Tuesday, June 24, 2008

State Lege to Schools- Maybe, Kinda, Sorta

I was delighted when I first heard the Lege was intending on giving an increase to most communities in the form of more school aid. I was a heckuva lot less delighted when I understood all the and's, if's, and but's.


Your schools will get the extra funds IF slot machines pay off as expected when as of yet they have not been doing so. The Council could award the school some of the extra funds out of their budget & then asked to be reimbursed, but I'm not sure that can be legally done.


What's this mean then for schools? You can't actually include these monies as revenues because you may never get them. You can't actually use them to balance your budget NOW. So what do you do with maybe monies? Not a darn thing until you actually have them in hand. A sad way to fund schools when you've actually mandated just about everything about them. Schools matter, then. But only if you hit the lucky numbers. So please, play those slots! Your kids future may depend upon it.


It's better than nothing, I suppose. But maybe not. Balancing the State Budget on the backs of kids, seniors, & and poor families- that's the best that we can do? Thanks to the federal gov't, too, who helped put us in this mess.


This weekend I heard an economist suggest that we need to start throwing monies out to solve our energy problem & perhaps enact a new Manhattan project. Energy- yes; education-no. Just mandates & punishments. Heaven forbid actually spending on education. And since education costs by their very nature primarily consist of labor costs... well, you know the rest.

I've had several residents with kids in school & various school personnel speaking to me lately regarding the current town school budget shortfall which I've written about previously. I'm no longer hearing complaints on teacher salaries, nor even benefits. The biggest complaint is that while there are no more reading teachers, various programs have been cut, and many staff laid-off, the administration stays the same. Actually, not even that- it's being added to. I've written about this before- ALL administrators belong for a period of time every week IN the classroom. It serves as a reminder of why they are there.

Parents/teachers need to actively find candidates on ALL levels, make their concerns known, and SUPPORT those candidates. Support them not just with votes, but money & time. NOW IS THE TIME. If you don't fight for them, who will? Good schools are good for everyone.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree wholeheartedly about reducing administration. I think the reason most people fall on the teachers is visibility. Everyone hears about messy contract disputes. Everyone learns that teachers are demanding 5+ percent raises and increased benefits. Everyone hears them say they are going to violate the law and hurt students and their parents by going on strike.

No one vilifies the administration because they are behind the scenes. In addition, you typically get more bang for the buck.

I can't help but feel that staffing levels should be tightly coupled to the number of students. In addition, the number of students per classroom should increase significantly. Extra help can be provided to small groups of students from qualified teachers aids. Consolidation of facilities should also be done. Elimination of valuable, poorly located properties (Linden, JFK, Oliphant) should be excessed. Why do we need a seperate school administration/storage building?

I've already written a lot here and haven't even scratched the surface of my ideas. I have had countless discussions with countless people in the education field and most of them say the same things. If they are teachers, they get defensive/offensive. If they are a little more open minded, they will tell you it can't be done because of the various laws, contracts, etc. I say, laws are designed to be changed. Contracts can and must follow industry standards for pay and benefits. There is no reason schools can't thrive with reduced funding just like many/all industries, companies, sectors, etc. in this time of hard economies.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for writing, Bill! The schools deserve/need a LOT more discussion on ALL levels. Here in town it's close to 70% of the budget.

I can tell that we don't agree of a few things- for instance class size. But I welcome your writing on the topic! I get tired of listening to me.

Write some targeted articles & I'll run them. I'm sure that they will spark some discussion. And that's a good thing!

My e-mail is at the top of the blog.