Just when you think a group can't surprise you any more, you wake up one Monday morning to read that they've done it again!
Who am I talking about? The obvious guess would be one (or both) of my daughters. But that's not who I'm referring to now. No, my girls usually give me nice surprises. Just yesterday my 5 year old (Riley) colored a beautiful picture and stayed in the lines.
This new surprise comes from the liberal wing of the MA state legislature (I know, they make up more than a "wing"). They have decided that now is the time to reconsider providing subsidies to ILLEGAL immigrants for college tuition. They want to extend in-state tuition rates to ILLEGAL immigrants. No, I do not support giving driver's licences, tuition rates, or healthcare plans to ILLEGAL immigrants. However, there is another reason why discussing this idea makes no sense to me.
We are in the middle of a financial crisis. A financial crisis that has both the state and local governments making cuts to education, human services, and public safety. Is it really a good idea to be examining a new program that will cost the state money?
The state budget for the current fiscal year used over $1 BILLION dollars from Federal Stimulus money and "Rainy Day" funds in order to cover the existing expense level. This was in addition to raising the sales tax by 25% (5% to 6.25%). Yet, the increased sales tax has actually generated less funds than anticipated...causing more mid-year cuts!
The largest question facing the state budget is "How are the Federal Stimulus and Rainy day funds going to be replaced?" These funds were used to pay for on-going operating expenses at the local level. The federal stimulus funds were specifically directed to schools as a way to make up for the fact that revenues did not exist to cover the state's portion of required education funding. In turn, these funds were used to save teaching jobs by paying the required contractual increases.
If a new source of funds is not found, municipalities across Massachussetts will be forced to ask residents for large property tax increases or face massive cuts to education, public safety, and human services.
Does the legislature really think that its more important to spend money they don't have on a new program? Is providing ILLEGAL immigrants tuition more important than funding our public schools, public safety, and human services?
This lack of rationale should not be rewarded by re-election in Nov 2010.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33950859/ns/us_news-education/page/2/
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