Thanks, Republicans, for killing public education in Florida!

Seriously. The Republicans are slowly yet inexorably strangling public education in Florida, at all levels, with the budget slashes that are made necessary by their pandering tax cuts.

Take a look at how one Florida university is dealing with the massive decrease in state funding:

In an effort to deal with skyrocketing prices on everyday items, [Florida Atlantic University] officials this fall are replacing the giant scoops used by students to fill their cereal bowls with single-serving dispensers. Students still can fill up more than once, but the hope is it will reduce food waste.

The move is just one change the school is making as it sees higher price tags on everything from turkey and cheese to fertilizer and fuel.

The costs are a concern in what FAU Vice President for Financial Affairs Ken Jessell said is the worst budget crisis he has seen facing higher education — a combination of soaring prices and a depleted state budget still suffering from the housing crash.

The Board of Governors, which oversees Florida's 11 public universities, will meet today in Jacksonville to discuss the budget request it plans to make for the 2009-10 school year. It includes a special appeal for $30.2 million in additional money for energy costs, which are expected to increase as much as 24 percent at some schools during the next year.

Jessell warned FAU officials last week that the school may have to cut $12 million from its budget for the current year.

In some cases, prices have risen more than 60 percent compared with just two years ago. "We are trying to do more innovative things to deal with the increases and hopefully make fewer budget cuts," Jessell said.

Sure, prices of things are increasing rapidly, but the budget cuts are completely attributable to Republican malfeasance in office. Let me be blunt: it's more important for House Speaker Marco Rubio (R-Miami) and Gov. Charlie Crist to give homeowners a measly few hundred dollars back than it is to educate our young people. There's no need to look any further -- the fiscal woes Florida faces are politically motivated and a gross abuse of governmental power ... period. Whether or not the housing crash is a factor is irrelevant; the Republican-controlled legislature and Gov. Crist could have mitigated the effects of the economic downturn, but instead they exacerbated them.

This is how modern Republicans operate. They prey on the young and the sick and the old and the infirm all to pad their own pockets and those of their greedy constituency. And the rest of us, the regular folks, are the ones who suffer.

Send a message in November. Vote the Republican bastards out. And let's hope it's not already too late.