Take note that Idaho state Senator Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, is a conservative in good standing, and as a long-time co-chair of the state’s Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, no free spender.
Listening to discussion today from Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna today, though, he had a question that economist Paul Krugman might have posed.
Luna has proposed a large-scale effort to change public education in Idaho, and one piece of that involves doing away with hundreds of teaching jobs in the public schools. The plan is being proposed, in part, as beneficial to the Idaho economy.
Cameron’s question: “You indicated that the economy demands this type of change. I have to wonder in my mind why a thousand less people working helps the economy.”
His point seems totally clear: A thousand fewer paychecks, many of them in rural areas, would seem to mean less money circulating in local businesses and more people on the unemployment line. Among other non-beneficial factors.
Luna’s response, according to reporter Betsy Russell: “Understand that through attrition, most if not all of these positions can be absorbed.”
Did he get the question?
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