Frederick M. Hess's Blog
The First Rule of Holes
by Frederick M. Hess • May 11, 2010 at 9:17 am
Cross-posted from Education Week
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After yesterday's post on NYC teachers and the fiscal crunch elicited such an appreciative and cheery response (or not), thought I'd stay with the theme for another day. This week, over on the National Journal's"Education Experts" blog, there's a debate about what conditions (if any) ought to be attached to Senator Tom Harkin's $23 billion education bailout. For those of you who thought yesterday's post to be harsh, fair warning: my stance is harder-edged than most.
The first rule of holes is: When you're in one, stop digging. Well, we're in a massive hole. And Senator Harkin's solution seems to be to call for another shovel.
Mike Antonucci does a nice job laying out the problem with Harkin's premise. In the past decade, states and districts spent the windfall that inflated property tax rolls generated during the good times. Now that the bill's come due, Harkin is calling for the feds to subsidize this inflated level of spending even as the economy clanks and grinds its way out of the bubble years. Other organizations, public and private, for-profit and non-profit, are responsibly cutting staffing, salaries, and benefits in light of changed circumstances. Indeed, that willingness to
