School Budget Beheading
Recently the Middletown Town Council told the School Committee to cut an additional $186,000 from its budget. In a recent "Daily News" letter, School member Ned Draper (also on the Budget subcommittee) decried the late communication of this by the Council & referred to it as "an appalling surprise." I'll say. Doesn't allow much time for planning, does it
On Mon., June 16 at 6 pm there will be a Town Hall meeting. And as Ned aludes to, another in Nov. (translation- elections)/
Thanks are to be extended to the guv who says that we don't do enough to control local costs, the lege, who has yet to HELP fund education, and the federal government who has plenty to spend on war but little to spend at home.
On the chopping block are either all-day K or middle school sports. A devil's bargain if ever I heard one. What will be on the block next year? Councilor DiPalma suggested tapping into the beach fund which didn't even receive a second. I know, I know, it's designated beach monies to be used there. As far as I'm concerned, schools first, beaches second, but you're free to try & change my mind. It's all our monies anyway. If one group has to belt-tighten, evenone's belt gets tightened. That's what community means.
Yeah, I know, a 15% pupil decrease. But this doesn't mean much unless it's across one grade level, does it? For example, you can't say 15% less in heating costs, or 15% less for electricity or even staffing (although I believe 15 positions have been eliminated).
I'm with you, Ned, & left wondering why a more clear-cut bottom line demand wasn't communicated sooner. And why the guv decries being a high tax state but always ignores the reason we are just that- abnormally high property taxes caused by insuffficient state funding- especially in education.
Please feel free to add comments either way. Better yet, show up next Mon. & voice your opinion one way or another. This is the time!
On Mon., June 16 at 6 pm there will be a Town Hall meeting. And as Ned aludes to, another in Nov. (translation- elections)/
Thanks are to be extended to the guv who says that we don't do enough to control local costs, the lege, who has yet to HELP fund education, and the federal government who has plenty to spend on war but little to spend at home.
On the chopping block are either all-day K or middle school sports. A devil's bargain if ever I heard one. What will be on the block next year? Councilor DiPalma suggested tapping into the beach fund which didn't even receive a second. I know, I know, it's designated beach monies to be used there. As far as I'm concerned, schools first, beaches second, but you're free to try & change my mind. It's all our monies anyway. If one group has to belt-tighten, evenone's belt gets tightened. That's what community means.
Yeah, I know, a 15% pupil decrease. But this doesn't mean much unless it's across one grade level, does it? For example, you can't say 15% less in heating costs, or 15% less for electricity or even staffing (although I believe 15 positions have been eliminated).
I'm with you, Ned, & left wondering why a more clear-cut bottom line demand wasn't communicated sooner. And why the guv decries being a high tax state but always ignores the reason we are just that- abnormally high property taxes caused by insuffficient state funding- especially in education.
Please feel free to add comments either way. Better yet, show up next Mon. & voice your opinion one way or another. This is the time!
2 comments:
There's no reason to take away from the children, keep the classes and the sports. Time to start readjusting benefits. Teachers, time to start contributing more to health care, pay the 20% as I do, take a lower increase in salary, as we did and administration, take a pay freeze, making $86,000-113,000 a year in Middletown is PRETTY SWEET! And council members and school committee members, fight to have the funding laws changed for education, enough baggage on the taxpayer!
Before I start I want to reference this posting from earlier this year.
http://ri12.blogspot.com/2007/12/what-drives-ri-education-costs.html#links
As a taxpayer in Middletown I'm concered with rising cost of living here, but public education should be the number one priority of the whole town. Unfortunately, right now it is not. Instead it is seen as a unfortunate, draining cost. I believe that this is because it shows no immediate profitable results. All that is seen is the money going in. That is the greatest problem with looking at education too narrowly, you almost never get to see the positive results in the short term. Case in point, teaching a girl to read doesn't make her or the town richer immedately, but no doubt that child will have a better (more profitable) life as a whole because of it. To look at the costs of education you have to be prepared to take the long view, either to see the benefits of providing it or the detriments of not providing one. That means looking 10, 20, 30 years or even 2 or more generations down the road. Granted that is a tough thing to do since the money is coming out of your wallet right now. Again with education we must take the long view, don't future generations deserve what was provided to us by people in generations past who also probably had other things they would have rather spent the money on?
Over the last few years in Middletown a number of damaging cuts have been made to teaching positions that will result in larger class sizes and less options to the students for electives. This decline in the number of teachers has been going on for many years as many retiring teachers are not replaced and many of the younger teachers are being laid off. Scary stuff is going on that will immediately hurt the education of children in the short run and therefore the town itself in the long run. Within the town it seems as though most people just want a quick fix and to point fingers at others as being the source of these problems. Unfortunately there are no quick easy, painless solutions, since funding will not magically appear (especially in this economy).
Here is the only easy way I can think of to really solve this problem, get personally involved in the schools and encourage others to do so as well. Doing this gets people out of the us versus them mentality that seems to dominate these discussions. Paying taxes only makes you a Middletown taxpayer, working with others in Middletown to be part of the a solution makes you part of the community.
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