Ben Chandler and Andy Barr debate federal government’s role in education
Republican Andy Barr, left, is challenging U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles, in Kentucky
Welcome to the Bluegrass Politics Debate. Each Wednesday and Thursday through the end of September, the candidates for Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District seat — U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles, and Republican lawyer Andy Barr of Lexington — will debate a topic chosen by the Lexington Herald-Leader.
The candidates ask and answer the questions. Questions are limited to 35 words. Answers, which will be posted online by 6 p.m. on Wednesdays, are limited to 75 words. Rebuttals, which will be posted online by 6 p.m. on Thursdays, are limited to 35 words.
The entire debate will appear in the Sunday City|Region section of the Herald-Leader, as space allows.
Week 5 topic: The federal government’s role in K-12 education
Chandler’s question for Barr: Just a few weeks ago, you took a position against saving the jobs of thousands of Kentucky’s teachers. Can we trust you to vote to protect Kentucky teachers and education in Congress?
Barr’s answer: Just like the negative attacks in your TV ads, the premise of your question is false. I have never taken a position “against Kentucky’s teachers.” As a part-time instructor at UK, I am an educator myself, and eight members of my family have taught in Kentucky public schools. Unlike you, however, I believe education is primarily the responsibility of state and local government, and not the responsibility of a distant, remote and unaccountable federal bureaucracy.
Chandler’s rebuttal: Your short-sighted, impractical ideology fails to meet the real-world needs of Kentucky’s young people. I hope you don’t also disagree with assistance to repair our schools, fund public universities (like UK), and aid disadvantaged students.
Barr’s question for Chandler: President Obama admitted that under the Cap-and-Trade bill you supported, energy prices would “necessarily skyrocket.” How will local school districts deal with their increased electricity bills if Cap-and-Trade does become law?
Chandler’s answer: I wish you’d show the same concern for teachers as you do for the company profits of campaign donors. I introduced legislation to help schools become more energy efficient, saving significant amounts of money on energy costs. I’ve also strongly supported an unprecedented $60 billion investment in clean coal technology, helping coal continue to be an important and affordable part of our energy future in our schools, homes, and businesses.
Barr’s rebuttal: This is typical Washington thinking. You increase regulation and are surprised when it kills jobs. You increase spending and are surprised when it doesn’t create jobs. Over-regulation and wasteful spending will deprive students of opportunities.
Filed Under: Andy Barr • Ben Chandler • Elections • Federal Government • Garland "Andy" Barr • KY-6th
About the Author: John Stamper is the accountability editor for the Lexington Herald-Leader. A native of Monticello, Ky., he has been with the Herald-Leader in a variety of roles since graduating from Western Kentucky University in 2000. Reach him at jstamper@herald-leader.com
Barr is correct. State and local government should oversee public education. The federal government has no business and no ability to handle our educational system. We have low graduation rates, poor overall scores compared to other developed nations due to the federal governments over regulation and catering to the teacher’s unions, which does not even support their own teachers! Chandler and the rest of the DC elite politicians whether they have a D or a R by their name need to be shown the door in November and in 2012. McConnell will be next to be shown the door.
Chandler refuses to meet with any of his constitutes. Why is that Mr. Chandler? Not able to answer the tough questions on your party’s agenda destroying middle America? But you can do drive by attack ads and degrade the people you vowed to represent. And to think I was stupid enough to vote for you. Never again.
RT, I’m with you.
I’ll take it one step further. Local control over education and get the state out of it as well.
Chandler says “I introduced legislation to help schools become more energy efficient…” Those projects would be payed for by taxpayers AFTER they pay the higher rates for electricity that Chandler supports under Cap & Trade. His plan results in even more money coming out of your pocket! Chandler shows contempt for Kentuckians with his attempts at fast-talk and spin.
Any politician who supports Cap and Trade should be tried for treason.
RT doesn’t seem to know the history of education in Kentucky.
Right-wingers don’t want the Federal government to have any influence on education: the right-wingers want to do that themselves. In 1990, we had school reform. More money went to smaller school systems. But without state oversight, some of those systems would have misappropriated a lot of the money. Some school systems in Kentucky had to be audited and misspent money was traced. I would almost let you rewrite the history books the way you want if you “conservatives” would just accept accounting standards.
