Give communities what they need to succeed

[Telly Savalas]

I've read a couple of posts here today which point out cases in 3 different states where schools are either being shut down for a few days or proposals are being made for a 4 day school week in order to save money:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4878868#4879861

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4879642#4879695

This is truly alarming. The richest country in all of history can't afford to keep its schools open in some area. The reason for this is that local governments in poorer areas are given a list of responsibilites, but they simply don't have the funding to meet them because they rely on a limited tax base. The most glaring example of this is in education, but it also affects things like maintenance of roads, parks, public transportation, and a variety of other services.

Hence we get a case of John Edwards' "Two Americas" that have actual geographic boundaries. It's a self-perpetuating phenomena too. Businesses shy away from places where there's shitty infrastructure and the people are poorly educated, so such places can never get the necessary revenue to fix things to attract the businesses.

While I'm too tired and not enough of a policy wonk to have specific proposals to fix this situation, it's still clear that something needs to be done. We need a federal policy that will keep the decision making local, yet provide the means for local governments to be effective.

[Telly Savalas]

1. Kick for the morning shift.

This is a very real problem, and one that won't just magically disappear once Bush is gone.