Sent to us by an alert blogger:
VINEYARD HAVEN, Massachusetts — President Barack Obama is finalizing a jobs package that could include a program to refurbish school buildings nationwide and tax breaks to encourage firms to hire workers.
The package, to be unveiled in early September, is Obama's chance to convince skeptical voters he can bring down the 9.1 percent unemployment rate and steer the United States away from another recession - ahead of next year's election.
Parts of Obama jobs package coming into focus
Where will this money come from? Aren't our children in enough debt? The old stimulus did not provide the many jobs touted by the administration. More government bureaucracy and waste. Thanks for the heads up!
ReplyDeleteI bet the tossup states will show a "strong" need for these funds. :) You know he has to try something to get the engine started, it could be alot worse than repairing schools.
ReplyDeleteIf this passes Congress, will we even need SPLOST IV?
ReplyDeleteSeems to me if the first stimulus didn't help, would a second help? This money will have lots of strings attached to it. I bet you'll have to be a union employee or employer to be eligible for the funds or jobs.
I'm with you Anon. where will the money come from to, fund this possible boondoggle.
Is this a political blog? I think not.
ReplyDeleteAnon 7:41 Troll attempt fail, sorry.
ReplyDeletei agree that discussions about the first stimulus are probably left to other forums and blogs. what i can offer, as someone in the design/construction industry, is that it's as good a time as we'll (hopefully) ever see to borrow money to build. interest rates are absurdly low and even with modest inflation happening with most material costs (yes, there actually is inflation out there), it's still an extremely competitive marketplace.
ReplyDelete40%+ of all the energy consumed in this country is used to simply operate buildings. any chance dcss has to modernize and do even energy efficiency upgrades... take it every day of the week. again, no matter your personal thoughts on this administration, the long term health of the system would be improved by those upgrades.
I'm not sure what the source of this story is but this is what I've heard & based on the fraud and abuse and DCSS already, this would not be pretty:
ReplyDeleteAn administration program will expand free school meal coverage to millions of young people who are not even supposed to be eligible.
A stated goal of the program is to eliminate the stigma of getting a free lunch. But that stigma is one of the only things separating dignified free people from wretched government dependants. There is a lot of gray in between, but the Obama program would take students from a young age and nudge them in the wrong direction.
Here’s how the program works: if 40% of students at a school qualify for public assistance, thenevery student in the school will get free food. That’s free breakfast, lunch, and a snack. If that sounds like arbitrary welfare waste, it is. Sixty percent of the student body could be above the poverty line, ineligible for welfare, or even upper-class — it doesn’t matter. Every student magically becomes entitled.
This welfare trap is named the Community Eligibility Option, part of President Obama’s Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. Three states will be involved in a pilot program starting now, and more states will be phased in over time. By 2014-15, the option will be available in all states, if this law is kept on the books.
Any student at a school with 40% of the student body on welfare is going to get his free lunch, whether he needs it or not. That 40% can be made up of students already eligible for programs like Food Stamps or welfare (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families). Interestingly, the category of eligibility also includes “migrant youth.” So illegals can get in on the boondoggle as well. If 5% of students are “migrant youth, and an additional 35% of students are on some form of welfare, the remaining 60% are automatically entitled if their school opts in.
@ Anon 12:39 #2 I have read and heard the same information about school lunches. As I see it, this program is another to get people hooked on the government. The more that comes down from Washington and the more that I read from the book The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America, the programs that have me scratching my head like free lunch for all, so that a few kids don't "feel" bad, is just another way of the government taking another job from the parents and more people hooked on another government program.
ReplyDeleteWhat many do not know, is that no one knows if a child is free/reduced lunch, as a teacher, I didn't know which of my 28 kids was free, reduced, or paid full price. The kids put in their code and get their lunch and sometimes give the lunch ladies money, and sometimes don't.
The kids whose parents who paid full price and did not pay, are the kids that should feel bad. I have seen these kids have their lunches pulled from them only to be given a cheese sandwich and milk while the lunch people have made these kids feel horrible based on the behavior of the lunch people.
Those of that pay taxes, can't afford to keep paying more and more. Already our government pays out more than it takes in. How long can this go on?
@ Anon 12:39 #1 The school district has wasted much money from SPLOST to date. They have rebuilt smaller schools with wasted space. This money could have been used to install more energy efficient windows, insulation, and the like. We've spent millions on updates-many schools that have been built over the last 10 years are not taking the abuse of a school building from the 1960s.
Sucking off the government ...
ReplyDeleteThis food program is ridiculous. I fully intend on contacting my Congressman to voice me dissatisfaction with this government waste. And because he definitely doesn't represent my or any of my friends views here in the fourth, I am sure my voice will be ignored.
the free lunch expansion is an urban myth that's been debunked by multiple sources. it's been around in various forms for 10 years...
ReplyDeleteAnon 8:19
ReplyDeleteYou are wrong. Here are articles that describe this program in action already.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-06-20/news/ct-met-free-school-food-20110620_1_free-meals-reduced-price-meals-school-year
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/275134/richie-richs-free-lunch-henry-payne#
http://www.wlky.com/r/28532246/detail.html
This is no myth. It's reality and most likely coming to more than 3 states soon.
The article was posted because it calls to "refurbish school buildings nationwide and tax breaks to encourage firms to hire workers" -- so then really, why a SPLOST IV?
ReplyDeleteFor those who think 40% is not a good enuf reason to implement across-the-board free lunches (I'd agree with you).
ReplyDeleteHowever, consider this a policy for the future, not present. Isn't it possible given the times we face that 40% will be 80%--and the 70% today will be 90%?
There are still alot of jobs to be lost for the forseeable future.
BTW--Obama's plan is not sustainable, but it would be useful for a year or two. However--please DO NOT let DeKalb adminster the funds--especially via Title 1.
@ Northlakeinfo:
ReplyDeleteThis program isn't sustainable, but like all government programs once it begins, how is it going to come to an end. Where is the exit strategy? Is this really needed and necessary, or a good use of scarce monetary government resources? People get used to these entitlements and don't want to give them up. There is no thing as a free lunch, it's got to be paid by someone, somewhere, at some point.
Currently, schools who do not make AYP I believe get free breakfast, or it could have something to do with schools who are Title 1.
ReplyDeleteI think it is schools who do not make AYP, but again, I could be wrong. The students at my school got free breakfast when we did not make AYP. I am not for sure the reasoning. I believe this has been going on for breakfast for some time. It has in some school systems anyway.
Cere, Exactly the perfect question. If this type of jobs bill is passed, then SPLOST IV will NOT be needed. I also agree with another poster. The Feds should not send the funds directly to school districts, at least not to DeKalb. DCSS has a proven track record of failures when they monitor and dole out the funds.
ReplyDeleteWhat was it Cere, SPLOST II funded the Palace, yet the Palace was never on the original list of projects that the electorate voted for? See DCSS is incapable of watching over Fed funds.
The question is -- how do we convince our reps in DC that the school system is so completely mismanaging the money that is supposed to be going to the kids? Or is it that the article on the gulag is right and that there is some other purpose and it's being used correctly, in which case we desperately need a voucher system (maybe in either case....) The system is a complete failure vis a vis the education of the child.... (not so much as it relates to the jobs program).
ReplyDelete