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A sobering look at Georgia's educational budget woes

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by novelist_wannabe, Mar 7, 2010.

  1. Crash

    Crash Active Member

    Well, part of the problem is that the government's only solution to education reform is to throw more money at the problem. But that only works if you throw money in the right places. We need vast improvements in facilities (research shows that better facilities = better student confidence in their schooling = better results), particularly in the inner city schools that are falling apart with a quickness. We need to stop funding schools solely on property taxes (where that still occurs), and we need to add incentives to good education. Teach for America and programs like it need to be expanded. No Child Left Behind needs significant reform. Grants for top students need to be expanded to get them to teach.

    And the biggest problem with government-led reform is that it won't address one of the fundamental problems: parents and kids. Everything is a fault of the system, the teachers, or the administrators. Good education starts early at home, not the first time a kid shows up at kindergarten or first grade.
     
  2. Bob Cook

    Bob Cook Active Member

    There is no system that gets funded solely with property taxes. It's a combination of property taxes and state funding. In states where both have cratered (like Georgia, California and Virginia), the districts are in hurtin', hurtin' shape. For what it's worth, here in Illinois, the state funding is so minimal that cutbacks -- while they hurt -- don't have the same impact.

    A lot of people notice school funding cratering now because it's not just the poor districts suffering anymore. Some of them getting the worst of it are the fast-growing exurbs that had nothing but housing underlying their tax base, and had all sorts of bonding issues out to build new schools (by necessity to absorb the population). Here in Illinois, you hear of exurb schools built for 1,500 kids that have 200 kids in them. The problem is, the schools have to project future years' enrollment based on building permits, and no one has ever been in a situation where building permits when from 1,000 to zero in a year.
     
  3. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    You need a person with a master's degree in business running a school division. Not a master's in early childhood education.

    Imagine a business that had 24,000 customers, 3,000 employees, 3.5 million square feet of facilities, $315 million in sales every year and not one business degree running (or on) the ship.
     
  4. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    Bob, I think we have 10 new building permits. and 3,000 empty homes.

    Get your facts staright. :)
     
  5. Bob Cook

    Bob Cook Active Member

    Better yet, with a board of directors that consists of local ding-dongs who are more interested in such pressing issues as making sure intelligent design gets its own class, or that their kid is guaranteed a spot on the volleyball team.
     
  6. Bob Cook

    Bob Cook Active Member

    Here's what you do -- close down some schools, and spread kids out to be taught in the empty houses! Win-win! :)
     
  7. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    The hammer just met the head of the nail.

    Honestly, some School Board members do have some business chops. But there are a ton of soccer moms as well.
     
  8. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    In my experience, our local school committee is made of very bright and hard-working people who want to do the right thing, but none of whom have the time or background to supervise capital-intensive construction projects, negotiate contracts, or any of the other things school systems do.
    So the superintendent runs the show. And our town has run through more of them than the Clippers have head coaches, because the complaining parents (which is a big number of them) know to get their way, making the super's life hell is the path to success.
    This is, BTW, one of the best public school systems in the entire U.S. And we've got the test scores and tax rate to prove it. So even successful school systems are semi-dysfunctional. Nature of the beast.
     
  9. WolvEagle

    WolvEagle Well-Known Member

    Teachers and surgeons - their money comes from different places: Public vs. private sources (my kids attend a public high school). As a taxpayer, yes, I have the right to question the fact that the teachers' benefit package is not in line with us working stiffs, especially since I'm paying their salaries.

    Another pet peeve: In our newspaper's coverage area, there are 18 municipalities and 16 school districts. The average enrollment per school district is just under 3,000.

    Uh, how 'bout merging those districts into, say, three or four, and save a tremendous amount of money. Nah, makes too much sense.
     
  10. expendable

    expendable Well-Known Member

    I think a lot of this can be pinned on elected school boards. Elected boards usually have a substantial number of retired teachers with axes to grind, whereas appointed boards (usually by the commissioners or supervisors) usually have more level-headed community members, who are charged with looking out for what's best for the students. They're insulated from a fickle electorate, and can make some decisions that may not be the most popular.
     
  11. Bob Cook

    Bob Cook Active Member

    I'm not sure you can say that. An appointed board can have as many knuckleheads as an elected board. As as Michael Gee pointed out, you can get boards that bring the business and management experience the school itself does not have.

    The problem at the moment is that the real estate market, which drives school funding, is down a rathole, and state assistance isn't forthcoming either because of its own budget woes. Board, administrators and teachers are going to have to get creative, because the funding levels aren't coming back for a long time -- assuming district residents don't want higher taxes for schools. It's a hard sell because so many people feel like (incorrectly) they have no stake in the status of their public schools.
     
  12. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    The connection between my town's school system and its real estate values is why taxes are so high. Every time there's a tax vote, the local realtors do WAY more lobbying for it to pass than do the teachers.
     
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