The debate over education funding is heating up and it is still two months before the legislative session begins. Mr. Powers suggests the lawsuit by some school districts challenging whether the state has met its constitutional mandate of "adequately" funding education will only motivate the legislature to inaction. Meanwhile, Mr. Heidelberger suggests even having a lawsuit is enough to shame us into increasing teacher salaries.
That, of course, assumes that the lawsuit is legitimate. Instead, this lawsuit seems an attempt by a minority to gain power over the majority. By definition those who are bringing this suit are admitting that they are unable to influence to state's elected representatives to support their policy preferences. Thus they aim to achieve by lawsuit what they cannot achieve via election. If one supports increased spending on education (and this author does), then one should attempt to gain political victory through the front door of elections rather than through the back door of a lawsuit. In addition, this lawsuit is bound to fail and thus wastes precious state resources that could be spent more productively.
Further, Mr. Heidelberger's quick leap from "more funding for education" to "higher pay for teachers" is suspicious. Let me suggest alternative rhetoric. The purpose of higher spending on education is to better that education, not to increase teacher pay. Teacher pay is merely a means to an end. Readers should recall that I am in favor of increased pay for teachers. But Mr. Heidelberger would aid his cause by discussing how increased teacher pay is good for education, rather than speaking of increased pay as an end in itself. Further, Mr. Heidelberger calls for "adequate" pay for teachers. "Adequate" is an ambiguous term open to much interpretation by both friend and foe. Let me suggest that rather than advocating for "adequate pay" we should aim at something more concrete, namely pay that is equitable to our neighboring states. I blogged about that here, and here is a report that gives us more data with comparisons for cost of living (go to page 62 of the pdf, which is page 54 of the document).
In other education news, see this story about attempts by the Board of Regents to advocate for funding for university science lab improvements. And here's a story about the pressures faced by small school districts as the inevitability of consolidation looms large.
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