EDITORIAL: Memo to education leaders: The sky is not falling

You’d think the sky is falling if you listen to all the fear-mongering taking place by Georgia K-12 and university officials.


No doubt the state fiscal crisis and resulting spending cuts are a shock to government leaders. But the truth is, education can’t escape the impending cuts.

A few things to remember:

• Although the population grew in may areas of Georgia over the last two decades, generally speaking, the size of government budgets grew even more. Higher pay and benefits ballooned education spending in the state during the boom years; it wasn’t all due to more students. In addition, capital spending for new schools and expanded programs also grew, creating new overhead costs.

• Education spending at all levels makes up over half of the state budget. For some leaders to declare education spending should be “off limits” to cutbacks is crazy. That’s where most of the money is going. The state cannot balance its budget without cutting education spending.

•Most of the problems in cutting education spending today are because state and local education leaders didn’t start cutting earlier. In addition, the federal government bailed out Georgia schools last year and again this year with “stimulus” funds. Had those stimulus dollars not been available, schools would have been forced to cut earlier and perhaps the situation wouldn’t be so dire today.

• For educators to call for tax hikes to prevent education cuts is almost criminal. The private sector has been hit much harder by the economic downturn than the public sector. The self-serving education community needs to get out of their little bubble and back in touch with the real world; unemployed taxpayers and struggling businesses should not be expected to pay more just to protect education jobs.

• Georgia taxpayers have long been generous in paying for education programs in the state. So what has been the result of this taxpayer generosity? The same mediocre, often failing system of education the state has had for decades.

It isn’t funding that’s the problem; it’s attitude.