If I’m a tax payer in Kansas I’m gonna get mad about this why exactly? Because schools (which I already pay property taxes for – Kansas has the 13th highest property tax rate in the nation) aren’t getting extra money?

Things are literally tough all over. For that very reason voters will feel the abscence of their own refund more than they will worry about education or anything else that doesn’t keep a roof over people’s heads.

http://www.ksdp.org/RepublicanBlackmail

Then, there are local governments, including school systems, that are badly managed from year to year or even month to month. The latter will suck up most of the new federal dough. No teachers will lose their jobs — not even crummy not-yet-tenured teachers who might otherwise be let go softly through layoffs.

We need a big boost to the economy — but let’s not all swallow our own propaganda.

Still, that hasn’t stopped the GOP from essentially using this financial crisis to get their agenda pushed through.

I am mystified. Please explain to me why insisting on budget cuts in response to a financial crisis is “pushing an agenda.”

A budget gap can be closed either by cutting spending or by increasing revenue. That’s it. Those are the 2 ways, with marginal exceptions. Moving money around doesn’t do anything. It simply defers and exacerbates the shortfalls.

I see no reason why, if the GOP believes cuts are crucial now, they ought to rubber stamp an approach that fails to address the core issue of the gap between revenue and expenses.

Of course cuts are regrettable. But that does nott speak to whether they are necessary,

I’m horrified that the district is forced to do this.