When Federal education dollars flow to Kentucky, the Feds require performance guarantees. This is not an attempt to promote abortion, Islam, or socialism – as great as those things all are! It’s just an effort to make sure the money is properly accounted for. The reason Kentucky lost out on the Race To The Top millions (which Tennessee did get) is because of this “local” but not up to code spending procedures.
As regards Big Jay, I’ve started to wonder if that’s his name or his evening entertainment.
To hear these right-wingers holler, you’d swear that “Cap and Trade” had been the hole in all our pockets since the Year One. They never seem to observe that there IS NO SUCH LAW. Eventually the pollution caused by coal burning will have to be cleaned up. Considering all the bellering they do about the debt we’re leaving our children – pollution is an extremely bad kind of debt, an unhappy obligation we are not trying to meet.And they never saw a form of pollution they didn’t defend as a true American.
It’s a crazy contest. I don’t know which is worse – the ones who spout this craziness and then go home and laugh about it, or the ones who by repeating and repeating things manage to really believe them.
This is crazy! I wish Ben Chandler had the courage to agree to at least one real face-to-face debate instead of trading childish barbs through the Unheralded Liberal. Then maybe we could go deeper into some of these important topics instead of just skimming the surface.
Mr. Lewis – I do think the state and local governments should oversee their own educational systems. To believe the federal government’s “performance guarantees” are working is naive. The federal government cannot run any program efficiently. All one has to do is review their mismanagement of the current entitlement programs and the billions of dollars of waste. They implement layers and layers of regulations, only to put more individuals on the public dole who add very little value to the final product/outcome. Our children’s education has not improved, it has only become more regulated. That is not an improvement. The unions are the real “winners” of the federal government’s takeover of each and every industry they deem as needing their “help”. I say, please, STOP HELPING and let the people in the communities take care of their own. We are much more efficient and know, first hand, what our communities needs. All people have to do is look at the history of the liberal agenda and see that it has not made our country better. But certain groups will continue to support the left, even though they still get the same poor results year after year, decade after decade. I say, if your current situation has not improved, then maybe, you should rethink who you continue to support.
It is obvious that Chandler has so lost touch with his constituents that HE CAN’T EVEN FACE THEM! He has to debate through e-mail.
He’s utterly useless.
jefflewis sounds liek he would like the federal govt to take over **everything**
Cap and trade is not a law (yet) because it cannot get past the senate (even though at the time the dems had a fillibuster-proof majority. People don’t want it and the senate dems see that. Many of the people who voted for cap and trade, like chandler will suffer.
Cap and trade is based on A) a theory about man made global worming, B) a plan by statists to control the people into behaving how THEY see fit, or B) communists who hate capitalism and want to destroy the american way of life. Take your pick.
All these “debate” articles show us the same thing – useless politicians more interested in attacking each other than advancing the interests of the taxpayers. I may not even vote – so childish are these two. Can Barr even answer a question without insulting his opponent?
RT – when I’m addressed respectfully, I think I should answer in kind. But from everything I know about American institutions and their history, your position is unreal.
In no particular order, from your comment: first, there are many kinds of “unions” and they work in different ways. Historians agree that labor unions helped American workers wrest decent working conditions from rich owners who cared little for their own workers. You don’t even bother to specify which union you’re criticizing.
As for “Federal mismanagement”, Medicare works. Social Security works. Welfare no longer exists (we do have AFDC and disability). Many regulations protect us, and we need them. So again your comment only makes sense as a dog whistle to someone who already subscribes to your “government is always bad” myth.
No industry has been “taken over” by the Federal government. The auto bailout worked. The TARP bailout worked and will even make money. The housing and banking crisis continues for many reasons, but I have never heard anyone blame the Democrats for the bankruptcy bill.
As for “pollock” -
I find it amusing that someone who can’t even spell the word “like” nonetheless is able to lecture us about communism and “statism” (whatever that is).
And I’m not at all sure what “global worming” is, pollock, but I have a feeling you need it. Bad.
Ron, threelinks – Rep. Chandler responded to a request from the H-L. Barr wouldn’t even play, at first. Chandler is campaigning actively all over the district. Call the Democratic Party for his schedule.
I want to comment separately about a topic that many posters refer to, namely, the idea that the Herald-Leader is biased toward one candidate in an election contest.
