Letter: Offended by Senate education budget

The May 2 guest editorial on the McCleary case omitted information. Neither the House nor Senate budget funds education adequately; the Senate budget is reprisal against the audacity of challenging them to complete their elected responsibility.

The Senate budget will:

▪  Limit teacher pay and end collective bargaining rights (a slippery slope for professional associations/unions); eliminate voter-initiated K-12 employee COLAs;

▪  Increase class size (eliminating voter-initiated reductions);

▪  Change school funding formulas and cut social/health services, making way for private school vouchers (tax dollars for private institutions);

▪  Remove local decisions, limiting local levies;

▪  Increase college tuition;

▪  Lower standards — anybody without criminal backgrounds, people without college degrees or high school diplomas can teach.

As a resident and taxpayer, I’m offended.

Furthering partisanship we see in American politics, see the House appropriations bill — approved by the House, the Senate is trying to defeat it. The Senate wants a vote that fails, to claim the House budget won’t work. If you are fed up with suspicious political tomfoolery, call your elected state senator and urge them to pass the appropriations bill, Senate Bill 5929. 800-562-6000 to demand elected officials follow the state Constitution.

This story was originally published May 10, 2017 at 7:37 PM with the headline "Letter: Offended by Senate education budget."