We know many conservatives don't like President Barack Obama, and far too many have settled into the habit of blaming him for everything that's wrong or going wrong in the country. But we were really taken aback by the John Locke Foundation's Terry Stoops, who in an article http://www.carolinajournal.com/jhdailyjournal/index.html blamed Obama for teacher layoffs in North Carolina.
Here's Stoops' reasoning: In 2009, President Obama signed the $814 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law, which provided $100 billion for education, including more than $1.3 billion for North Carolina public schools over for two years. If N.C. school systems hadn't used that money to keep some teachers from being laid off over the last two years, the school districts wouldn't be in the position of having to lay them off now.
Go ahead. Scratch your head over that one.
Stoops, director of Education Studies for the Locke Foundation, noted that the Observer editorial board was part of the state and local media "in denial" about placing the blame on Obama: "A recent editorial in the Charlotte Observer explained, 'Actually, the federal government isn’t cutting funds. That money was a one-time boost to help struggling states during the recession. Policymakers knew those federal dollars would end after two years.' Observer editors echo the education establishment in North Carolina. Neither appears willing to fault the Obama administration for forcing school districts to eliminate hundreds of teachers and support staff positions.'
That's because it isn't at fault. It's clear that without the federal funds, the N.C. districts would have had to lay those teachers off anyway - and earlier. The federal funds were used to stave off the layoffs - layoffs due to state and local education budget cuts over that same period. And now, with N.C. lawmakers - primarily Republicans - proposing deeper education cuts for next school year, more layoffs are in the offing.
There's blame to go around for the economic forces that put the state in such dire financial condition. But layoffs - or not - of N.C. teachers? The blame lies with policymakers in North Carolina.
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8 comments:
I know better than to take an Observer blogger seriously but this one takes the cake.
Pointing fingers and passing out blame? What exactly do you think BHO has been doing for the past two years?
Never has a newly sworn in president gone to such lengths (or sent his henchmen on his behalf) to blame his predecessor. Normally a new president refrains from stooping to that but not Obama.
Would the Observer editorialize an objection if an analyst found that GWB was at fault?
Ronald Reagan blamed Jimmy Carter for practically everything during his first term. Republicans have blamed nearly everything that has happened in the past 3 years on Obama, so it's not like it doesn't go both ways. Besides, George W. Bush somehow avoided blame for 9/11 and evaded heavy scrutiny over Iraq and Afghanistan for years before public opinion shifted. Stop acting like victims.
The last paragraph sums up the Charlotte Observer's intelligence. There is plenty of blame to go around, but it is the NC Republican's fault.
Let's don't mention the fact they inherited this mess from the Democrats that ran the state for 100+ years.
It has to be the Republican's fault. No wonder no one takes the Charlotte Observer's Editorial staff seriously.
Back to the story: I belieive the John Locke Foundation is saying we borrowed $100b ($1.3b) for education and we are in the same place we were two years ago. Why is it so hard for liberals to realize the system is broken? Fix the system and quit throwing money down the drain. Had we fixed it two years ago, maybe we would be better off today.
Obama and his defenders like to say he inherited the worst downturn since the Great Depression and that things would have been worse still had he not proceeded with his economic policies. But the recession was almost over by the time he took office — and officially over just six months after that.
So while Obama's policies had little to do with bringing an end to the Great Recession, they've had everything to do with producing what is by far the worst economic recovery in the past 70 years.
North Carolina, like most other states, is facing a shrinking tax base to generate revenue from. This can all be traced back to Obamanomics.
Don't forget though; Duncan said it was fine to increase class size; called it the "new normal."
If it looks like duck, acts like a duck and quacks like a duck it MUST be OBAMA!
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