how stupid is tim pawlenty? very.

a man who clearly needs special education doesn't want to fund it...

shockingly idiotic news from the governor's budget balancing moves... if you paid attention to the minnesota legislative session (does anyone?) you probably heard that the (DFL controlled) legislature and the (intellectually challenged) governor couldn't agree on a budget. the state was headed for a $5 billion deficit over the next 2 years.

so what did dumbass decide to do with K-12 education funding to solve the problem? magic. he decided a magic trick was the way to go; the government's word for this magic is "funding shift" it doesn't really cut anything or improve the budget, it just slides bills under the table where you can't see them beyond all the stupid.

school funding (i can hear you yawning) is insanely complicated and archaic, but that is beside the point for now. one of the craziest realities of school funding is "funding shifts" - this is when the government tells schools that it will only pay a percentage of what it owes. for example, a 10% shift means that the schools only get 90% of the funding the state owes them. then the state pays the remaining 10% the next school year.

did you even detect the magic!?!? this shift allows politicians to say they helped fund schools and makes the budget balance sheet look nicer, while only screwing kids.

governor pawlenty increased the shift from 10% to 27% as part of his plan to solve the budget problems. this means that schools will only receive 73% of the money they need next year. because this effectively cuts nearly one-third of all schools' budgets, districts will be forced to borrow money to stay in the black, but most cannot afford the interest. fuckup pawlenty is insulated from charges that he cut school funding because all he did was delay when schools get paid. brilliant.

but reality shows that this type of delay of school districts' funding will increase class sizes and will force small schools to close. perhaps he thinks this is economic stimulus to force schools to borrow from banks? the governor's site doesn't mention this major ball-slap to schools, instead only proudly mentioning his increase in the "performance pay" for teachers idea that someone told him was smart. well, i guess once he gets teachers fired and schools desperately underfunded, THAT is the time to tie remaining teachers' pay to how students do on standardized tests.

why don't we tie his pay to his test scores? i think that could save us bundles.

when GM gets its monthly bailout, what percentage of that money is held back?

"i don't want no kids gettin' smarter than me."

"stare into my sexy face mr president. bite my face."