What? You want me to vote "yes" fer a school levy? You want me to pay a couple hun'rd more a year to git yer kids through school? We don't need no stinkin' schools.Twice now, my town and the neighboring town have put school levies on the ballot, hoping to inspire our communities to support our sagging schools. These aren't taxes for luxuries like grand stadiums and a dozen computers in every class room--these are emergency funds, needed to provide a reasonable education and to pay the light bill every month. Already, schools have learned to be frugal. Our high school has a large wing that was built in 1913, and it's in dire need of repair, now reduced to not much more than dust. The pipes in the basement burst about once a year, flooding more than just storage. The schools have halted all field trips and cut stipends for coaching positions. Teachers who retire are often not replaced. Assistant administrative positions have been eliminated, leaving staff working double jobs for single pay. Without updated proper funding from the community, schools will be forced to adopt a pay-to-play policy for sports, music programs, and clubs. They'll discontinue busing services and fire teaching staff.
Each time these levies have been put on the ballot, we have turned them down. By "we," I mean just over half of the voters in one town and a slightly larger margin of duds in the other. "We" have decided it's time school administrators "learn to live within their budget" with no regard to how this lack of interest in our educational system might affect the entire area. "We" don't seem to understand that without an excellent school system as a draw, businesses will not move to our towns, businesses that can provide jobs above that of working behind the burger counter. Without excellent schools, people will move to other towns that do value education, and they'll take their higher-paying jobs with them.
Our local paper has a feature called "30 Seconds." Residents call in and leave anonymous messages that are printed a day or two later. Here is one from this morning:
" We need some blue collar people on the school boards who know what it means to operate on a budget."
This caller seems to think every one who voted "yes" is some kind of elite resident who doesn't understand fiscal responsibility. He seems to think that only "blue collar people" know how to manage an educational system that works without being frivolous with its funding.
"We" have complained about the brain drain here for years, and now that "we" have made clear how we feel about educating our children, that drain just got larger, and you can already hear the flushing as the town empties out the bowl.
Comments
Go, girl!
It is indeed a shocking state of affairs.
It would seem the American Dream is now reduced slobbing out in front of crap TV with a bucket of crap non-food and raise dumb kids.
The word "duh" springs to mind.
Pru, the funding system is absolutely archaic, and the state governments seem unwilling to be creative in reworking the system. But abandoning the schools isn't the answer either.
Gina, there is that element that can only see what is directly in front of them and can't see beyond a single pay check.
You are so right, our kids are the future and if they are deprived of basic educational rescources, we all suffer.
A lot of cities and towns have alarge population of elderly who don't care about school budgets and also folks who send their kids to private schools.
excuse my political commets but you got me going here Robyn -it's all your fault ;)))
It just amazes me when people refuse to vote to help schools. I mean, and those people always seem to be the ones who complain about how violent the world is.
Education would clean up so much of that violence. WHY is that so hard to see?