Posted on 11/02/2012 5:28:49 AM PDT by TurboZamboni
Voting "yes" for the children is an agreeable sentiment. The "yes" yard signs are cheerful and evocative of wishing only the best for our children. Not to mention that voting yes, or advising others to vote yes, is an example of virtue that speaks to what is presumed to be the wisdom of an engaged citizenry and a cheerleading business sector.
Voters are being asked to approve an $821.55-per-pupil levy, which folds a new $175-per-pupil increase into the existing $647-per-pupil levy. If the levy passes, local property taxes will bring in $133.5 million toward the district's budget of $652 million a year.
But only one conclusion can be drawn from such a request. It isn't enough; it never will be.
The majority of the levy from 2006 resulted, we are told, in first-graders arriving better equipped to learn because of early-childhood programs funded by the levy. Test scores are up. Dropout rates have been slashed. Proficiency is on the upswing in math and science and reading. This was reported in Monday's Pioneer Press by Michael Newman, chair of the St. Paul Public Schools Foundation
(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...
I agree completely. The schools are trying to do something that simply cannot be done. Parents are acting irresponsibly and are threatening their children’s health if they are not feeding them properly. How does a society hold itself out as caring about children when it allows parents who take no care of their children to continue to have custody of them.
If we are going to spend money, it ought to be used to enforce parents’ (including absentee fathers) who are not taking care of their children. Take the children from these uncaring parents (even if they say they WANT to care for them, but can’t— this need not be an issue of blame) and put them somewhere where they will be fed and taught the importance of learning.
The strongest force in America is teacher greed.
gubmint unions in general.
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