Bail Out Our Classrooms, Says Carvalho

Maybe instead of private jets, the heads of the nation's largest school districts could pile into school buses, set their routes to swing by Washington, and join the lunch line at the federal bailout trough?

That's sort of what (minus the strained metaphor) Miami-Dade Schools chief Alberto Carvalho wonders in his suggestion to consider using federal bailout dollars to invest in education (Miami Herald). This year, Florida state tax revenue shortfalls could slice an additional $65 million from the already trimmed by $325 million Miami-Dade Schools budget.

Challenging Carvalho's bailout proposition, the Herald cites University of Miami Economics Professor Michael Connolly who notes that schools, by being public, already receive a sort of "bailout" in the way of federal funding. Adding, "If the Florida school system goes down the drain, it will make no difference to the U.S. economy." 

This is from a guy that teaches in a Florida school? Oh right, U of M is private!

Previously on Inservice, we asked you if education is too big to fail? Since Carvalho's call for bailout funding, editorials & blogs have echoed his sentiment that safe-guarding public education also protects a higher quality of life, and/or raised considerations for bailing out education. Here are a few:

By way of Robert Pondiscio at Core Knowledge blog, we read that Andy Rotherham at Eduwonk thinks Pre-K should be a (if not the) major spending focus of an Obama administration, but adds that school construction probably makes more sense for economic stimulus in the near-term.

Jay P. Greene parallels the auto industry and the U.S. education system by characterizing both as systemically weak and loathe to reform. While Schools Matter points out the irony of a Wall Street Journal editorial on the lack of accountability and need for reform in education.

Should education be eligible for federal rescue similar to those afforded to private industries? Do state or district education system failures really have no effect on the U.S. economy?

Comments

[Dennis Dervetski]

U of M Professor Michael Connolly's comment on if the school systems go down it makes no difference to the economy is absolutely ignoran. Private schools have no idea, or as I see it, much of a grasp on the real world or the thought process. Also, why just the largest school districts piling into buses and getting a bail out; small and rural schools educate students too!!