While budget cuts shred public education, Obama pushes for more charter schools.

[Karmadillo]

Maybe it's a good thing that Virginia's newly elected fruitloop governor & Obama are on the same page when it comes to a proliferation of charter schools while public education is facing severe cuts across the country, but I kind of doubt it.

http://www.swvatoday.com/living/article/our_view_tough_year/6676/

And you thought it was bad last year.

Just wait for the next two. School superintendents from all 133 districts across Virginia met by conference call on Monday to go over a survival plan in the face of proposed budget cuts that absolutely shred education funding. According to the Virginia Association of School Superintendents, education leaders indicated on a survey that bigger class sizes, cuts to teaching positions and cuts to programs, including summer school and pre-k, are on tap to help offset the expected monetary shortfall.

In fact, the budget shortfall will likely be even greater than feared. The newly sworn-in governor has rejected out of hand any tax increases even as he tries to figure out a way to shave an addition $2 billion from the already proposed cuts.

The Superintendents, according to the release, requested that the state delay new mandates, which surely wouldn’t be funded, and ensure that local boards retain authority over charter schools and oppose vouchers, which it says would drain more money from needy schools. Gov. Bob McDonnell, for his part, promised to open more charter schools and shift spending from administration to the classrooms.

Read between the lines and you’ll get the full story. If it were a chummier time, with everyone around the fire singing as one, what’s coming would hurt. State workers are facing a rough road, rougher even than the interstates they seem incapable of keeping pothole-free. But now that things have been politicized, it’ll be that much rougher. Democrats, looking to scald a socially conservative governor who is promising to spend and not tax, will undoubtedly push for the highest profile layoffs imaginable. That means police officers and teachers are on the front lines. Republicans, looking to crash the legacy of an outgoing Democrat who still has national power, will likely go along with it. The state and its residents are the ones who will suffer the most.
It’s a dark time and little light is in the forecast.

more...

http://www.thedailytell.com/2010/01/president-obama-proposes-1-35-billion-expansion-to-school-reform/

<edit>

The expansion will be in addition to the $4.3 billion in grants already proposed as part of the of fiscal 2011 budget. Race to the Top offers funds for schools committed to the prescribed reform program, which includes instituting more rigorous national academic standards, better evaluations of student knowledge and teacher performance, plans for improving failing schools, and state laws that encourage innovative educational institutions like charter schools.

<edit>

[tonysam]

1. Obama and Duncan are ENEMIES of public education

Make no mistake of it. A "D" after somebody's name doesn't mean they necessarily support Democratic Party ideals, let alone ideals of a democracy.

[stellad]

5. Obama didn't go to ONE public school

[Karmadillo]

6. And I imagine Sidwell Friends School isn't worrying too much about harsh budgets cuts.

nt

[Karmadillo]

2. Have any leading Democrats spoken out against Obama's education policy?

nt

[tonysam]

3. I don't think any have.

It seems as if education, the future of any country, isn't a priority with our elected officials.

[Karmadillo]

4. The silence is kind of bizarre. If Bush were trying to push charter schools while

public education was going under the knife, Democrats would be all over it.

[Karmadillo]

7. kick

nt