Paul Ryan wants America’s students to succeed, and he’s not afraid of challenging the behemoth that is the public school system in order to do it. The NEA, which has presided over the decline of American education and has spearheaded efforts to sexualize children and subvert traditional morals, is panicked; lesbian American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, who has already endorsed President Obama, bellowed, “Rep. Ryan’s record speaks for itself. He would reduce, not expand, real opportunities for all students to have access to high-quality public education.”
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan bleated Ryan’s proposals would have “disastrous consequences for America’s children.” The left-wing Huffington Post whined that Ryan proposed a federal budget in 2011 that included cutting funds for Head Start, which has been a miserable failure, and whimpered: “Given his views on the federal role in education, Ryan would probably also cut other programs.”
Ryan is a big fan of vouchers that would allow parents to choose private schools for their children – schools where they would not be subject to the toxic liberal indoctrination promulgated by the NEA. This is possibly one of the most important paths Romney/Ryan can take; the Left has been using the public schools all the way up to the universities for decades to inculcate children and young adults with their detestable outlook.
Ryan’s critics are also centering their attacks on his views vis-à-vis Pell grants. Ryan wants to streamline the program by making the requirements for eligibility more strict, thus allowing the program to survive and serve those who truly need such help.
Obama wants to keep the program exactly as it is, but as the House Budget Committee warned:
Pell Grants are the perfect example of promises that cannot be kept. The program is on an unsustainable path, a fact acknowledged by the President’s own fiscal year 2013 budget. The College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007 [CCRAA], the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 [HEOA], the ‘stimulus’ bill, and the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2010 [SAFRA] all made Pell Grants more generous than the Federal budget could afford. This, along with a dramatic rise in the number of eligible students due to the recession, has caused program costs to more than double since 2008, from $16.1 billion in 2008 to an estimated $36.4 billion in fiscal year 2013. Moreover, the program is beginning to increasingly rely on mandatory funding to solve its discretionary shortfalls. For instance, the Department of Education warned in 2012 that without changes to reduce program costs, Pell Grants would have an ending shortfall of $20.4 billion.
As New America Foundation’s Jason Delisle delineates:
The president’s proposal included only a one-year fix for the massive $7 billion Pell Grant funding cliff. After the one-year fix, the president’s budget simply assumes that an extra $7 billion will materialize in the annual appropriation for Pell Grants each year. But this extra funding must be offset by $7 billion in cuts to other programs funded with annual appropriations, which the president’s budget doesn’t specify.
Ryan not only knows that acting financially responsibly is imperative, but he also knows that the leftist juggernaut of public education has to be stopped. And Ryan, like the legendary St. George slaying the dragon, isn’t about to back down.