Schools could lose millions in state aid under proposed budget.
Good!
Schools should not be immune to economic misfortune. And school spending must be brought under control.
Even with generous state help, school taxes, even after STAR, have increased dramatically over the years to the point where they have become confiscatory. This drives people and jobs out of New York because they can no longer afford to stay here. Today it is not uncommon for school districts to annually exact more than 2% of the value of real property in taxes -- exceeding a former constitutional limit. Money is spent not on educating students but on lavish sports facilities and school construction projects. The number of administrative positions has ballooned. Nonsense distractions like International Cup Stacking Competitions occur regularly. Busing has become the norm, wasting student time and encouraging urban sprawl. Class sizes have been reduced, requiring the hiring of more teachers to do the same job. Teacher assistants or aides have been added to the mix, further increasing the number of paychecks. There are so many school district paychecks that, in a sense, whole voting blocks have been purchased with taxpayer funds, skewing elections and local policy making toward more government (leaving less for private business). Teacher pay has increased over the past generation at up to twice the rate of other comparably educated public employees with no increase in responsibilities.
It has gone on long enough.
3 comments:
Wait till taxpayers in the UCSD get the bill for health ins. coverage for all teacher retirees. The district supt. & the board even had the audacity to stick the taxpayers with the burden of paying for health ins. coverage for teachers who have already retired! This blatent abuse of the taxpayers is going to either bankrupt the district or put homeowners in a position where we can no loger afford our homes due to exborbitant tax increases. Supt. Willis should be fired & the entire board should be forced to resign for their blatent dereliction of duty when it comes to looking out for the best interests of the citizens that have to pay for this giveaway. It is a shocking abuse of taxpayer money that cannot be ignored by this community. This is a slap in the face to every taxpayer in this city.
This is also the big reason why people who don't have children (note: Young single professionals) are leaving like crazy! Meanwhile single mothers (the ones who don't know how to take care of themselves, much less their children) are plentiful here, relying on lavish social programs offered by public school.
People wonder why parents aren't raising their children more... well if we didn't have to pour our money into public schools to make it the parental crutch (one which we rely on because gosh darnit, we're going to get our money's worth... hopefully) maybe parents wouldn't rely on their local schools to teach their children discipline and correct behavior for them.
It's no wonder that Klein & Lapolla are defending this blatent ripoff of the taxpayers. As retired teachers their own health insurance will be paid for. Talk about a conflict of interest! These 2 will also be feeding at the pig's trough, while the citizens struggle.
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