posted by Shelley
President Bush said Tuesday that the economy was not in a recession but a period of slower growth. Do you believe that? The Commerce Department reported Thursday that sales of new homes plunged in March to the lowest level in 16 1/2 years. The government also reported that orders to factories for big-ticket goods fell for a third straight month in March, the longest string of declines since the 2001 recession. The UN Secretary-General calls the sharp rise in food prices a global crisis, stating that immediate action is needed. Slower growth??
I think the Bush comment was simply political BS (We have someone right here in the burg that practices that same type of commentary about our school system and people sure believe him!) — however, if our President were to cite reasons to support his statement, he would most likely go on and on about Alaska, a state making so much money from oil that it announced an estimated surplus next year of $8 billion, almost twice the state’s annual budget…or North Dakota, Wyoming or even Louisiana — energy producing states. But what about the rest of the country? What about US here in Indiana?
If you trust Indiana lawmakers to correctly assess budget gaps, then you believe that Indiana is among the states that are sitting better than most. (Tell that to my son who is working partial weeks, and others I know that have been stripped of $2.00 per hour of their previous wage just to keep working.) The states reporting the very worst conditions are Florida, California and Massachusetts — with Nevada, Arizona, Ohio and Virginia following closely behind.
I look at our town and our school and shake my head, not knowing if it has always been in the condition it’s in, or if I merely SEE it now that I’m older. Has our local government always been run in a willy nilly fashion based on what the good ole’ boy of the week wants? Has it always been that our local school system cared more about spending tax dollars than educating students? I don’t know.
Seems to me that a lot of changes are needed in a lot of places — local, state and federal — and we may just be in a for ride.