B4Marshall: Gilmore bloggers hype his big government record on education – again
I don’t know if Jim Gilmore has any control over his “bloggers “, but trumpeting as an achievement the spending of budget surpluses towards public universities rather than returning them to the taxpayer doesn’t seem like the best move to underscore one’s fiscal conservative values. D.J. McGuire explains:
One of the many things the American right has done to change the debate on education in general is to force Americans to see that a government monopoly is not the best way to deliver education. At the K-12 level, this has led to numerous conservative proposals for education reform under the e umbrella of educational choice – in essence, taking the entire idea of government help for education and restructuring it so that the students, not the institutions, are aided. The conservative movement is making similar moves in housing, medical insurance, and other areas.
Gilmore’s tuition freeze, by contrast, moves in the exact opposite direction. It doesn’t strengthen individual choice; it limits it by forcing them to use public education in order to benefit from the aid. It doesn’t embrace the free market; it distorts it by using government power to artificially lower the prices for government-funded universities to the detriment of private and religious ones.
Artificial subsidization of public institutions kills private and religious universities. Not a difficult concept to master, unless you’re a big-government type… and there’s a party for that.
What’s more disturbing at this point is the utter lack of message control… where once again, Marshall’s conservative record has zero apologies to make.
UPDATE: Kenney the Younger sees the same problem (and coincidentally attends VCU). Is anyone watching the Bloggers 4 Gilmore henhouse?
- Posted by Shaun Kenney at 08:31 pm
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Shaun you are way off target on controlling tuition in VA’s Colleges, and quite frankly using excess tax revenues benefits Virginians seeking higher education.
As far as Marshall goes, has he found ANWR on the map yet, and developed a strategy to get us off foreign oil dependency? (crickets chirping).
Has he decided that keeping our bases in Germany actually has kept that continent at peace for oh say, the last 60 years?
Meanwhile, I will assume that Del Marshall has complete control over you and DJ. We are blogging, while you are damage controlling and cheerleading.
It’s nice to be on our side, we have tons of content on accomplishments… while you guys talk about positions.
…quite frankly using excess tax revenues benefits Virginians seeking higher education.
10% of Virginian households have someone in higher education. We all pay for TEN PERCENT of Virginia’s families. And this benefits only the public institutions, taking money out of the pockets and then denying it to those who choose a private institution for their higher education.
That money would better serve Virginia families if put back in their hands, their bank accounts, and if they were given the say as to how it was spent. It is not th government’s job to subsidize like this, not to a Conservative at least.
That’s your arugment? It only benefiting about 10% of the population?
What percentage of the population is receiving state funded medicaid?
What percentage of our population is in prison?
This isn’t about who is being served, but the purpose. As opposed to prisons, we are hoping to get more and more citizens into college.
Lowering tuition and fees by creating more efficiencies at those colleges is my first choice, but we have to deal with the politics.
What is funny is that I will continue my series on each college, but I confided in a friend, “I’m gonna do this till a Dem Pukes”.. and low and behold who puked first?
Everything that Gov. Gilmore has accomplished ya’ll attack. He instituted the largest and longest tax cut in VA history, and ya’lls attack is he ‘failed’ (mind you) to eliminate it completely.
Regardless of the General Assembly, and other political and economic matters.
That’s like criticizing Eisenhower for the assault on Normandy. It just wasn’t perfect enough for you?
Chris, Dems are loving this all the way because you’re setting the ball right on the tee and begging them to hit it out of the park. Feel free to keep showing how Gilmore is out of touch with the fiscal Conservative base just as much as the social Conservative, feel free to help Mark Warner win in November, that’s you’re right.
But when you clearly point out something that is contrary to the base principles of the Republican party, I’m going to call bull, Chris.
Gilmore increased spending at the expense of the many for the benefit of the few. You are saying that Virginia families can’t be counted on to spend their own money wisely, that it is the obligation of the government to ensure the general masses make sacrifices for the greater good of the minority. Where is there any Conservative basis for that argument?
Jason:
Go onto campus monday and start advocating for a 20% increase in tuition because VCU is being unfair to the University of Richmond, and driving them out of business.
That is your argument.
What kind of utopia do you live in?
Yeah Jay — explain to the grandmothers and working families of Virginia that they should shoulder the cost of higher education that is the worst performing institution among the G8, woefully underprepares our students, produces fewer and fewer engineers and scientists, and ultimately increases the cost of education while producing a mediocre product.
That’s a good sell… of course, Mark Warner makes it sound much better, especially after Warner shepherded through a $4 billion tax hike in 2004 (which Chris seems to think was a GREAT idea) for education in Virginia.
Nice to see how much Gilmore (well… Gilmore-supporters anyhow) and Mark Warner agree on higher spending and the higher taxes they bring for education, rather than tax breaks for the working class.
Chris, students and parents want greater accountability for how their money is being spent. You are arguing that accountability belongs to the state, which is a very big government thing to do. The schools should be held more accountable for how funds are spent, but as long as they are able to turn to the state as a crutch and a scapegoat, that will not happen and the cost of education will continue to increase while the product does not.
Subsidizing an industry does not improve its quality.