The newspaper business is changing radically and rapidly. The people who still have their jobs are desperately anxious not to lose them by exposing themselves to serious accusations of bias.
I think that the real journalists are shocked almost into silence at the fact that we are now faced with candidates who can babble utter nonsense, and then walk off the stage without taking questions. I think they are waiting to see what happens if today’s crop of no-brain candidates get elected, and if people will ever make the connection between the muzzling of the press (or its intimidation) and incompetence in areas of governance.
One more thing: every possible joke about the name of the newspaper has been used. None of them are even remotely funny any more. The H-L is not a liberal paper. It is not a communist paper. It is a paper staffed by reasonably well educated folks who are trying to come to grips with sometimes uneducated leaders and candidates.
And that ain’t easy.
Chandler, the communist, strongly supports a 60 billion dollar clean coal bill. That equates to $157.00 for every live human in the United States. This is the liberal mindset – huge sums of money to solve imaginary crises with much credit for good intentions and no accountability for the lack of results or the debt.
Let’s move ALL current politicians out of DC, including Chandler. I was a long time supporter of his but the Cap & Trade vote was a stick in the eye for Kentucky and the coal business which generates much money for our state and keeps our electricity costs down. Get his a** out of there NOW!
Jeff Lewis, you must be a HL staff person to write the crap you just did. DO you really believe the HL has been giving Conway and Paul equal billing? How about Chandler & Barr? How about Newberry and Gray? Get real. The HL is a liberal rag pulling for any yeller dog democrat no matter how incompetent they are. Let’s see who they ultimately endorse.
I wish we had unbiased reporting of the facts. Not in this paper, honey.
There is no man-made global warming. This is just one of many sites that discuss average temp during the Medieval Warm Period.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/11/29/the-medieval-warm-period-a-global-phenonmena-unprecedented-warming-or-unprecedented-data-manipulation/
Mr Lewis makes other errors; Social Security works. Social Security is in the red this year and is an unsustainable ponzi scheme. And I firmly believe that any unbiased analysis of the Hairless-Liberal would show a distict liberal slant to their coverage. The public does not trust the press any longer. They are not objective honest reporters of news but have become advocates. Stories on press bias are easy to find both in America and at the BBC.
Jefflewis is a funny addition to the paper. He says his junk with a straight face.
There is no constitutional provision to allow the federal government to spend money on public education. That fact alone should settle the debate.
And anyone who doesn’t believe the H-L is a liberal paper has obviously never heard the names Pett, Keeling, Eblen or Davis.
Mr. Lewis – I do believe that government, whether it is local, state or federal have their roles. The root problem is that the federal government has overstepped their role and the American people are now paying the price of their greed, incompetence and power plays. And to say that Medicare and Social Security work, with the billions of dollars that are lost to fraud every year, is ridiculous. Let taxpayers keep their taxes that would cover their Medicare and SS benefits and let them invest or save for their own future needs. That would eliminate the fraud that has only padded special interests and corrupt politicians pockets. Addressing the union issues…in the past, I agree, unions played a very important role, until once again, they became too big and too greedy. Now because of their greed and mismanagement, they have pension funds they cannot honor and will expect the American taxpayer to bail them out. We should not have had to bail out any industry, bank, car or otherwise. The companies that did not prepare or were mismanaged should have been allowed to fail. The housing bubble happened because of the Democrats push that everyone has a right to own their own home and Fannie and Freddie were and still are corrupt government organizations who pushed the Democratic agenda. My money I earn every day, is my money. Not yours, not Joe down the street, and not some person who chooses not to live within their means. I gladly give tax money to maintain this country’s infrastructure and for our military to protect us from those who wish to harm us. I do not want to continue to give up almost half of my earnings to a corrupt federal government who no longer is working for the American people. That is the message that voters will send to Washington and the Democrats November 2nd, 2010.
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Well, I’d agree with you workin, except its kinda hard to see whether or not his face is straight when he’s sitting behind a desk at the New York Times. You notice, he’s never even attempted to refute that. Google Jeff Lewis, New York Times. Its an informative search.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-lewis
http://www.politicsdaily.com/bloggers/jeffrey-lewis/
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/09/01/playing_roulette_with_retirement/
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