Childers Centers Attacks On Education
Rep. Travis Childers is attempting to use his recent vote in favor of $26 billion in federal spending as a positive for his campaign, saying the money will be used to save teaching jobs and prop up education funding. Alan Nunnelee has referred to the legislation as Stimulus II. Childers also voted for the initial $800 billion stimulus in early 2009. I know we are going to see a lot of battles related to education funding in legislative and statewide offices next year, but it’s an interesting twist to have it playing out in a federal race.
Childers said this in his most recent presser: “My opponent has a history of playing politics with our children’s education and breaking his promise to protect North Mississippi students and teachers. During his 16-years in the State Senate, he has unnecessarily lowered the quality of education for our children by needlessly slashing teaching jobs and education funding in Mississippi. And now he’s at it again, bashing critical funding that will help hire and rehire education workers throughout Mississippi- and that even the Governor knows we need. That’s just downright shameful.”
If you are in Nunnelee’s shoes, here are two things you could do: One is show this chart that was released by the governor’s office in April related to historical funding of education. In FY 2000, the state appropriated $1.6 billion for K-12 funding (before federal and local revenues). For FY2010, that number was around $2.5 billion (before additional funds). The peak of funding was around $2.64 billion in FY2009. Both 2009 and 2010 would go on to see cuts as collections didn’t keep up with anticipated funds. For FY2011, the state funding was around $2.3 billion. Even with that dip over the past two years, that reflects a 42.3 percent increase in the past 11 years.
The second thing Nunnelee can make reference to is that in the state legislature they have to actually balance the budget- a far cry from D.C. Considering the winds of fiscal conservatism we are experiencing this election cycle, I think this is one of the strongest points Nunnelee can make.
Now that’s just peachy. The Republicans created the recession that has caused revenues to fall, they created the massive deficit by two unfunded wars and the unfunded Medicare Part D but Nunnelee doesn’t want to pony up a relatively small amount in comparison with Repbulican spending initiatives for education that can help the poorest state in the nation past their own economic crisis.
Nunnelee has no vision and no thoughts past what his elitist handlers tell him.
Hey, Dwayne: We think you have forgotten about the socialist experiment, initiated under the Carter admin, ramped up under Clinton, commonly referred to as the Community Reinvestment Act CRA.
(If you want to no more you can give Barney Frank a call. He is a friend and fund raiser of Travis Childers. The CRA is the principle economic factor in the bursting of the housing bubble and thus erosion of the tax base in Mississippi and other states. We encourage you to do a little research before you make unsupported statements based on liberal wishes and not on facts.
Public education is a joke, just like everything else run by government and their unions. American history and exceptionalism is not being taught. We get freaking social studies and or world history. You make me tax exempt for sending my kids to a private school of my choice and watch how fast I leave the public education system.