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Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Money, Money, Money…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This weekend I caught part of a fascinating interview on NPR with a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist who wrote a book about some of the ways governments (local, state and federal) misspend our tax money.
Then last night I saw Republican presidential candidate and Texas congressman Ron Paul on Jay Leno’s late-night talk show, where Paul suggested the federal government can’t fix domestic problems because it’s spending too much on the war in Iraq.
All of this got me thinking about government spending priorities and how every policy decision comes down to a question of money: How much is there and where should it be spent?
Of course, this is particularly important for public schools, which rely on tax dollars to operate.
Georgia’s public education advocates are seriously concerned about proposals to alter the state’s tax system and they’re equally anxious about what the governor’s Education Finance Task Force is going to do (or not do, as the case may be).
The question: When it comes to public education, are state officials spending the way they should?
UPDATE: Maureen Downey points out problems with the state’s education funding situation in a new AJC editorial, while columnist Jim Wooten suggests that there’s no need for alarm.
