Myth Buster of the Day
Friends called me this week to tell me that they had received a “push-poll” from the Democratic Party in Lansing. A push-poll is one where they ask who, if the election were held today, would you vote for, Candidate A or Candidate B?
When you don’t choose their particular candidate, the volunteer is scripted to ask a negative question to bring you back. In this case the first question was, “Would you be more or less likely to vote for Candidate B... IF... you knew he voted to cut education by $100’s of millions of dollars?”
Well… my friends hung up on the “pollster”, knowing that the question is false in Michigan.
First of all… this type of negative-polling is not new and not restricted to any one party. This tactic is used by both sides, and is as annoying as any robo-call. However, I'm constantly reminding new political candidates of the Tom Hanks famous line, “THERE'S NO CRYING IN BASEBALL!!!”
That’s right! This is part of the political playing field and, by golly, this is a rough and tumble business. I have no complaints. My reason for bringing this up is only to dispel the myth that the State of Michigan cut $100’s of millions of dollars from education.
When Michigan Democrats talk about $1 billion dollars being cut from school budgets, they are partly referring to the removal of federal stimulus money that was given to Michigan under a previous administration. This money was to go to “shovel ready” jobs, but was spent on protecting existing government spending. The money that should have gone into fixing potholes was spent on just about everything but roads.
When you read the charted information (below) from Lansing you’ll see that education spending has been rather flat. No one is claiming that school funding has risen to new heights, but the state was forced to pick up the slack when the extra federal spending faded into the sunset. (You can see in the footnotes which years ARRA money was used to supplant general funds)
In either case... we can always chat about whether or not $13 billion is the perfect amount to spend on education, or not. But… it is quite disingenuous to claim that decisions made by the legislature, in 2011 to current, have dramatically cut the schools.
Judge for yourself… here’s a chart on state school spending from the Senate Fiscal Agency:
We have a lot of work to do to regrow our economy and give rise to the middle-class family. Time to talk the truth. As you have ideas to grow manufacturing, agriculture and tourism in Michigan... I'd love to work with you!
