Does Obama Really Care About Education?

I am glad I missed the State of the Union. As I read through it the next morning, and it would have driven me nuts to hear the same tired old rant of bad ideas.

I could go point by point on how he is wrong or being deceptive on everything he said, but that would take too long for one article. He continues to ignore his major issues of debt, deficits, and reforming entitlements. But what I want to discuss here is, while he refuses to deal with the most important national issues, he wants to fix local public education. The guy who’s budget was shot down 97-0 in the Senate last year wants to fix state budgets.

First let’s dispense with the idea he is proposing bailing out state school budgets because he wants to improve education. He states he wants to “… replace teachers who just aren’t helping kids learn.” This is in conflict with his opposition to reforms to eliminate the corrupt system of collective bargaining in the public sector or at least limit that power, as Scott Walker has. He should watch “Waiting for Superman” and then maybe he would understand why ending the corrupt system is the first step to allowing creative ideas to improve education to work.

Of course, as with all Democrat politicians, their top concern is not the kids, it is the unions getting money to fund their campaigns. In addition to this, Obama pushed through Obamacare, which will force states in coming years to spend 100s millions or billions more on health care programs. By that law, he is forcing states to choose health care programs over education in their already tight budgets.

On top of this, he is proposing a minimum tax rate of 30 percent for high income earner’s which will reduce the attractiveness of municipal bonds and increase the borrowing costs for local governments. Again, if he was really concerned about keeping teachers in the classroom, he would have suggested all states follow Walker’s lead to go after root cause of the budget problems of too large of health and pension obligations.

What he wants is the same bailout he did with stimulus. He could try to justify this on the basis that states run by incompetent Democrats, like Illinois and California, will hurt the nation as they spiral downward. Even then, you would have to demand reform as a condition of giving the money, such as requiring ending collective bargaining and reductions in pension and health care obligations. Otherwise another onetime infusion of money to states would be like giving beer to an alcoholic. The Federal Budget is not quite balanced, so they cannot afford a new permanent program outside its own area of responsibility.

Obama, state Democrats, and teachers unions have the same problem, they are mainly concerned with the adults in the education system. Obama and the Democrats want to ensure they get the money from teachers unions. The unions want to make sure dues are mandatory, so they can ensure a stream of money to buy off politicians. Unions also want to fight to ensure that, if there is a choice, that we chose layoffs rather than reductions in benefits. Both want to fight reforms such as school choice that give parents more options. Obama should give up on this idea and let the states follow a real leader that we have here in Wisconsin, Scott Walker.