Reality Is Not Negotiable

In his Examiner column about RiShawn Biddle's column on education reforms, my friend Gary Gross posited that ObamaCare could end up forcing some much needed education reforms.

It's ironic that Obamacare's expansion of Medicaid is forcing much-needed school reforms. It's also ironic that Obama's stimulus couldn't prevent the reforms:

The Obama administration also helped by providing $95 billion in federal stimulus spending and another $10 billion ladled to states and school districts as part of the Edujobs plan for staving off expected teacher layoffs that weren't ever coming to pass.

And while that is an interesting theory, I think education reform is going to have to happen whether ObamaCare is allowed to stay in place or not.  Reality, as State Sen. Dan Liljenquist often says, is not negotiable and the reality is that with or without Obamacare, many states are looking at budgets that are already stretched to the max.  Medicare is helping to bankrupt those states...and Utah has been sounding that alarm for a year now.

Unless we solve our problem of rising Medicaid costs, we will put our children's education and the future vitality of Utah at risk.

Utah ranks 51st (ed - 42nd now according to this) among all U.S states and the District of Columbia in per pupil K-12 education spending. At $5,765 per student, our state falls 20% below the second lowest spending state, Idaho, which spends $6,931 per student. And the national average is 78% percent higher for per pupil spending than it is in Utah.

In 2010, due to budgetary constraints, Utah's already low per pupil spending had to be decreased. $75 million was necessary to simply keep per pupil K-12 spending the same as the prior year. Simultaneously, Medicaid required an additional $48 million – an amount that might have otherwise maintained most of Utah's per pupil K-12 spending.

Budget dollars allocated to one priority mean money unavailable for. In all budgets, costs must be analyzed by the benefit the expenditures will generate. In government budgeting, as in any budgeting process, decisions must be made based on a methodical discrimination between good, better and best.

State Sen. Dan Liljenquist recognized that there was a run-away train headed right toward us.

For each dollar the state of Utah spends in 2011, 18 cents will go toward funding Medicaid.

Twice as much as what it was 13 years ago, that figure is projected to double yet again within the next seven or eight years. Critics say every additional penny that goes to an uncapped entitlement program like Medicaid means there's one less cent available to spend in discretionary areas like education.

Such statistics catalyze the belief held by Sen. Dan Liljenquist, R.-Bountiful, that Medicaid reform is a nonnegotiable necessity.

All of this is before ObamaCare even goes into effect.  Once ObamaCare goes into effect that 7-8 year time frame (for doubling) could be cut in half.  Meaning there will be less and less money for schools and roads and other necessary government functions.  This is the reality that we are facing - with or without ObamaCare.

Education reform is indeed important and necessary - AND COMING.  However, Dan Liljenquist has shown the foresight to see that Medicaid reform is also a necessity and that without Medicare reform, education reform is going to be more painful.

The time for reform has come, the only question is how painful do you want it to be?