The education lobby continues to work parents into a frenzy over the state budget.  Today, my kids’ school sent out an email asking us all to call the offices of the "Big 5" to voice our concerns over a proposed "spending cap."  The message they are asking parents to send is this:

"Hard Caps on spending will devastate our education system and be a deterrent to our economic recovery. Dollars toward education are an investment in California’s future, not an expense."
 
If the CTA and the rest of the education lobby were truly responsible, they’d educate parents about what the real tradeoffs are in the state budget. They’d tell parents how the staggering cost of health care and retirement for teachers and state workers are contributing to the state’s budget crisis.  They’d also tell them that Legislature’s spending spree for the past 10 years has now caught up with us. So instead of a silly message about a spending cap hurting the economic recovery, they’d be asking parents to rely something like this:

"Protect education spending at all costs.  Don’t lay off any bureaucrats at the Department of Education or district offices.  Don’t ask teachers to waive COLAs or make any benefit concessions.  Instead, please raise our taxes, cut social service and welfare spending and release prisoners from our prisons."

Like that would ever happen.