The 65% Solution

On the surface, it sounds like a great idea. Write into law through the ballot initiative that 65% of all education funding must be spent in the classroom. Great, you say. Mandate that we can't be wasting money on lavish administrator salaries and grounds and all that fluff. Now ask yourself, why would GOPers, conservative sponsors of the measure intent on raising private education up as the model of an efficient educational system, want to add money to the public schools?

They don't. What they want to do is shuffle money. Rest assured, this bill will raise no new funds for education in Colorado. Instead it would move money from transportation and school lunches out of those programs and into the classroom. Great, you say but here's the word of my teacher girlfriend: Try teaching a hungry student. And how, without transportation, are some of these kids to get to school in the first place?

The flaws in the initiative have prompted pro-education groups to add another initiative to keep the money to go to 65% classroom funding from coming from programs that will hurt students. Hopefully the Blue Book will spell this out and hopefully voters will read it and understand the implications of the GOPer 65% solution to lame public education even farther. I remain skeptical; however, I can hope for the best.

Please, if you must vote for the 65% solution, vote for the amendment requiring the money come from other sources than transportation and food assistance. You can't teach a hungry child and you can't teach one that isn't there. The GOPers' compassion would require teachers attempt to do both.