Oct 29 2008
Pigs Wearing Lipstick Commit a Robbery
Bailout Bill robs rural America’s kids
Talk about pigs wearing lipstick. On Friday afternoon, the House passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (HR 1424), or as they like to call it, the Rescue Bill. With reports of phone calls from constituents running as high fifty to one against the bill, members of the House went into full marketing mode, selling the biggest free-market interference package in history to reluctant representatives whose rural constituents were in full revolt, pitchforks and all.
In order to avoid a repeat of the crash-and-burn performance of House Democrats following Monday’s squelching of the Bailout Bill, seasoned lawmakers used rural America’s children as shields. Promising more money for floundering rural school districts, the bill’s proponents swayed the mostly Republican holdouts from rural states to vote for the behemoth bailout.
So what did rural America’s school children get? A substantial amount of money to rebuild buildings and hire more teachers? How about money for broadband in rural areas so rural students can have the same access to information as urban students? America’s rural schools didn’t get a thing. Nada. Zilch. Zippo.
Ostensibly, new language was added to the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 that would help strengthen rural schools (SRSCSDA). It sounds good, except the SRSCSDA did almost nothing to fund rural education in the first place. It did, however, pad the coffers of local politicians:
An Act:To restore stability and predictability to the annual payments made to States and counties containing National Forest System lands and public domain lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management for use by the counties for the benefit of public schools, roads, and other purposes.
The title “Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act” might sound like it benefits education, but nothing could be further from the truth. The money can be used by county officials for any purpose they see fit, like paving the dirt road in front of a council member’s home or awarding a county contract to the mayor’s brother-in-law. The only thing the Bailout Bill did was increase the amount of money that county officials control. The Bailout Bill does nothing to guarantee rural school districts will receive an increase in funding. It only guarantees rural taxpayers will be footing the bill for the government bailout of Wall Street for years to come.
Somebody call the sheriff. A bunch of pigs wearing lipstick just robbed an entire generation of rural kids.
