Education Establishment On Boeing Tax Subsidies: Crickets
When the Missouri Legislature passed a bill (House Bill 253) that would have cut taxes for individuals and corporations for the first time in decades, opponents of the bill came out of the woodwork. Among the most vocal, and influential, critics was the education establishment.
Roger Kurtz, executive director of the Missouri Association of School Administrators (MASA), insisted that the tax cuts would take our state over the fiscal cliff. His organization sent out a document that warned each school district of the impending funding cuts that would ensue if the bill passed.
Commenting on the tax cuts, Bruce Moe, executive director of the Missouri State Teachers Association (MSTA), stated, “Now is not the time to turn our backs on our teachers and their students.”
The Missouri School Boards’ Association (MSBA) actively lobbied against last session’s tax cut bill. In recent months, they have continued warning their members about the evil tax cuts.
Not to be outdone, the Missouri National Education Association (MNEA) placed television ads against the tax cut bill: “It’s hard to believe. Corporate special interests got an $800 million tax break, paid for by cuts to local schools.”
With the vocal opposition of the MSBA, MASA, MSTA, and MNEA to broad tax cuts and their insistence that Missouri shouldn’t cave to “corporate special interests,” we should have heard a lot from these groups in the past few weeks. After all, the legislature reconvened in Jefferson City to contemplate $150 million annually in tax subsidies to “corporate special interests.”
What did we hear from the alphabet soup of education groups?
