Dollars Are Not The Issue

Senator Harkin wants to bail out the public schools:

The Senate's leading Democrat on education issues proposed a $23 billion bailout Wednesday to help public schools across the country avert widespread layoffs, a sequel to the economic stimulus law that has propped up teetering state budgets for the past year.

The Obama administration immediately expressed support for an education jobs bill to help states through fiscal crisis, hoping to build momentum for the proposal from Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).

....

Education Secretary Arne Duncan seconded Harkin's assessment of the gravity of the situation facing schools. He estimated that schools face layoffs in the range of 100,000 to 300,000.

"It is brutal out there, really scary," Duncan told reporters after addressing the lawmakers. "This is a real emergency. What we're trying to avert is an education catastrophe."

One, the feds really can't afford another bailout.

Two, this precedent would only encourage California, New Jersey, et al to look for still more bailouts rather than address their various structural problems.

Three, a bailout aborts a reassessment of school funding and performance. Fiscally stressed electorates are questioning the link between funding increases and system quality. They _can_ raise taxes or cut other items. That they _choose_ not to suggests either they care less about kids than tax levels, or they question whether they are getting their money's worth out of the schools. The latter seems more likely to me.

School funding problems aren't about public willingness to pay, they're about public confidence in the school systems. And that speaks to much more serious problems than a painful but momentary funding crisis.