Time to test voters in Ohio?

Yes, we’re the state responsible for GW Bush’s reelection. We also gave the Country John Boehner. And now, despite every indication that money spent on all-day kindergartens is probably the best education investment that we can make- 30 Republican senators think it’s a bad idea:

Removing mandates will be a way to relieve financial pressure from school districts, which will likely face further budget cuts once the state budget is set, said State Rep. Randy Gardner, R-Bowling Green, who plans to introduce a bill that would eliminate all-day kindergarten….

West Carrollton Superintendent Rusty Clifford said they have no plans to turn back to half-day after seeing the difference in their students’ vocabulary, reading and writing. “By the middle of February, our students in an all-day program are already at the place where our half-day students were at the end of year.”

via Cost is the main reason why more districts don’t do all-day kindergarten.

If you need supporting evidence on the value of K and pre-K education, read my previous post on Geoffrey Canada and his world-famous efforts with his Harlem Children’s Zone. Also remember that the state has been in contempt of court for almost 20 years- for its unequal funding system for schools.

However, there were two absolute justifications for this boldly stupid move by Republican lawmakers in the very same edition of the Dayton Daily:

“Lobbyists – Affluence & Influence,” prepared by Ohio Citizen Action’s Money in Politics project, found that during the last legislative session, members of the Ohio Senate’s Finance Committee received 60 percent of their contributions — $1,523,365 — from lobbyists, firms that employ them and other lobbying entities such as law firms specializing in government relations.

House Finance Committee members received nearly 50 percent of their campaign contributions — $3,301,561 — from lobbying entities, the report found.

The full report can be found at http://moneyinpoliticsohio.org.

via Lobbyists are big donors to state budget writers.

And this gem, possibly explaining a lot more about the state of our state:

Ohioans set another liquor record last year, purchasing 11 million gallons of booze.

Call it a 13-year high. Since 1997, Ohioans have purchased more and more hard liquor each year.

The Division of Liquor Control said Tuesday that 2010 sales of spirituous liquor hit $753.7 million, which exceeded 2009 sales by $19 million, or 2.6 percent. Spirituous liquor contains more than 21 percent alcohol by volume.

via Hard liquor sales climb in Ohio | Ohio politics.

Just remember, we always have money to lock our citizens up for being stupid- and we always have money to elect stupid people. Why does smart scare Ohioans so much?

It’s time to eliminate all funding for “economic development” in this state, raise taxes on booze and smokes, legalize and tax pot and prostitution- so we can balance our budget and start focusing on having people smart enough to understand the costs of stupidity. The rest of you can go to Kentucky (which was smart enough to ban smoking and posts the health departments ratings in the windows of restaurants).

We may need to have a sobriety test at the polls at this rate, and while we’re at it- let’s have a literacy test for voting too. Because we can’t afford to keep electing idiots to represent us.

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