Sometimes we may wonder why every time there is a funding shortfall, budget crunch or economic squeeze, the seemingly first “victim” is alway education.
There’s a very specific – if often unspoken – reason for this political maneuver.
Few things motivate the human species more than fear. Advertisers know this and use it, often subtly, but sometimes they’re upfront about it.
The advertising and marketing specialists who consult with politicians are masters of using fear, so when there isn’t enough money in a governmental budgeting process, fear becomes the chief weapon of forcing an agenda.
Missouri’s state Constitution requires each budget be balanced. The state is not allowed to spend more than it takes in, essentially the same way your checking account works. (Where would we be if only the federal government were still required to operate that way?)
The sales taxes and other revenue streams that support the state’s operation have shown a steady decline over the last couple years, so tough decisions must be made. That much is certain.
In the budgetary process at the higher governmental levels, it’s customary to propose taking away more from a various fund than is expected to gain approval.
Propose taking away $50 million, eventually compromise that down to, say, $18 million, and you’ve pared $32 million from the budget. Initially say you’ve got to trim $20 million, you’ll not end up at the $18 million figure.
When it comes to allocating the state’s estimated $7 billion budget, legislators are besieged with special interest groups of every sort, all vying for the time and opportunity to bend an ear, to influence and hopefully sway a cut away from their concern to someone else’s.
The education industry - and it does seem a little awkward to phrase it that way – has its representatives and lobbyists, just like every other group. Some represent school districts, some the boards of education, some the teachers and some the administrators, and others the organizations and the industries that support and provide necessities to the education process.
The state’s education budget is a staggering amount to anyone who struggles balancing bills to a checking account supported by a paycheck or two.
Landowners and renters alike who pay the property taxes that support some-to-most of a school district’s budget as well as parents of school children are about the only group that doesn’t have a formidable and well-supported lobby group.
Cuts are almost certainly coming to the education budget along with nearly every other budget in the state.
Parents need to make their voices heard in the halls of the state Capitol over the next few weeks just as loudly as the interests seeking subsidies and “vital tax breaks”.
Nearly every group seeking to steer cuts away from their interest will make claims of necessity, and most will probably be legitimate. Few however, can boast the urgency of our giving future generations the best education possible from the earliest ages. They are our future, nothing can be as important.
Write your state representatives and senator today. Make them fear for their jobs.
Contact Lake Sun editor David Schiefelbein at david.schiefelbein@lakesunonline.com
Lake of the Ozarks, Mo. —
