From Pine View Farm

Educational Folly-cy 1

Republican millionaires have claimed for years that teachers and cops and other government employees making, say, $30-50,000 a year are overpaid. (See some comparative pay statistics; it’s a little dated but it was the clearest I could find that focused on numbers, not on rants.)

They’ve finally figured out what to do about it.

Crash the economy.

State and local governments from New Jersey to California are firing workers to balance their budgets as declining property values and slowing economic growth squeeze tax revenue.

Public schools in New Jersey were set to start the academic year down 10,000 jobs, including 7,000 educators who chose to retire, Steve Wollmer, a spokesman for the New Jersey Education Association, a union that represents teachers, said in August after Governor Chris Christie slashed $1.3 billion in aid to schools and local governments.

(Link fixed.)

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1 comment

  1. Karen

    October 11, 2010 at 1:54 pm

    Here’s what some in Colorado (hopefully the link works) want to do: “State expenditures. By reducing the amount of local property taxes collected for school districts, statewide
    expenditures for public schools will increase by an estimated $337 million in the first year of implementation and by
    $1.5 billion per year in today’s dollars once the measure is fully implemented. To meet this increased obligation to
    schools, the state will have to decrease spending and services in other areas, increase fees for services, or enact
    some combination of both.”

    I plan on voting “NO” on all 3. Or 4, counting the personhood amendment on the ballot again.