What did
Hoosiers think when they elected one of the Republican responsible for our nation's massive deficits?
Parents, teachers, and students packed the Indiana Statehouse Wednesday to sound off. They filled the rotunda, stairwells and balconies to protest proposed cuts to education.
Melanie Wright is an educator. "I am furious. We are a small school corporation. We have already lost our Title One money this year. Now we are losing dollars next year and for the following year."
Megan Cahill is a volunteer in the Indianapolis Public School System."We have already a 73 percent dropout rate and I can't even imagine what is going to happen if this money is cut from our budget." [...]
State budget proposals include little increases for education. School administrators believe it will cost almost 6,000 teachers their jobs over the next two years.
Daniels has incurred the wrath of the tax-cut fundamentalists in the GOP, furious that endless deficits -- allowed in Washington -- are not possible in Indiana. Like Republican governors in Utah, Ohio, Alabama, and Arkansas, there is a growing realization that perpetual tax cuts aren't a realistic option.
So Daniels is trapped in the middle, between those who note -- quite sensibly -- that cutting teachers is madness, and those like CATO and Norquist, who consider him a sellout for trying to reach budget parity in part with tax increases.