School Versus Casinos: An Exercise
In Learning About The Real World
The town I live in is one of two currently being courted by Mohegan Sun for the building of a resort casino. We are also facing the possible closing of the middle school.
Who said local politics weren't fun?
On the school front, the superintendent of schools held an informational meeting with the town to illuminate the possible closing of the middle school, which would mean some 400 students would suddenly need to find space in either the already over-crowded high school or the already over-crowded elementary school. There are a number of problems, among which is that the superintendent is stating that they have no control over about 96% of their budget. These are fixed costs like utilities, busing, and Individual Education Plans for student requiring special care (which carries the weight of law in Massachusetts). The remaining 4% is discretionary funding which is books, papers, pens, pencils and other paraphernalia of learning. As a father of four children, I wonder at that number since I know we provide paper, pens and pencils and I've seen the same text books show up with child after child.
He is stating that the schools received a 58% cut in funding in total from the state in various ways. He was asked by the state education board to prepare four budgets: a level budget and budgets with a 5%, 10% and 15% cut in funding. He stated that the administration is not receiving any raises this year in an effort to mitigate the budget.
Good for them - I've gone without a raise for two years running and this year doesn't look good either. Pardon my lack of sympathy, but its about freaking time. Consider that last year the administration had an 8% pay raise if you average it out over all administrators and the year before was 10%. Even if I had gotten a raise I would have been lucky to see 3%. Boo freaking hoo for the administration.
The people of this community have been making do with less for years. I won't get into the national or state politics that caused that because that's not what this post is about. The end result is that since 2008 people in this community on average have not seen an increase in their income but have seen an increase in spending. Gas taxes have gone up. Sales taxes have gone up. The price for oil, gasoline and natural gas has gone up. The price for food has gone up. The price for clothing and other goods has gone up. That's not even talking about the credit card interests. I personally am facing possible foreclosure on my house and I still have a good paying job. That's mostly due to sudden emergency expenditures like an exploding boiler, a leaky roof, failed appliances and plumbing repairs that I did myself. We were unable to secure any loans other than for the boiler. Our credit cards have had the interest rates increased and the credit limits decreased. We are behind in all our debt. I haven't mentioned it because we're not alone, and we're better off than some if not most. I only mention this now because its about time the government in some way starts to feel the pinch.
There was no sympathy at all for what the schools were going through, only outrage. Outrage because we were led to believe that this would be a question and answer session where we would have the opportunity to discuss the issue. Outrage over the wisdom and safety concerns of placing ten and eleven year olds in the same building as seventeen and eighteen year olds within weeks of a report of a twelve year old getting raped by a seventeen year old. Outrage over the sense that no one in the school administration seems to feel anything about it at all; no concern, guilt, anger, humiliation or even frustration. A token attempt was made to place blame on the town government but everyone in the audience has been (or should be) aware that the town has been one step from bankruptcy for years now.
I fail to see how the school administrators can feel closing the school will do anything positive in regards to their budget. The bulk of their budget from their own numbers is spent on IEPs and other fixed costs which will not be affected by closing the school building. This has the feel of a scare tactic meant to panic the public, a public that is already stretched to the breaking point with tension, worry and very real fear. This was a bad move.
