This shutdown also has unintended consequences for every
American. Due to a budget not passed by Congress, the government has had to
close down some important parts of its government. I’ve already discussed the
national parks; now, I’d like to touch a more personal area of the government
shutdown: Education.
I know many
teachers, professors, and people who love education (whether it is teaching or
just learning). I am still considering the teaching profession within the next
five or ten years. Teachers are always getting the short end of the stick.
Since the shutdown has taken place, the Department of Education (and the
Departments of Public Instructions & Auxiliary) has had to cease funding of grants and other
funds. Why you may ask…because the two departments within the Department of
Education are subsidies. All subsidies
within the Federal Government have ceased (which is why many are concerned that
the Women, Infants, and Children – or W.I.C. program will hurt many Americans
because it isn’t being funded at the moment).
This shutdown is severally hurting those educators that are trying to
better the education of their students through grant funding. Not only are teachers
in North Carolina getting….shafted...but now they are getting it from their own
government!
One of the
“solutions” proposed by Congress is to back legislation called a “continuing
resolution” (to clarify, I think I covered in the last post but if not then
I’ll explain again), which essentially continues funding the government until a
certain time period. The problem with this is that is postpones the political
debate over funding by the same time period. In layman’s term, it “kicks the
can down the road” which doesn’t benefit anyone. Now, if the House of
Representatives could pass a continuing resolution with no riders attached
(again, a “rider” is an amendment – so to speak – put into the legislation)
because once a rider is attached, it will immediately create controversy
resulting back to square one. If the House passes it, then the Senate should
pass it as well so the President can sign it and the shutdown will be
over. This may sound very easy and
should be easy to do, but when you have 435 voting members of one body (The
House of Representatives) and fifty members of another body (The Senate) all
trying to agree on one issue AND THEN having to have the President sign off on
it as well, it becomes extremely challenging to accomplish. This is why Political Science is in the “Arts
& Sciences” category. It is an art and there is definitely science involved
to alleviate the problems of government. Well, so go the theory.
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