killer buffalo

America needs high-speed rail lines and hybrid cars, state-of-the-art bridges and universal health care.  But we don’t need no education.

That’s the message that teachers are getting from President Obama’s first hundred days as states begin shovel-ready projects funded by his and the 111th Congress’ stimulus package.  The congressional bill—which finances state-run public works projects—does nothing to fix America’s shovel-ready education system whose problems the recession has exacerbated.

Since state and local governments, unlike the federal government, are required to maintain balanced budgets, they raise tax rates and cut spending during times when fewer residents are working and therefore paying income taxes.  During these times—recessions—the federal government picks up the slack in economic stimulus by granting money to states to hire workers to complete specific tasks.

This time around the business cycle, Congress is calling the federal stimulus the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA); the name only applies to the construction industry.

In addition to increasing the nation’s money supply, the ARRA was designed primarily to do two things: stem unemployment among construction workers who have been hit especially hard by the real estate meltdown and counter the tax hikes and layoffs inherent in state governments’ recessionary budgets.

Indeed the stimulus may save America’s construction industry, but it won’t solve states’ chief budgeting problems.  Since money from the ARRA is bookmarked specifically for infrastructure projects, it has failed to prevent state governments from shedding jobs in non-construction areas.  While states begin long-needed expansions in roads and bridges, they are cutting back on education funding of which they provide nearly half—local governments and federal subsidies pay for the rest.

More construction jobs, at least temporarily, and fewer public teaching ones may strengthen some students’ claims that education isn’t necessary to succeed in America.  Along with the larger classrooms that will result from next years’ smaller public school budgets, such an attitude will hurt the American economy in the long run.

Assuming per capita income reflects relative contribution to the economy, the opportunity cost of one American not attending and graduating from a four-year college is $24,000 per year.

If the ARRA produces an increase in construction jobs, more students may pursue careers in that field.  The general uselessness of an advanced degree in that work, along with a poorly-funded public education system, could deter students from attending college.  Project the trend ten years into the future and you will see an America with too many construction workers and not enough construction jobs; infrastructure improvements now will only make that problem worse.

Another construction bailout will be order.

This outcome isn’t an inevitable one.  If Congress amends the ARRA so that it provides money outright to state governments instead of financing specific tasks, states could team with local governments to avoid lay-offs at public schools.  Of course America wouldn’t have as much to show for its stimulus—whereas the current ARRA produces new highways this type of amended version produces a better educated youth—but it would have a sturdier economy.

Besides, if anyone recognizes the importance of learning, it ought to be Mr Obama.  It wasn’t the well-built dorm rooms at Harvard Law School that propelled him into the White House.

-David Lamb

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