Posted on 02/29/2008 8:29:44 AM PST by NorCoGOP
Times are tight for everyone, for the private and public sectors alike. While those of us in the private sector are having to do some serious belt tightening, it's only reasonable to expect government to do the same.
Government spends our tax dollars, after all.
You'd think that in 2008 it wouldn't be necessary to give elected officials a gentle reminder about maintaining the public trust by spending tax dollars wisely, but a recent Associated Press examination of spending by the state board of education proves otherwise.
The AP investigation found that members of the board claimed as much as $60,000 in individual expenses in the past fiscal year. The extravagant spending included a night out in Telluride where the eight-member board took 17 state employees out to a fancy restaurant with the bill totalling $2,028 plus a $305 tip. During meetings in Denver, the board routinely catered breakfasts and lunches costing up to $300 per meal.
Of the expenses claimed by members, chairwoman Pamela Jo Suckla was the worst offender at $26,000. This, while schools are struggling to meet mandated test scores?
"This is outrageous. This is taxpayer money, and there is no control," said Sen. Steve Johnson, R-Fort Collins.
Outrageous is right.
It's good to report that former congressman from the Fourth District, Bob Schaffer, was the most frugal of the bunch by only claiming $521.
But the near $25,500 (the difference between Schaffer and Suckla's expenses) question is, how did it come to this? Where was the restraint?
Now that the board's individual spending habits have been made public, we're confident the board will now police itself properly.
The onus is on city, county and other state bodies to learn from the board of education's missteps and make sure they can justify every penny they spend.
The hard-working, tax-paying public expects nothing less.
How is that possible - in 7 hours, I can drive from Wash. DC to Utica, NY.
Typical of the entire government education scenario, this type of liberal behavior should not be a surprise to anyone who understands liberal academia. As with all liberals, there are two sets of rules, two standards of behavior, etc. Until the American taxpayer gets fed up with government and education waste, this will not change. Get involved with the entire education system and your government -— you can hold these parasites accountable.
Straight line would be about a 3-4 hour drive, but we have those pesky moutains to contend with here in Colorado, where there aren't straight line drives possible, nor desireable. They are long drives, but well worth the scenery, as long as the weather is decent.
I find public school boards bizarre entities at best. In the West, even more so. (i.e. WE are ALL POWERFUL, YOU are NOTHING)
Look at a map. This is the west out here. Things are not as close together. Plus we have mountains to drive around or over- not easy or expedient.
Most easterners do not understand the distances involved in the west. From Denver heading east to the Colorado border alone is a 2 hour drive.
Ok, then - why should she not expense her travel? I certainly would - and, given the travel time, that means per diem, etc.
The article seems a hit piece.
Our local board was wasting money on things, prompting me to run. One of the things they were wasting it on was “middle management”. There were at one time, MORE “administrators” than teachers in our area.
I’m not sure if that has changed, but I’ve given up on the public skool system in Colorado Springs in general and the state itself
The drive from Cortez to Denver can often take up to 12 hours depending on the road conditions.
I lived in Cortez and had several opportunities to drive to Denver. The shortest time was right at 8 hours, the longest was just shy 12 hours.
” Driving from Cortez to Denver.”
You’d have to be clinically insane to take that route from Cortez to Denver. That’s all two lane roads over mountain passes and through river canyons. If you got stuck behind any kind of large truck or scared flatlander, you’d be driving that entire distance at 15mph (and that would be the top speed not the average).
Anyone who actually wanted to get to Denver from SW Colorado, would take the widest road available that got them to either I-70 or I-25 as fast as possible.
I’ve often found the mapquest routes to be bizarre. The point was that you’ve got to skirt a lot of geographic obstacles and it’s a long way no matter which route you take, not the specific route.
This is normal activity for teacher’s union thugs. Who could possibly be surprised by this? In fact, how could anyone with an IQ of 100 not know how corrupt the govt is by this time? Corruption is endemic and education bureaucracys are amongst the worst.
The extravagant spending included a night out in Telluride where the eight-member board took 17 state employees out to a fancy restaurant with the bill totalling $2,028 plus a $305 tip.
On public funds, $80 for a meal for each person is unacceptable.
Bob Schaffer is running for the U.S. Senate against Mark Udall. At least I think he is, since his campaign is practically invisible.
What need have school boards for these travels? Why not dog catchers?
I could see needing to get together to discuss things. Of course, in the modern age, we could use other means for discussions. But still, I don’t mind paying for the travel if there is a need to meet.
We have counties around here that are bigger than some of your states. (And this isn’t even Texas!)
“Board of Education wasted thousands of dollars (Colorado)”
What a bunch of slackers.
They need to come to Columbia, MO and learn a thing or two about wasting
a million or more.
($1.7 million blown on “consultants” in two years by the Columbia,
MO school district; revealed recently as the school system announced
they are in the red and we need to increase property tax.
For the children, of course)
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