It’s Time to End Federal Funding

The latest email alert from the Legislative Action Coalition reminds us of the need to end federal funding of public education.  Here is the text;

On February 19^th, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a spending bill (H.R. 1 – Continuing Resolution) for the remainder of FY 2011 that included drastic cuts for early childhood programs. Last year, Congress failed to pass a budget, leaving a temporary spending provision in place until March 4^th.Congress must pass a FY 2011 budget by that time to avoid a government shutdown.  The House bill will be taken up by the Senate, which has not released its own budget proposal for FY 2011 in the next few days. The funding cuts contained in H.R. 1 include:

• Elimination of the funds for Even Start grants.

Robbinsdale Area Schools is one of only four sites in Minnesota to  have an Even Start Family Literacy Program. We are in danger of losing this valuable program because of the actions stated above.  The Family Literacy program serves recent immigrants to our country by providing a literacy-based preschool to the children, and providing English Language classes to parents, as well as parent education and connections to community resources.  Robbinsdale Area Schools Family Literacy program has proven results.  The program has documented that it prepares children for Kindergarten, and provides English Language skills to the parents.  One telling statistic about the program is that 100% of 4-5 year olds in the program for one year or more scored in the age appropriate range for English vocabulary.

Now that Congress passed a two-week extension, we can count on more emails like this, of course, never mind the explosion of federal spending the past three years (and boy has it worked).  We have some advice for the LAC; Why don’t you call for an end to federal education spending?

Sending our money to Washington, then having the bureaucrats, take a cut, and then sending the money back to us with strings attached is perhaps the worst possible way to fund education or anything else.  And District 281 can’t be any more hypocritical on federal money.  They love taking the money and then all they do is whine and complain about it afterward!

Let’s advocate to send Arnie Duncan back to Chicago and throw the Department of Education in the Potomac River.