Posted on 10/06/2006 6:55:42 AM PDT by Graybeard58
Wyoming has been among the winners in America's inability to create a sustainable energy policy. Soaring natural-gas prices brought on by surging demand while the government has capped domestic exploration and production have helped the state produce huge budget surpluses, $2.7 billion in the last two years alone.
As one might expect, the politicians are spending it as if they had money to burn. Statewide per-pupil spending rose 24 percent this year to more than $12,400, within $600 of top-spender New Jersey. A $400 million endowment has been established to give home-grown high school graduates college scholarships. Teachers' salaries have increased markedly; the starting pay in Jackson is now $50,000.
The size of the energy profits and spending spree is exceeded only by lofty academic promises: "We probably will have the nation's No. 1 graduation rate, maybe college attendance rate. We probably will have the highest (standardized test) scores," said Jim McBride, Wyoming's superintendent of public instruction.
Some perspective is in order. No one ever has credibly linked spending to academic achievement. Few cities spend more per pupil than Hartford and Washington, D.C., yet their schools are among the worst in America. Huge salary increases mean only that Wyoming is paying more for staffers who to date have been unable to lead students to the educational promised land. All those college scholarships will bloat the higher-education system further and ultimately drive up costs for everyone. Without restrictions on how to spend this windfall, the state is simply pumping money out of the ground and into the black hole of education.
This spree is unsustainable. Indeed, energy prices have been falling precipitously of late and natural-gas reserves are finite. Ultimately, the money will run out, and schools will be left to raise taxes, curtail programs or both to make up for lost revenues. The state should have reduced taxes or financed one-shot expenditures, rather than creating billions in continuing expenses for which it one day won't have revenues.
Ping to a Republican-American Editorial.
If you want on or off this ping list, let me know.
I'm betting they choose Door Number One.
Of course, it's been done before and failed every time, but whatever.
Spend it on infrastructure while you have it...
Sorry, couldn't let that LSM blatant lie go by without correction.
Yeh, ur rite. History 'ain't teaching' anyone anything these days.....
Why has the government capped domestic natural gas exploration? It's not like natural gas demands a huge ugly hole gouged in the ground. The gas wells are small and unobtrusive even to the most rabid enviro-Nazi.
But, but this sort of energy madness was supposed to go away when WE got into power. If controlling all the branches of federal government hasn't moved the switch, we've been lied to big time.
Why is this paper commenting on a sparsely-populated state 1,500 miles away? It's not like it's their state. Looks like they are trying to score points in local controversies.
Why not? Would you restrict them to their own geographic area? Newspaper editorials comment all the time on issues that are not in their own locale. The Waterbury Republican-American is one of the most conservative papers in the country, even if they are in "blue" Connecticut.
Maybe I shouldn't say all of that though, I live in Illinois.
They seem particularly oblivious to the specific conditions of Wyoming, in which case they should restrict themselves from commenting on that which they are ignorant. They could have at least acknowledged Wyoming's difficulty in retaining its natives. The opinion was so brief and so poorly argued that it seems like lazy pontification, especially the comparison of Wyoming with DC.
I agree with the basic premise of the article, that throwing money at public education won't fix it, whether it's D.C., Hartford or Cheyenne.
DC has the highest spending per pupil and lowest test scores. If they really wanted to improve education they would set up a charter system to allow school choice and allow schools to rid themselvs of the parasitic unions.
Some info on charter schools, through a fictional story..:
http://www.neoperspectives.com/charterschoolsexplained.htm
What evidence did they present that Cheyenne's school funding was as profligate and unreasoned as DC's? $50,000 for a teacher in Jackson, an expensive resort town, seems about competitive enough.
You hit the nail on the head. The cost of living in Jackson is insane. I don't think $50,000 would be enough survive on. I have a relative who teaches in South Eastern Wyoming and they're barely getting by.
The problem with Wyoming is that the government does *nothing* to encourage business and industry. Other than stripping natural resources, tourism and the service industry, there is very little to offer in the way of employment. *That* is why so many of us natives leave as soon as we graduate. (Don't get me started on the issue of piping water from the Green River to California! It looks nothing like it did 20 years ago.)
Don't get me wrong: I have no problem with the harvesting of oil, trona and natural gas. I just wish there were something else for the state to offer. When a location relies on only one industry to support the community (and I'm talking about the towns around military bases as well) they are just begging for disaster.
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