Education Cutbacks and Urban Violence

[BeenThere...DoneThat...]

"Education Cutbacks and Urban Violence" excerpts:

Bloated public education budgets in our large cities may be immune from serious cuts for an unpalatable reason: the threat of urban violence.

For decades education budgets have grown fat, though America has little to show for this generosity. Alas, as cities and states increasingly face fiscal crises, and the $100 billion in education aid under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act runs out in 2011, these once sacrosanct budgets -- "helping the children who are America's future" -- increasingly come under scrutiny (see here and here). Budget cutting is especially likely in cities like Detroit and Washington DC, where de-population or demographic shifts have reduced public school enrollments.

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Difficult budgetary choices entail an element that dare not speak its name: cutbacks may risk 1960s style riots, and these costs may far exceed temporary savings. To be blunt, cities often solved riot problems via bloated education-related employment, and bereft of these jobs, cities may return to "long hot summers"

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In the final analysis, however, these savings may be illusionary. For one, many terminated school employees may just turn to public welfare, food stamps and "free" government-supplied health care. But more important, and this can only be speculative, massive lay-offs will instigate anger and resentment not seen since the 1960s when mayors struggled to prevent rioting, not vie for the "education mayor" title. Unemployed school social workers may not themselves riot but, rest assured, instant downward mobility will facilitate radicalization and invite massive street demonstrations akin to what recently transpired in Greece. Populist demagogues will have a field day promising jobs by taxing the rich. This is not fantasy: recall the make-work, keep-the-peace jobs of the Great Society.

The costs of urban unrest are staggering. Anger-fueled urban disorder can kill a city. I can personally recall riot-prone New York City of the 60's and 70's: tumbling real estate prices and corresponding lower tax revenue, vast "no-go" areas thanks to crime, a drying up of retail commerce (save the drug trade) when shoppers (especially women) feared walking city streets or taking public transportation while corporations paid bonuses to recruit top-flight workers to NYC or left the city altogether. Recall that the city nearly went bankrupt.

Expanding education budgets did wonders for keeping the civil peace in many cities, but, like the housing bubble, this fix may be unsustainable. The awaiting pension costs alone counsel drastic cuts. Finding ways to trim fat is not the problem -- these are patently obvious. More serious is managing the consequences of wholesale layoff and sharp downward mobility. This is a potential powder keg whose long-term cost may far exceed the savings.

Read article here: www.americanthinker.com/2011/01/education_cutbacks_and_urban_v.html

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...makes me wonder about municipal budgets and the workforce... to "anticipate" the % of disgruntled workers around... I think education takes @ 80% of our total budget... which is laughable in the 1st place... so while a 50% cut in education would make a huge impact in freeing up $ resources for our area... what would that "cost"?