Remember just a few months ago when some of our elected officials were touting Racine Promise? The initiative was to be based on a program in Kalamazoo Michigan where PRIVATE donations funded college tuition for graduates of Kalamazoo's public schools. No tax money would be used for this program, we were assured. Well, what do you know, Racine Promise is looking for $5 million from the misnamed federal stimulus bill. Credit must go to JT blogger Twister who pointed out this new, uh, twist in the Racine Promise idea.
One more reason not to believe in political promises.
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4 comments:
It's free money! One more opportunity to build something that will need to be maintained with tax money later as part of an "oops - oh well" strategy.
Look at Wisconsin - they whine about an almost 6 billion dollar deficit yet they will stimulate us with new programs and new spending and in two years, well, we'll be even more broke than we are now.
What would be so bad about tax dollars paying for college tuition? We pay for k-12 now.
Part of the problem as I see it, anon 2:44, is that my wife and I were matrried just over a year ago - I'm 45. We don't live extravagantly - we have a nice house but our "new" car is 10 years old while mine is an '89 with almost 250,000 miles on it. We do not travel and go out to eat once a month or so and only if my wife gets a secret shopper gig (so the dinner is free). In the end, we couldn't have a child if we wanted to - because we can't afford it. A big reason for that is the taxes we pay, some of which goes to OTHER people's children in schools, Badger Care, police calls, etc.
When does the "I deserve more from you" end? The answer: it doesn't.
Anon 2:44, the issue here is the apparent dishonesty on the part of the pols who assured us that this program would be funded with private donations. But I will address your question anyway. The program is modelled after one in Kalamazoo wherein graduates of public schools get their tuition paid for by private sources. If Racine were to use public $'s to pay for the tuition of only public school graduates, this would discriminate against people who are educated in private schools. Also, anon offers other valid reasons to object to this handout. But again, my main issue here is the lie that has been told to the citizens of Racine regarding the funding for this program. Sadly, one of the folks running for mayor has been behind this effort and the efforts to assure us that the program would be funded with private donations. I suppose it is possible, perhaps even probable, that he had nothing to do with the switcheroo from a private to public program, but by now he has had time to vocally object to the change. Yet we here nothing. This suggests complicity with the change.
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