For John, BLUF: There is no free lunch, even when the Feds are paying.
From The Boston Globe, by Reporters Christopher Huffaker and Marcela Rodrigues, 14 May 2025, 11:11 a.m
Here is the lede plus six:
NEW BEDFORD — Students at Alfred J. Gomes Elementary School didn’t hesitate when teacher Natalia Gioni asked them to sing along.My first question is why, with a 14 May dateline, this is the lead story in today's (Monday, 26 May) EMail of Boston Globe Hearlines?“Somos como las flores, necesitamos la lluvia y el sol,” the first-graders sang as they learned what plants need to grow and survive. Water, sunlight, and air, they told Gioni in Spanish.
As bilingualism is celebrated at the New Bedford school, superintendent Andrew O‘Leary is concerned President Trump’s proposed budget for 2026 would eliminate federal funding that supports English language acquisition programs.
The $890 million cut nationwide would translate to the loss of three or four staff members in New Bedford, where the district receives about half a million dollars for these programs.
“It would be the federal government turning its back on the community,” O‘Leary said.
Similar scenes are playing out across the state as school districts, higher education institutions, and education advocates grapple with the potential impact of billions in cuts proposed for federal funding streams ranging from schooling for migrant farmworkers and their children to programs that help high school students from disadvantaged backgrounds transition to college.
The president’s proposed budget is a wish list of sorts and is unlikely to be implemented as written. However, it emphasizes the priorities of the administration and reflects other federal actions already underway, such as the cutting in half of the Education Department workforce. Congress ultimately sets the budget, often via stopgap spending bills in recent years, but Republicans control the legislature and tend to be closely aligned with the president’s priorities.
My next question is why Massachusetts, and New Bedford, are looking for the taxpayers in Fort Yukon, Alaska, to pay for this effort. If it is important, why not raises taxes locally (SALT) and fund it locally?
Are Citizens not aware that we have a National Debt of $36.898 Trillion. That has come about because the People, and the elected folks in Congress, think we can spend into debt without consequences. We can't.
We should also acknowledge that if our Commonwealth Labor Force Participation Rate was higher than 62.3, we could do more. If we had more people working we would have more tax coming in to the towns aand the Commonwealth. Is our Labor Force Participation Rate where it is because we lack jobs, or because we have created structural disincentives to work. I suspect the second.
Regards — Cliff
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