Good fences bad public policy

Arizona schools forced to divert funding to repair buildings. 

Across Arizona, scores of school districts are using money they had set aside for textbooks to fix air-conditioners and leaky roofs, laying off maintenance workers and having teachers sweep their own classrooms, putting off repairs and hoping nothing major breaks down.

As a kid, I remember that my elementary school had a storeroom with every kind of school supply you could imagine and I cannot remember my teachers sending a note home asking my parents for school supplies. Today, on the first day of school we receive a long list of supplies that my son has to bring by the end of the first week of classes. And that is only the beginning. Any school project requires more donations. This is essentially another tax that I have to pay to support my son's school. 


Arizona suffers from the current economic crisis, which is made worse buy its own public policy and tat of the federal government. But Arizona's leadership is seeking to address the state's financial shortcomings. Yes our schools are need of repair, so we are going to ask the public to build a fence around the state.


And you can help by donating money at the Border Security Information Center. So not only does Governor Brewer expect me to pay double taxes for the state's public schools, she want me to help build a fence. 


But as Robert Frost reminds us, "Something there is that doesn't love a wall."