Comments about ‘Stimulus should fund mind-power’

I agree! What our stimulus must do is make strategic investments in America's long-term infrastructure for America's future benefit -- educating the masses to meet future job demands, improving schools, moving away from fossil fuels to renewable/clean energy, enhancing Internet connections for everyone, etc. The tax cut approach works for companies that are making profits, but since most companies are contracting, the modest gains from a tax cut may not foster that strategic investments that nation needs to make.

Education has a ripple effect in that students leave with the skills to be productive citizens and help America compete with the Chinese and Indians. A modest tax cut for a pizza parlor or car wash might allow the outfit to hire some more minimum wage high school students, but that's not the long-term outcomes we need now. We need more engineers, ethical business leaders, and innovations that can take America technologically to the next level to compete in the global economy!

I also agree. While investment in students attending college, etc. won't stimulate immediate jobs (other than those at institutions of higher ed) it will be more effective in the long run than many of the pork items now loaded into the "stimulus" bill.

Wow! With the scent of "free money" drifting in from Washington they're already coming out of the woodwork angling for their share of the big pork pie. Like James Carville said: "drag a hundred dollar bill through a trailer park...."
Hey veedub - a "stimulus" bill isn't supposed to be about long run effects- that's what general budget items are for. We need to stimulate now before the economy comes back on its own! Pelosi said Bush's stimulus should be timely,targeted and temporary. I guess the rules don't apply to her.

Whenever something is being 'given away' everyone gets in line. You can't really blame them.

If you want an eye opening experience go to National Review Online and look up a piece called "50 De-Stimulating Facts" and you will see that almost none of it goes to creating new jobs, even temporarry jobs. The stimulus package is primarily aimed at stimulating the growth of government.

Hopefully while everyone is in the dogfight ripping apart the pork, the economy will be doing what only it can do naturally, recover. The recession is prolitically caused. Hands off, politicians! Write your representatives. Even one letter could help.

Well said Commissioner Sederburg. Higher education is an investment in our future -- Utah simply will not compete in the global economy unless we substantially increase the participation in higher education in our State. The only comparative advantage that Utah has over the States around us is the fact we have more children. If we don't invest in our children, we will see States like Colorado and Arizona move further and faster ahead while we fall farther behind.

Great Idea we need to educate all these people,

so they can understand why there no job for them when they graduate.

Meanwhile sederburg still has his government funded job.

Rahm Emmanuel is right - "never waste a good crisis." You really can advance agendas during crises that you could not advance in other times. If higher ed really needs more money, let them raise tuition rates - double them if need be, then provide for automatic student loans for the amount of the increase. Students then could carry a larger share of their own education costs and could pay them at the time they are most able - after graduation. Why not?

How about students work hard in High School, earn a good scholarship (millions of private and public scholarship $s go unclaimed every year), and get a part time job during college to pay for their apartment, cars and dates. What a concept.

Before I get lambasted with "can't work that way, what do YOU know." It is what my father did, what I did, and what my children expect to do when they go to school.

In addition to learning your acedemic lessons - you also learn LIFE lessons - like responsibility, personal finance, and consequences (oops, I drank the rent money, now what?). When you graduate, you actually have something to put on your resume as far as work experience goes.

College should not just be an extension of high school - all fun and games with Mom and Dad (or Uncle Sam) footing the bill.

Wow. A part-time job for apartment, cars, and dates, all supposing your children get a full-ride scholarship--which still doesn't cover books, student fees, etc. Dan, do your children expect to get Pell Grants? Cuz there's not enough scholarship money to cover everyone. Besides--an awful lot of scholarship money is provided by the government, by the school through government subsidies, etc. I think your argument is rather shallow unless your kids pay their tuition entirely off of their own personal labor and private scholarships. Even if they do, that's still an unrealistic expectation for everyone. My wife and I are working, have scholarships, Pell Grants, and Perkins Loans, yet we still don't have quite enough to cover our butts every semester. We're certainly learning a lesson: being alive is too expensive in a system ruled by banks and businesses, and we need government to help us to survive in a system that we didn't create and that was slanted in somebody else's favor.

Government assistance to education is an appropriate investment of society's tax donations, as it is an investment in society.