Second, because my fellow Alabamians rejected the governor's $1.2 billion tax referendum yesterday, which, while not perfect by any means, would have been a decisive step toward improving the state's woeful education system. Siegelman proposed a lottery to pump money into education: we didn't like that. Riley proposes reasonable taxes on property and income to pump money into education: we don't like that either. Just what in the hell do we want the state to do? Now the state school superintendent says state funding for K-12 public schools will have to be reduced by over $100 million. He said he "will recommend no new textbooks, no money for teachers to buy classroom materials, and [is] cutting money for technology, library purchases and teacher training."Great.
