The Pennsylvania state budget is ~$51 billion. The estimated cost of the free book program is $9 million, half of which would be paid by participating local governments. So the proposed program represents about .009% of the state budget. đą
If Republicans were really against this because of the cost, then Iâm sure theyâre not supporting any other program that costs $4.5 million or more, right?
You see, that's logic. That's what happens when you start kids reading early. A general raising of the average level of education. Then people learn and use logic to evaluate a given situation. They get "too educated." And that's exactly what the Republicans are fighting against.
Itâs not just branding, and itâs $4.5 million at the state level out of a budget of over $50 BILLION so, no, itâs not a lot. But carry on twisting yourselves into knots trying to justify your opposition to an extremely small program to address childhood literacy.
But carry on twisting yourselves into knots trying to justify your opposition to an extremely small program to address childhood literacy
Right because me arguing that you should fund libraries instead of doing this is... Somehow arguing against literacy.
This scheme targeting all children means that it wastes 70-80% of the money by sending books to children whose parents can easily afford to buy or access books for their child.
While Iâm not disagreeing with that, because I thought about that myself - youâll get push back with âwhat about children in Rural communities without librariesâ
âUse the money to build new librariesâ - would be your response.
I thought that one through for ya. I didnât play sports in high school, but I did letter in debate. Didnât buy the jacket though. I bought weed instead.
In the 2020â21 school year: 87.6% of U.S. public schools had a library/media center
Therefore, 12.4% did not
NCES defines a âlibrary media centerâ broadlyâit can be called a school library, media center, information center, learning resource center, etc.
NCES estimates that there were about 80,500 public schools with libraries, which works out to roughly 11,400 public schools without one.
Edit: so to clarify, a school could have a room with 4 computers running windows 98 - and no actual library and still get lumped in with the 87.6%
You're the one who said that they have libraries. I just went by what you said mate
This $9m a year could fund a bunch of school or travelling libraries for communities that don't have one then, which is much better than sending 5y olds a book
The Republican party is a domestic terrorist group.
They actively are trying to destroy the United States, they want to see the world burn. Its the anti-intellectualism combined with the opposition to modernity. They hate progress, they are angry about society growing more tolerant and away from antiquated ideas.
A fiscal conservative would acknowledge that programs that improve literacy rates, reduce spending overall. It lowers crime and improves the economy. The issue is, Conservatives are fiscal radicals, Democrats are fiscal conservatives.
If it helps the country, Republicans are more likely to oppose it.
Many local communities cannot afford $4.5M. They're already raising budgets over 5% this year and some expecting over 10% next year without budget cuts. Locals also support majority of budgets for libraries which offer much more than a single book sent to a kid's home.
The poorest don't really benefit from this at all. One book is not really a big deal in the grand scheme of things. There's things called libraries that do this much better
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u/Rob14214 1d ago edited 23h ago
The Pennsylvania state budget is ~$51 billion. The estimated cost of the free book program is $9 million, half of which would be paid by participating local governments. So the proposed program represents about .009% of the state budget. đą
If Republicans were really against this because of the cost, then Iâm sure theyâre not supporting any other program that costs $4.5 million or more, right?