Free Republic

The Kansas City school board voted Wednesday night to close nearly half the district's schools in a desperate bid to stay afloat. The board's 5-4 decision came after parents and community leaders made final pleas for the district not to shut down 29 out of 61 schools as it seeks to erase a projected $50 million budget shortfall. "The urban core has suffered white flight post-the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision Brown v. the Board of Education, blockbusting by the real estate industry, redlining by banks and other financial institutions, retail and grocery store abandonment," Kansas City Councilwoman Sharon Sanders...

The Federal Housing Administration will be the next financial disaster to fall on the shoulders of American taxpayers. Created in 1934 to help low income and first time buyers get housing loans, the agency was designed to guarantee a relatively small percentage of mortgages, for instance, two percent in 2005. Since its inception, FHA’s budget and operational infrastructure have followed this low-ratio model, and have been designed to absorb losses without having to ask for money or help from the Federal Government. However, the GAO is now projecting taxpayer funded subsidies for the FHA of half a billion dollars over...

In Washington these days, an 11-figure expenditure barely attracts notice. With Congress preoccupied with the massive, $700 billion bailout plan for the financial industry, General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler have finally secured Part One of their own federal rescue plan. A bill set to be passed by Congress and signed by President Bush as early as this weekend—separate from the controversial Wall Street bailout plan—includes $25 billion in loans for the beleaguered Detroit automakers and several of their suppliers. "It seemed like a lot when we first started pushing this," says Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, one of the...