Sunday, March 14, 2010
The WSJ reports on schools...
The front section of today's WSJ is largely given over to the problems facing school districts around the state with a focus on closing and consolidation of elementary schools. They have a short piece on the Maywood/Winnequah consolidation and an interesting story from Dodgeland where the district raised $17M through a referendum to consolidate all students in a single K-12 building to reduce operating costs.
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4 comments:
I found your commen ts at the last board meeting-funny. You do not want to reduce raises to balance the budget. I must admit you are on the cutting edge.
We have a fine, highly qualified staff that everyone praises, who would "WANT" to reduce their compensation, particularily because it would further handicap our district's ability to attract the best teachers? The fact is that the single most important factor in academic achievement is the quality of the teacher in front of the classroom. But if qualified teachers aren't compensated competitively they won't be in our classrooms. I don't want to risk that!
Besides, what I said was that balancing the budget on the backs of the teachers would be patently unfair - the state has had a system in place since 1993 that severely restricts the increases that staff can receive each year, unlike employees in other segments of the economy. Doesn't mean we can avoid it, just that it is unfair to ask for additional sacrifices when teachers have been in this boat since '93.
"We have a fine, highly qualified staff that everyone praises, who would "WANT" to reduce their compensation"
I agree with you. yet, we are closing schools and the list goes on...it just does not make sense.
Unless you work at AIG.
Please look at some of these articles.
I wonder why schools have become so underfunded.
How can it be so catastrophic? Is population going down in the US? What is the demographic that is changing? Is it because of property tax funding? Wasn't that supposed to be supplemented by the Lottery coming to our state? ha.
I feel that there is a certain contingency in power that wants to see public schools fail, and fail completely. I'm not sure what the logic is there, but maybe they think it will save them tax money. I really don't know. But I guess they have been successful. It is very sad.
Is this part of the plan to defund 'public' schools and force us into private schools or for some, no school at all?
I am so confused by all this. It really is insulting to the ideals of the US as a whole.
I really feel that once the public schools have been compromised, our way of life in this country is done.
I know this is not a popular viewpoint probably, and may sound extreme, but given all that has happened, I'm not sure that it is unreasonable to sound a very loud alarm.
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/03/syracuse_superintendent_propos.html
http://www.spinalcolumnonline.com/Articles-i-2010-03-10-72687.113117_Budget_woes_prompt_school_closures_and_other_changes.html
http://oaklandnorth.net/2009/12/10/school-board-confronts-rally-budget-shortfall-school-closures/
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/03/10/schools_chief_warns_of_closings/
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2010/mar/09/school-board-president-introduces-plan-close-budge/
http://www.kansascity.com/2010/03/10/1803982/kc-school-board-approves-school.html
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/jan/27/parents-oppose-school-closings/
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