Central Planning Is Not Smart

Central Planning Is Not Smart

by Mark Luedtke

Governor Strickland thinks he's smarter than all 11 million Ohioans put together. According to Strickland, we aren't smart enough to know what kind of energy plants or businesses Ohio needs. We aren't smart enough to see that our children get good compulsory education, and we aren't smart enough to see that they get a good college education. So he will take our money and dictate all of that.

To start his his State of the State address, Gov. Strickland explained that Ohio is facing at least a $733 million budget shortfall this year. Since he is required to balance the budget this year, he announced $733 million in budget cuts, including closing Twin Valley Behavior Healthcare on Wilmington Pike. $733 million in spending cuts will help the state's economy, and when Strickland promised to go further, I found myself hoping for even greater budget cuts, corresponding tax cuts, and deregulation to free Ohio citizens from the burden of government to build businesses, create jobs, and bring educated Americans to Ohio instead of chasing them to greener pastures.

But his flowery prose typical of socialists when they announce Utopian plans squashed my hope. In this time of financial strife, Gov. Strickland called for 4 new initiatives, and he proposes funding them with $1.7 billion in new bonds. Strickland apparently doesn't know that you can't fix financial problems by assuming more debt. Strickland brought big-government and big-debt back from Washington.

The governor plans to take our money to bring alternative energy plants to Ohio. He never addressed why businesses weren't already building alternative energy plants - they aren't cost-effective. And government restrictions keep Ohioans from building cost-effective oil, coal, and nuclear plants. But the governor thinks he's smarter than all of us, so he's going to take our future tax dollars, the new debt, and spend it on expensive power plants instead of allowing us to keep our own money and build cost-effective ones.

Gov. Strickland also plans to spend the new debt, our future tax dollars, on a jobs program. He fails to mention why jobs are fleeing the state like rats leaving a sinking ship – high taxes. Ohio has the 5^th highest tax burden of any state. 38 states have greater economic freedom than Ohio, and high taxes drive jobs to economically free states.. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to recognize how to bring jobs back to Ohio – lower taxes, cut spending, and deregulate. But Strickland dictates the opposite.

In a passing note, the governor mentions that tuition in Ohio increases 9% per year. He never explains why – government subsidies. Subsidies increase demand, and the economics of education is like anything else, increased demand drives up prices. The more government subsidizes education, the more expensive it gets, and the more students are excluded. But the governor wants to increase government subsidies for college anyway. He has also created a new government bureaucracy to burden our colleges and taxpayers. He does get one thing right. He wants to increase the supply of education by allowing local colleges to offer bachelor's degrees. Increasing supply will reduce prices.

When presenting his plan for compulsory education, it's ironic that Gov. Strickland focused on innovation, saying “we must create learning environments that foster and nurture creativity, innovation, and global competency.” But his first core principle illustrates he's mired in the failures of past, “the vast majority of Ohio children are and always will be educated in the public school system.” That's not innovative.

America's greatest strength is the innovation of its citizens, free from the burden of government, forming businesses and providing services in a free market. Education is no different. Nobody has ever accused our government of being innovative. Yet as smart as the governor thinks he is, he is locking our children into a government school monopoly, rejecting the power of free market innovation that made America the greatest country in history.

While praising great teachers the governor reports that 50% of teachers quit in 5 years. He doesn't explain why. I think the problem is bad teachers, which he never mentions. How frustrating would it be to be a great teacher and see bad teachers harm students' education but get the same raise as you every year? Because Gov. Strickland is heavily backed by teachers unions, he doesn't mention the toll that teachers unions, bad teachers, and lack of merit pay take on our students' education.

Gov. Strickland proudly announced that he has taken more power from parents to insure their children get a good education, increasing Ohio's funding of education from 48% to 54%. He wants to create a new bureaucracy to burden taxpayers and schools. He calls this accountability, but it's really just the opposite - government protection of bad teachers and bad administrators. When teachers and schools are accountable to parents, education will improve. But Strickland is too smart to allow school competition or parents to have the power of school choice and input in teacher reviews.

Gov. Strickland missed an opportunity to improve Ohio's financial problems by dramatically cutting the budget and taxes, unleashing the free market to return Ohio to prosperity. Instead, he saddled us with new government programs and debt. Central planning by elites can never be as effective as all Ohioans working together in a free market. We should restrict the governor to running state government, not our lives.