KEVIN WILSON: News seems to get crazier every day

In looking at the calendar, I just can’t quite believe that it is almost September. Where has the summer gone? Well, it is still here by the temperature on the thermometer and it doesn’t look like it is going away any time soon. The mid-term elections are just over 60 days away and I imagine that Nancy Pelosi is squirming right now waiting to see if she is going to continue as Speaker of the House. I am not going to make any predictions but I do know that there are a lot of mad people around the country and I don’t see that changing over the next two months.

Nothing happening right now in the state until the November elections when there will be some ballot initiatives and of course the Congressional and Senate races as well as state auditor. I will be sure to give you a run down of all the ballot initiatives as we get closer to those elections. In the meantime I have been spending a lot of time reading and watching the news at the national level and it just seems to get crazier every day.

I read an AP article the other day that I am sure most of you saw that talked about a new school that was opening in Los Angeles. The Robert F. Kennedy Community School will house 4,200 students and the final cost will be a staggering $578 million. No, that is not a misprint — $578 million for one school. That is a cost of $137,619 per student. Now I know that things are higher in California but give me a break. That is outrageous and over the top unacceptable — even for California. The California economy is in the dumper and the state will most likely be insolvent in the near future and they are spending that kind of money on one school. Amazing.

The article went on to say that nearly 3,000 teachers have been laid off in the L.A. school district over the last two years and that academic programs have been slashed and the district faces a $640 million shortfall. Plus, their schools are consistently among the lowest performing in the nation. Makes you appreciate the schools we have around here.  

Yes, it does cost more nowadays to educate kids than it did when I was in school but any good educator will tell you that dedicated teachers and staff are the true backbone of educating kids. We do have to have enough resources to pay them a fair salary and not expect one teacher to teach a host of kids (low student to teacher ratios do matter). But come on, why would anyone in their right mind allow the district to build a $578 million school? I guess I answered my own question.

While I am on the subject of money — I haven’t had anyone contact me yet to explain how we can get out of debt by spending more money. Probably will be waiting a long time for someone to come up with a plausible explanation for that one. Which brings me to another crazy article I ran across. Actually, the article wasn’t crazy but it was an editorial by Jay Ambrose on Paul Krugman and some of his what I considered to be crazy thoughts. It appears from reading the commentary that this Ph.D. named Paul Krugman thinks that our current Social Security system is solvent until 2037 and even then there are no real worries.

Dr. Krugman, according to the editorial, thinks that the Social Security trust fund will see us through for at least a couple of decades. I wonder what secrets this Ph.D. knows that millions of ordinary Americans don’t know. I have been reading for years that the federal government has been borrowing from the Social Security trust fund in order to keep the government afloat. So, I wonder where these funds he is relying on are going to come from. I know, more Obamabucks like the ones that we are spending right and left to finance our current deficit spending. Silly me.

You know, I don’t know that the mid-term elections or the presidential election of 2012 can come fast enough. I wrote earlier that I didn’t know where the summer had gone. Well, now I’m wishing time could speed up a little faster (at least for the next two years).

Next week is Labor Day so I hope you get some time off to spend with your families and friends and next month is veto session — my last chance to cast a vote as your representative. January will be here before we know it and then you will have a new rep but until then if you need assistance on state matters please don’t hesitate to contact my office at:

Mail: State Capitol/201 W. Capitol Ave. /Room 413-B/Jefferson City, MO  65101

E-mail: ‘kevin.wilson@house.mo.gov’

Phone: (573) 751-9781

Fax: (573) 522-9287