Rant Public education budget cuts

[Quick_Nick]

In the past few weeks it has become clear that next year, billions of dollars may be cut from school budgets. On my school district's website (www.gccisd.net), the superintendent has posted a notice that our district may be cut $50 million over the next two years, and to write to representatives. This is a district that already has virtually no money to spend. We can hardly afford to run copy machines, we have to cut back on lunches, we may have to cut back further on academics even without cuts. Such a massive cut will surely cripple our school system. I'm not sure how much closer we can get to "barebones essentials."

 

[halcyon]

If America wants to help solve the root of its financial problems it needs to start at the education level.
More $$ = a better quality of education which = kids learning to make smarter choices.

Budget cutting in education isn't a smart choice.

 

[jinglesassy]

Budget cutting in education isn't a smart choice.

Offtopic: Pun intended?

Ontopic: I cant believe these guys. Education is an investment. Also i am pretty sure they could find other places to cut.

 

[Keatah]

Kids make smarter decisions?? Not with the idiotic porn-crazed, cellphone-gripping, hooray-for-me parents these days. Hell we got a child abuser woman b right next door that raves like a lunatic day in and day out! I don't know who to feel more sorry for? The passive husband or the kid.

 

[halcyon]

Quick_Nick, I just realized you're from Texas.
You mean to tell me that Mr. Bush, who already had his hand in the oil jar before the "war" in Iraq can't help those kids out in Texas?!

Poor form, Mr. Bush!

 

[Urwumpe]

Well, it has always been a small misconception to think more money means smarter students, but if you don't ensure enough money for keeping basic services at a school running, you'll get a lot of problems. Not just with students later being unfit for work, but also with a strong lack of teachers if you try to raise the budget again. You can't just quickly reduce the budget and expect students to become teacher then despite the odds, just for the joy of teaching. Many will be rational and become something else.

 

[Artlav]

More $$ = a better quality of education which = kids learning to make smarter choices.

I tend to disagree. There should be enough money, but not too much of it. From what i heard a lot of money is wasted on constantly changing things around without benefit to the children, and also to keep incompetent teachers.

There are also rumors about massive protests in USA about something union-budget related. Is that part of it?

 

[Pablo49]

There was a budget crisis back when I was in Junior High School, and a little bit into High School. Came to the point where teachers would have to write the test questions on the board and for use to do them on our own notebook paper, since the school didn't have enough paper for printing tests. Plenty of good teachers lost their jobs, too. Three Elementary schools had to close over about three-four years or so. Rather unfortunate, especially since that school district is one of the largest in the state. Luckily we passed a levy on the second try, and have been able to continue to pass extensions. Plenty of schools here have gone years without passing one, which puts the schools in terrible shape. It doesn't help Ohio's school funding is unconstitutional, too.

 

[Wishbone]

Constantly changing (=ruining) things around can be done with or without money, as we can see here in Russia. Money + novel methods = failure, money+conservative (millennia-proven) teaching = success.

 

[Zachstar]

The war on the middle class continues. Sadly...

Some politicians managed to convince a great many people that unions are the root of the recession and that teacher unions are the cause of all of our education issues.

While I am personally against teacher unions due to BS contracts that allow bad or even criminal teachers to stay that is not why they hate them. It is because the union can challenge them and their buddie's power. And thus they dream of thousands of new for profit schools that will never question orders. Even if it means dumping mentally challenged kids on public schools to chance the test score balance in private's favor or allowing other forms of discrimination.

I like the idea of private schools having a legitimate reason to compete for parents sending their kids. However, The way it is being set up now is to break down public schools.

Edit: More schools have found a way to fight back against the pro-cut crowd that cheers when students lose funding... They cut football and basketball. Completely.. Trust me.. In a small town high school football is like being in new york during a yankees game. It gets people writing and begging for the funding back. Despite it being against the "Cut everything" Tea Party BS.

 

[Urwumpe]

Some politicians managed to convince a great many people that unions are the root of the recession and that teacher unions are the cause of all of our education issues.

Of course, such politicians can explain why countries with trade unions are currently showing the economic growth, that the USA wish to have... :lol:

 

[Linguofreak]

Edit: More schools have found a way to fight back against the pro-cut crowd that cheers when students lose funding... They cut football and basketball. Completely.. Trust me.. In a small town high school football is like being in new york during a yankees game. It gets people writing and begging for the funding back. Despite it being against the "Cut everything" Tea Party BS.

Frankly, I think the cuts are necessary. But certainly any district that, faced with such cuts, isn't killing sports teams and extracurricular activities before academic expenses needs new leadership.

