While my students, colleagues, and friends across Pennsylvania worry and lose sleep over Governor Coward’s Corbett’s potential 54% hack-job to the state public education allocation for 2011-12, some staunch and unbending Tea Party tax evaders complainers disapprovers are strangely silent over the increase in state money to prisons. The mantra, “don’t tax businesses” and “no new taxes” and “no increase to taxes” falls a little flat when this budget so clearly pits education against not only business, but the prison system (criminal > students?). No wonder he's getting booed everywhere he goes and PA voters have given him only a 31% approval rating.
A brief look at Corbett’s budget address
In his state budget address, Corbett said, “We must tax no more. Because the people have no more to give.” (And by “people” you mean…businesses? My students are people. My colleagues are people. Our custodians are people. They are being asked to give their jobs, salaries, benefits, and affordable tuition rates back to the state. So they aren't included in "the people" who "have no more to give," correct?)
As regards the future, he said, “If we find a way to reinvent ourselves. . .how we treat our citizens. . . we will – to borrow a phrase from William Faulkner – not only endure but prevail.” (And by reinventing “how we treat our citizens” in order to "prevail" privileges businesses and prisons over middle class students? Faulkner would be so proud. Not to mention unread, as he is much too unwieldy to help students achieve better test scores.)
But wait, “We need a new set of priorities: child, parent, and teacher – and in that order.”
Ah, ok. So, in order to “treat our citizens” better and focus more on the child first (realizing, of course, that teachers have absolutely NOTHING to do with how well a child or young adult succeeds in school, silly), Corbett wants to gut public education funding AND increase funding to prisons. Sure. Of course. Because that makes perfect sense. If we want an undereducated populace with less options and even less access to decent jobs and opportunities and less ability to question their leaders…ah…I see. I’m getting it now!
Furthermore, Corbett announced, “The substance of the budget. . . preserves the core functions of government while moving to take government out of places it has no business or is not needed or simply fails to perform compared to the efficiencies of the market.”
Ah, yes. Education is clearly NOT a “core function” of government. Except that all K-12 students MUST go to school according to…um…the GOVERNMENT. Wait, what?? How can this be? How can the state compel students to attend mandatory school when schooling is NOT a “core function” of government? Beyond this problematic disconnect between fantasy and reality (within one man’s head no less), his true pro-business colors come shining through when he claims that the “market” is somehow more “efficient” at producing results. Of course, if all the results he’s interested in are test scores, drop-out rates, and the length of time it takes a student to graduate college, then of course, if a corporation ran the school or college, it would churn out good little non-critical-thinking cogs with nary a skill beyond the ability to pass a test in a mandated time frame, which is oodles better than the current system that requires significantly more of students. I think I see what Corbett wants.
More mindless drones = good for business.
When it comes to increasing the corrections system’s allocation 18% over the 2010-11 allocation, Corbett said, “In 1993, Pennsylvania had 24,000 men and women in its prisons. Today that number is over 50,000. This number speaks to a failure. Sometimes it’s a failure in our schools, or in our society, but ultimately in the personal character of the criminal. We need to fund additional parole officers to help freed inmates make the transition from the prison yard to Main Street.” (Because those “freed prisoners” are more valuable to our communities than our students. And parole officers are ABSOLUTELY more critical to a functioning society than no-good, lazy, commie-pinko teachers who merely suck at the taxpayer teat without contributing anything valuable to society.)
And the truth comes out. The reason that prisons need more funding and public education requires gutting is because the increasing number of criminals is “a failure of our schools.” But of course. This makes perfect sense. Why on earth would anyone question the logic of this connection? Personally, I would classify it as a non sequitur, which is a form of fallacious reasoning meaning “it does not follow.” But fallacious reasoning seems to be running rampant in Republican-run state houses these days and their followers certainly don’t seem to mind the stream of non sequiturs, ad hominem attacks, and outright lies coming from their mouths, so why should we bother to question?
Why don’t we deserve a government that upholds criminals, blames education for their existence, and shoves gas-drenched water down our throats? Silly us.
Eventually, Corbett directly addresses Marcellus Shale and its drillers: “For every pipe running a mile underground we should have jobs at distribution centers, at refineries, at shipping ports, and the offices and companies that run them.” (Clearly, the people who will work in these positions do not need a college education – or even a good high school education. Quality is irrelevant. Rubber stamp all students in and out with diploma in hand, without having learned anything, and without the critical thinking skills necessary to question “authority” and then let these businesses TEACH them how to function in this new job environment.)
Because after all, “That’s the American way.”
A view of Corbett’s budget through the corporate campaign donor lens
In the category of “Workforce Investment,” Corbett’s budget takes the 2010-11 level of $832 million down to $552.7 million (page 629). Once again, why help people with job training when they can just pony up and pay to attend a state university community college…never mind…not only can the newly unemployed (at least 1,500 full time state workers will be axed – and that’s not including the lay-offs coming in education thanks to these cuts) NOT be retrained with help from the state that laid them off, they won’t be able to afford a new education for themselves either. Oddly enough, this fits quite perfectly into the underlying agenda as I’ve suggested it to be. Coincidence? I don’t believe in coincidences.
So who benefits from Corbett’s budget? Prisons. And Marcellus Shale drillers.
The natural gas industry contributed heavily to Corbett’s campaign in his run for governor – this is a well-documented and well-reported fact that no one (not even the Governor) disputes:
At the very least, Corbett’s claim to hold the line on taxing the Marcellus Shale drillers should be as transparent as he promised that his new approach to government would be. His drilling friends are reaping the benefits of having been his political contributors. And Corbett’s supporters don’t seem to care. After all, they will benefit with all of those new jobs, right? No need for education when you can work for a natural gas company.
When Corbett was sworn in, he promised to "dedicate each and every day over the next four years to fiscal discipline and a responsible, limited government," which just happens to include all of his biggest campaign donors who just happen to be in the natural gas industry, an industry Corbett has also promised NOT to tax. At all.
As Corbett stated in his budget address, “That’s the American way.”
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