Saturday, January 28, 2017

That's not how this works

A few notes about this latest round of "summon my fainting couch" on public safety! or funding! or something! in the Worcester City Council (yes, this does end up education related):

  • The data is very clear: sanctuary cities are both safer and more productive than cities that are not. Want a safer city? Make it a sanctuary. Want a more productive municipal economy? Make it a sanctuary city.
  • Federal funding is probably not under threat; there's actually some explicit barring of that sort of thing happening (plus, hey, Tenth Amendment). Also, the totals being cited keep including federal education funding like Title I, and that's explicitly not how those lines work. Federal funding for those come to the state via compliance with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (now ESSA) and the state distributes those funds to schools under compliance with the state's plan. Worcester (or Somerville or Holyoke) doesn't directly get federal education funds: Massachusetts does. Then Massachusetts distributes them
And I don't expect everyone to know this. But you'd best learn it if you're going to be opining. 


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