A sign of spring

Just as flowers always bloom in the spring in Florida, a newspaper headline written by and for blooming idiots will appear:
"Florida ranks (fill in the blank) in school spending."
Eek!
Let a simple soul ask a question. If you go to a tailor and he makes a suit for you that is baggy, has gaps at the seams, is made of polyester and is a sickening chartreuse color, are you totally pleased as long as he charges you $1,200?
After all, only the price matters, right?
A few years ago Florida TaxWatch wrote a paper pointing out the fact that Florida spends less than Texas and California on its schools, yet Florida students learn more.
Conversely, some states spend more and students learn more.
One Florida governor spent his entire term urging the Legislature to move Florida schools into "the upper quartile." In learning? No, in spending.
Gov. Jeb Bush, on the other hand, spent two terms pushing for more accountability in the schools and other reforms that actually helped increase student achievement.
Needless to say, that infuriated the teacher union leaders. They have spent decades trying to foster the notion that only spending more money on public schools will increase student learning. They have absolutely no evidence, so they rely on taxpayer gullibility -- and the liberal media, which would never question such an vacuous argument.
Yet, why the unions would make such an argument is vividly clear. When more money is spent on the schools, unions collect more money from teachers, and build large war chests to help elect more liberal legislators who vote to spend more money. It is a tidy little racket.
Not so good for struggling taxpayers, especially those who don't have children in schools. But someone has to make a sacrifice.