 

[Quick_Nick]

There was a budget crisis back when I was in Junior High School, and a little bit into High School. Came to the point where teachers would have to write the test questions on the board and for use to do them on our own notebook paper, since the school didn't have enough paper for printing tests. Plenty of good teachers lost their jobs, too. Three Elementary schools had to close over about three-four years or so. Rather unfortunate, especially since that school district is one of the largest in the state.

That's almost saying nothing now. We already use our own paper/supplies, we're already down to incompetent teachers, we already have schools closing. And that's with the current budget, which makes things really frightening.

---------- Post added at 09:59 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:58 AM ----------

Quick_Nick, I just realized you're from Texas.
You mean to tell me that Mr. Bush, who already had his hand in the oil jar before the "war" in Iraq can't help those kids out in Texas?!

Poor form, Mr. Bush!

I'm not sure what Texas has to with this, and really don't know how Bush is involved.

---------- Post added at 10:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:59 AM ----------

Edit: More schools have found a way to fight back against the pro-cut crowd that cheers when students lose funding... They cut football and basketball. Completely.. Trust me.. In a small town high school football is like being in new york during a yankees game. It gets people writing and begging for the funding back. Despite it being against the "Cut everything" Tea Party BS.

It could be worse. Our district cuts funding for academics and special education in order to keep money in athletics.

 

[jinglesassy]

They cut football and basketball. Completely.. Trust me.. In a small town high school football is like being in new york during a yankees game. It gets people writing and begging for the funding back.

Not in nokesville. Our football team sucks. Best game last season was 16 points to 61.

 

[Ark]

Educated people vote liberal. Remove funding for education, and the next generation of voters can be more easily manipulated into voting Republican. Even better if you can gut the unions at the same time since they're the only entities that finance Democrats heavily enough to compete with Republican corporate backing. It's a win-win for Scott Walker & Co.

 

[Tommy]

I have to admit that I think the Teacher's Union here in Wisconsin needs a major overhaul. It has all the problems the Autoworkers union had - unsustainable benefits, promotion and raised based on seniority instead of performance, etc.

I'm also far less than impressed with our local school district. For instance, the teachers were all given new laptops last year - and are all going be given I-Pads next year. It's just not a needed expense - it's a luxury we can't afford. Every year the school expects parents to do more of the education at home - while the parents have to work second jobs (so they have less time to spend with the kids). I "babysit" two nephews (ages 9 and 14) five nights a week, and by the time the homework and homeschooling is done it's bedtime. No chance for the kids to unwind and have fun - so they goof off more at school. Not to mention the behavioral problems that comes from having surly, overstressed kids.

But doing away with collective bargaining alltogether is not the answer. Previously, only three states didn't have collective bargaining for teachers, and those states ranked 50th, 49th, and 47th in terms of quality of education.

Scott Walker cut the education budget quite heavily. He said that he provided "tools" that would allow the schools to save more money than they lost, but he lied. He cut the revenue cap - so schools can raise LESS money from local taxes. The savings in payroll/benefits is only a fraction of how much the budget was cut. Our local school district now has less than 70% (even after the "savings") than it had last year.

The sad truth is that this is only one of the ways Walker is screwing the people of Wisconsin - but the rest is not really on topic for this thread. He is clearly setting himself up for a future run at the Presidency, DO NOT VOTE FOR HIM!!!!

DISCLAIMER: In case you didn't notice the flag, I am a Wisconsin resident, politically independant with views that range from liberal to conservative - depending on the issue.

 

[Urwumpe]

Educated people vote liberal.

I never voted liberal in my life. Does that mean I am not educated?

 

[Zachstar]

Dennis.. Liberal over here is far different from Liberal in Europe.

 

[Urwumpe]

Dennis.. Liberal over here is far different from Liberal in Europe.

Do you mean the Liberals in the USA wear funny hats? :lol:

Are they ordoliberal or just socialliberal? Or they just plan to liberalize marriages with pets?

 

[markl316]

Pouring more money into the school systems is NOT the answer. Looking from about 1970 to now, you can see that the amount of money that has been put into public schools has increased enormously, yet average test scores have remained about the same.

http://rogerkerr.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/derugy-column-chart2.jpg

The way to fix the problem is abolish teacher's unions, fire the bad teachers, and hire teachers who perform as they should.
Also, the above graph is on average. While there are some school districts out there that are truly spending the bare minimum, there are plenty that are wasting money. Such as the school district giving teachers ipads mention a few posts above

Do you mean the Liberals in the USA wear funny hats? :lol:

Are they ordoliberal or just socialliberal? Or they just plan to liberalize marriages with pets?

No, I think what he means is that a liberal person in the US would be considered more of a moderate in Europe, and vice versa. So you might be viewed as a moderate in Europe, but people in the US would view you as liberal. Not sure though.

And Halcyon, Bush has absolutely nothing to do with this.