Republicans Aid Natural Adversaries

Former U. S. House Majority Leader Richard Armey used to repeatedly point out that conservatives are optimists. They prove it time and time again at every level of government whether that optimism is warranted or not.

Case in point, speaking for the Republican majority in the lower chamber of the state assembly, Virginia delegate Jeff Frederick earnestly defended their increase in education spending, even though there is precious little research showing that where schools are concerned, more is better. “By increasing spending for K-12 public schools by $1.1 billion over the 2006-2008 Biennial Budget, the House plan pays teachers more; makes more funds available for school construction; and provides more total funding than the plans introduced by the Governor or approved by the Senate,” Frederick reports. “In total, the House plan devotes $193 million more than Governor Kaine proposed for K-12 public education and $68 million more than the Senate plan.”

“The House plan includes funding for the state’s share of a pay raise for public school teachers of 2% this year (the other plans don’t include pay raises this year), and rejected the Governor’s plan to cut school construction grants by $220 million.”

“ School construction is one of the things driving the Prince William school system’s budget, as well as our real-estate tax rates,” Frederick explains of the impact on his own district. “These cuts by the Governor and Senate would translate directly into a local property tax hike,” he argues.

But will a state spending increase translate into a local property tax cut? I won’t hold my breath.

It should be noted that the governor’s proposal contains one item that the GOP legislative leaders vow not
to include—a tax hike. Nonetheless, Republicans in The Old Dominion, like members of the order of the elephant everywhere, tend to take education officials at face value even when their past claims ring as hollow as Lucy’s promise not to pull the football on Charlie Brown.

“The nearly $70 million in additional cuts to higher education proposed by the Governor on February 12 were also rejected in the House plan,” Frederick goes on to reveal. “Reductions in funding for our state-supported colleges and universities means steep increases in tuition—placing a greater burden on hard-working families putting their kids through school.”

“And, keeping tuition rates affordable is one the main reasons we have state-supported colleges and universities in the first place.” And what are the odds that administrators plan to allocate those subsidies accordingly?

Kick that football, Charlie.

A resident of Prince William County, Malcolm A. Kline is the executive director of Accuracy in Academia.