[NENA] Call Rep. Larry Larranaga about HB 331/346

Sat Mar 7 17:57:10 EST 2009

Forgot a few links:

"In more than one hundred statistical comparisons covering eight different
educational outcomes, the private sector outperforms the public sector in
the overwhelming majority of cases. Moreover, that margin of superiority is
greatest when the freest and most market-like private schools are compared
to the least open and least competitive government systems (i.e., those
resembling a typical U.S. public school system). Given the breadth,
consistency, relevance, and decisiveness of this body of evidence, the
implications for U.S. education policy are profound."

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9634

"Over 200 years ago, the nation's Founders understood that federal
intervention into state, local, and family concerns like education would be
futile. They knew that the federal government would be too distant and
unwieldy to solve problems in the nation's diverse cities, towns, and
hamlets. It's a major reason why the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution
declares that "the powers not delegated to the United States by the
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states
respectively, or to the people," and why the Constitution makes no mention
of education at all. "

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9515 

 "In this paper we estimate the budgetary impact of the Cato Institute's
Public Education Tax <http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=8812>
Credit model legislation on five states and present a generalized
spreadsheet tool ("the Fiscal
<http://www.cato.org/research/education/impact_calculator.xls>  Impact
Calculator") that can estimate the program's effect on any other state for
which the necessary input data are supplied. It is estimated that, in its
first 10 years of operation, savings from the PETC program would range from
$1.1 billion for South Carolina to $15.9 billion for Texas. Illinois,
Wisconsin, and New York are estimated to enjoy 10-year savings within that
range."

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9515

From: members-bounces at noreste.org [mailto:members-bounces at noreste.org] On
Behalf Of Paul Grunwald
Sent: Saturday, March 07, 2009 3:40 PM
To: members at noreste.org
Cc: 'Charlie Christmann'; 'Larry Larranaga'
Subject: Re: [NENA] Call Rep. Larry Larranaga about HB 331/346

John,  A few points:

1)      The only reason education has gone down as a percentage of the
overall state budget is that the state budget spending on other money
wasting projects like the Rail Runner and other pork has gone up so much.

See http://www.riograndefoundation.org/new/articles/?EC=ReadArticle
<http://www.riograndefoundation.org/new/articles/?EC=ReadArticle&ArticleID=2
59> &ArticleID=259

2)      Public education is a failure in this country and throwing more tax
dollars and bureaucracy will not fix it.  It is not the function of federal
or even state government to educate. It is also a failure in this state:
http://www.riograndefoundation.org/new/articles/?EC=ReadArticle
<http://www.riograndefoundation.org/new/articles/?EC=ReadArticle&ArticleID=2
36> &ArticleID=236

3)      I am over taxed now and with the new proposals, budgets, bailouts
and additional pork project being instituted, my taxes will be going up.  I
do not want to pay any more.  I would rather have my own money back and
educate my children as I see fit. 

Government is the problem and not the solution.  We need less public
education and more private education
(http://www.riograndefoundation.org/new/articles/?EC=ReadArticle
<http://www.riograndefoundation.org/new/articles/?EC=ReadArticle&ArticleID=2
07> &ArticleID=207) .  We need school choice rather more wasted tax dollars.
We need tuition tax credits
(http://www.riograndefoundation.org/new/articles/?EC=ReadArticle
<http://www.riograndefoundation.org/new/articles/?EC=ReadArticle&ArticleID=2
65> &ArticleID=265) , not more taxation to support an incompetent and inept
bureaucracy.

Here is some reading for you:

http://www.foundingfathers.info/federalistpapers/

http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/the-failure-of-american-public-educa
tion/ 

http://www.sntp.net/education/gatto.htm

http://www.lewrockwell.com/decoster/decoster22.html

Thanks for alerting us to this.  I hope everyone will read the above and
contact Larry with your opinion.  I know what I want to happen.

