Republican politicians are always complaining that public schools are not efficient enough. They use this complaint as an excuse for cutting off the funds that public schools need to give American children an adequate education.
Yesterday, the Democrats in Congress called the Republicans’ bluff. You want efficient public schools? Good. Congressman Ben Chandler, who is very far from liberal, had introduced H.R.3021, the 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act. The proposed law would encourage public schools to run efficiently.
No more money-guzzling out of date school buildings. No more safety hazards for American children. The legislation would provide an investment in energy-efficient, healthy, technologically-updated schools. That way, taxpayers would save huge amounts of money on their property taxes by not having to pay so much on energy costs for schools at a time when the price of energy is shooting through the roof.
Under this law, more money would go toward quality education. Less taxpayer money would go to just keeping children warm in the winter, or to protecting schoolchildren in the South from record-breaking heat. For a small national investment in efficient schools, taxpayers around the country would get huge savings for an entire generation to come.
This legislation does exactly what Republicans say they want to do. It makes public schools more efficient. In fact, the bill makes such plain sense that 27 Republican members of the House of Representatives crossed the aisle yesterday to vote in favor of it. Thanks to them, the bill passed, and will become law if passed by the Senate. Those Republicans voting in favor were:
Sadly, 164 Republicans in Congress actually voted against making public schools more efficient. They voted against the bill. The names of these short-sighted members of Congress are:
