay for it. 

Missouri's Republican-controlled legislature thinks -- and I completely agree -- that government schools are getting plenty of money and that surpluses should be given back to the taxpayers. 

This is not the state's money.  The state doesn't have any money except what they collect from us.  We do not need more beautiful school buildings.  We do not need more middle school media coordinators.  We do not need a full-time teacher for every five students.  We do not need a curling coach, a junior varsity basketball defensive coordinator, an interpretive dance instructor, and we certainly do not need the Common Core curriculum.  We need to teach kids to read and write and cipher.  Most of the rest of the stuff will come right along with that.  Until the public schools can prove to the taxpayers that they are actually educating and not baby-sitting and indoctrinating, I say, Not another dime.

Also, Denninger takes a nice shot at the Internationalists' support of failed public education and unrestricted immigration.