SEE RELATED FREEMAN ARTICLE Kingston school district faces $12.5M budget gap
$12.5 million dollars is an awful lot of money for even the most ardent public servant to fill!
- Does anyone truly believe that the School Board had no idea of how big the budget gap would be?
- Does any taxpayer, especially one who lost his/her job in the 'economic downturn', really believe that it's too little taxes, and not enough spending that is the problem?
Not to mention the waste, fraud and abuse!
- Does anyone in his/her right mind believe that scaling back on administration and teachers and yes even the closing of a school or two is a reasonable solution especially as the student enrollment is decreasing?
- Does anyone still think that throwing more money at the problem is the solution?
It's time KCSD caught up with the times, bigger classrooms, longer hours and merit based pay raises are a better answer, especially since everything they have tried has failed.
It's time administration expenses and positions are reduced and everyone realizes that for every teacher, every secretary, every principal, every principal's assistant, and every assistant's assistant we are paying the pensions, (pretty big ones by the way), of 1 1/2 to 2 teachers etc., in retirement.
Maybe we need some 'charter schools' in the district. Maybe we need to elect a board that understands that money is not an endless resource and that every $1 spent needs to return 100% value, no waste.
It may not be exclusive to the Kingston School District, but it is a product of mismanagement by government at all levels.
It's time for taxpayers to turn off the spigot and for our Politicians, Board Members and School Administrators to act responsibly!
Schools need more teaches, not less. More books, not less. More investment, not less.
ReplyDeleteThe place to start is consolidation at the district level. All schools in Ulster County should have a central administration. Get rid of all of the individual fiefdoms and there goes a significant problem. One administration, one set of rules,one school board, one pool of facilities and one pool of teachers. Those resources could be moved around as needed.
We should not jeopardize our children's education and subsequently, America's future with short sighted cuts to it's foundation.
4:59 With the strangle hold the unions and special interest have on teachers and administrators, there is no foundation.
ReplyDeleteAnd if it is truly our children's and America's future you wish to protect, why don't you focus on the real problem.
The Freeman article notes that over $7 million of the $12.5 million gap is for teacher's and administrators raises and benefit pkgs, the contracts that have been signed by our politicians are no longer fundable but they keep signing them because the unions fund their campaigns for re-election, fix this and you are on the way to fixing the system, fail and the system is doomed.
Education is a labor intensive business. It is absolutely not surprising that the bulk of the increases come from labor. If there were a pie chart, it would show that about 70% of all costs of education is the cost of labor, from Administrators down to cafeteria services.
ReplyDeleteThat percentage will not change, if you reduce the number of teachers, the only thing that will change is the greater number of kids in each class, the increase of drop outs, the increase of crime and drugs in the schools.
By the way, elected School Board members sign the contracts, so I guess they are politicians. Unpaid, voluntary and usually very short term, but politicians none the less.
As always, if you think you can do better, go for it, run for school board.
When I was a kid I went to parochial grammar school, I was at the end of the Alphabet and remember clearly that I was the 48th student, WOW can you imagine 48 students in 1st, 2nd or 3rd grade, there was only 1 teacher and no assistants, we learned reading, writing and math in addition to history, geography, vocabulary, english, religion, penmanship had recess, went home for lunch, got back on time, we had music and art and gym as well. ONE TEACHER, and a passing grade was 70 not 65 like the public schools. I don't remember anyone getting left back, I don't remember the teacher ever needing help in teaching, and we had plenty of homework.
ReplyDeleteFriends of mine in the Public School system had classes about the same size and I don't remember them having more than one teacher and no aides as well.
At the time teachers were not paid as well as they are today, at least by comparison.
The problem today is that the teachers and administrators don't have to be successful to get tenure. Look teaching is a noble profession, and today it is one of the most rewarding, pay and benefit wise. but without merit based performance requirements, there is no incentive for them and no penalty for failure. Start there and make some positive changes and maybe we'll be on the road to a better education system. Make it a State rather than a Federal system and you've got yourself a better foundation. Cut administrative staff by about 25% and now you're talking!
Stop trying to fix it with more money and smaller classes, it hasn't worked yet.