Oh, Hob Bryan

"Every economist thinks we need more government spending to get out of this recession!"

Um, no. Not even close. I realize you were engaging in hyperbole designed to make the Governor look bad on education, but come on. Even some of John Maynard Keynes' biggest disciples can't get behind this mess we call "Stimulus." It's not even a real stimulus package. It's a handout every special interest in the country, with a few road projects thrown in. Oh, yeah...and we HAD to have it to keep unemployment below 9 percent.

Today, it's inching toward 10.

The fact is, we cannot spend money that we don't have. The cuts are painful but necessary. If we didn't have so much useless bureaucracy in our education system (Bolivar County, I'm looking at you with your six school districts serving 40,000 people...DeSoto manages just fine with one, serving over 100,000) this might not be happening. There are also antiquated positions within the state (the Public Service Commission, which has steadily become less important over the past 60 years, comes to mind).

There is no horrible motive behind this, Senator Bryan. There is reality. And the reality is, with a bad economy, we can't afford to do things the way they've always been done. Come to think of it, we haven't been doing things well in education anyway. If there ever was a time to clean house, this is it.