Paul Grunwald

From: members-bounces at noreste.org [mailto:members-bounces at noreste.org] On
Behalf Of John Ingram
Sent: Saturday, March 07, 2009 10:13 AM
To: members at noreste.org
Cc: ingram1ja at yahoo.com
Subject: [NENA] Call Rep. Larry Larranaga about HB 331/346

Hello NENA members:

My name is John Ingram. I used to be president of NENA. I live on NW corner
of Henriette Wyeth and Oakland, 8901 Henriette Wyeth NE.

There's an urgent matter regarding our public schools, and State House Dist.
27 Rep. Larry Larranaga coming-up tomorrow, Sunday, Mar 8.

Background: 3 years ago, the State Legislature commissioned a study by
outside professional group to determine why too many of our schools and
students are performing so poorly. 

The commission issued a report several months ago with the finding that the
State Legislature, which controls education funding, has consistently
underfunded our schools by about 15% a year, or $350 million annually. This
goes back to 1982.

FYI: in 1981, the Legislature voted to remove property taxes as the sole
source of school funding. Instead, they voted to be accountable and
responsible for funding our schools with state income taxes, gross
receipts/sales taxes, and a small percentage of the interest generated by
investing the $7.9 billion Permanent School Fund in Wall Street. 

Since 1982, K-12 and (now) pre-K public school funding has steadily declined
from more than 50% of the overall NM state budget to 43% today. 

However, the NM State Constitution legally requires the Legislature to
"sufficiently" fund our schools. 

The study commission reported that the State Legislature is not meeting its
constitutional mandate. School districts are threatening to sue the
Legislature in district court regarding this issue unless they pass HB
331/346.

House Bill 331/346, sponsored by Rep. Mimi Stewart, will help correct this
problem. 

House Bill 331/346 increases gross receipts/sales taxes by three-quarters of
one percent and produces about $350 million annually to fund our public
schools. 

Rep. Stewart amended the bills yesterday so HB 33/346 no longer requires an
increase in state income taxes for top earners who are paying 4.9 percent
rate. 

Now, the sole source of the additional $350 million generated by HB 331/346
is the 3/4 of 1% increase in gross receipts/sales taxes.

Rep. Stewart is a personal/professional friend of mine. I checked with her
yesterday about HB 331/346 and progress toward passing the measures. 

Rep. Stewart informed me that the
<http://legis.state.nm.us/lcs/committeedisplay.aspx?CommitteeCode=HAFC>
House Appropriations & Finance Committee with hold a hearing on HB 331/346
tomorrow, Sunday, Mar 8, at 1:30 pm at State Capitol in House Finance
Committee Room. 

The House Finance Committee must pass HB 331/346 out of committee so the
bills can go to the House for a floor vote. 

NENA's representative in the House is Rep. Larry Larranaga. 

Rep. Larranaga also sits on the House Appropriations and Finance Committee.
He is a powerful, and well respected legislator who listens to his
constituents and wants to do the best he can for our public schools. I've
talked to him many times.

However, Rep. Larranaga is planning to vote NO on HB 331/346 tomorrow. 

If you believe that HB 331/346 is in order, and we must increase funding for
our schools, please call Larry, and have others who live at your home, who
are registered voters, call him, too. 

By the way, Research and Polling, INC. did a survey of registered voters on
this issue. Friday's ABQ Journal, page 3 reported that a majority supports
HB 331/346.

Here are links so you can check this out if you need to: 

 <http://legis.state.nm.us/lcs/legdetails.aspx?SPONCODE=HLARR> Rep.
Larranaga ,
<http://legis.state.nm.us/Sessions/09%20Regular/bills/house/HB0331.html> HB
331 ,
<http://legis.state.nm.us/Sessions/09%20Regular/bills/house/HB0346.html> HB
346

If you want, or need, to talk to me about this issue, my mobile phone is
505-217-8020.

Thanks for your consideration,

John

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