Posted on 02/14/2007 5:27:56 AM PST by wintertime
SCOTTS VALLEY - Parents whose kids take a day off from school will be asked to open their wallets. That will be $36.13, please.
Desperate to hold on to every penny of state funding, Scotts Valley Unified School District leaders are asking parents to make a donation to the district for the amount it loses every time a student is absent for a reason other than illness.
They say such absences cost the district $223,500 last school year.
``When parents keep their kids out of school, it's difficult for the child,'' Superintendent Susan Silver said. ``But it's also a cost to the district, and when we're in declining enrollment, every single bit of money is important to us.''
State funding for schools is based in large part on a formula called ``average daily attendance.'' Districts aren't paid for how many students are enrolled in their schools, but how many kids show up for classes. So, more absences means less money.
Scotts Valley Unified has 2,722 students enrolled this year, down from a high of 2,846 two years ago. Based on enrollment, the district is eligible to receive more than $14.9 million in state aid, or about 80 percent of its operating budget.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Wow! And that's not even counting all the special-ed money we could get for crazy Pat. (I mean, Tim. Today his name is Tim, and he says he's black.)
Is this a great country or what? (what's left of it.) Those that pay into the "system" get very little and those that don't pay into the "system" get everything.
You summed it up quite nicely, my friend
Isn't it nice to see that children are the property of the local public school system?
While I absolutely dispise public schools, I disagree with this statement.. I pay more to the local school district every year in property taxes than I pay for tuition for my son to go to a private school, and my house is assessed at 150k, so hardly am I milking anything. Not only am I fully funding my own childs education, I'm paying more than that to the public schools, who will spend 2 to 3 times that much per child and graduate a less educated adult at the end.
I'm paying enough in property taxes to my school district to send some strangers kid to the same private school I pay for my child to go to and then some, and that's still not enough for 1 child in the public school system.
"Today his name is Tim, and he says he's black."
He's just got that Mardi Gras vibe going. He'll be fine next week.
It's a 1/2 school day in Guilford today. I let my son stay home, so I guess they'll send me bill for only $18.
The greed of these people is unbelievable.
Good point. I'll have to find some reggae on the satellite radio!
You could make money by letting people pinch those sweet little cheeks of Vlad's! Course, we might need defense from the penguin trolls, but hey, no reward without risk?
You reserved my restaurant for a WHOLE YEAR.
You paid for that privilege for a WHOLE YEAR.
I bought food and staff to serve you for a WHOLE YEAR.
You don't show up on Tuesday, and I'm supposed to go after you for something EXTRA?
Sorry, but that boat just doesn't float.
Public schools are tax funded institutions which means the middle class (as you call them) have already paid for their schooling as well as fire, safety, health and human services; and now you want to assess them a daily rate to incarcerate their children in these dens of inequity under penalty of truancy?
The only solution to the dilemma of public schools and their failure is dissolution.
That would be true if "you" were the only tax payer in the school district but that is not the case.
The taxes that "you" pay in school taxes in one year do NOT begin to pay the cost of educating one student per year. That cost is subsidized by all the other taxpayers in the school district that have paid to staff the school at a certain level.
When you tax me to fund the local school at a certain level to educate your child and, after my money has been spent to staff the school at a certain level, your child is a "No Show", you have paid for only a small fraction of the wasted tax money and the rest of us taxpayers have had to pick up the rest of the bill.
It is like going to a restaurant with five friends with an agreement that the bill will be shared equally, ordering the most expensive item by far on the menu and then not eating a bite out of it. When your friends complain, you say that it is your food and that you have "paid for it".
Yes....but.... my family will pay taxes for 50 working years, so while the 8k I pay a year in state, local, and personal property taxes does not pay for one years worth of school, it certanily pays for my 2 kids, plus several others over my working lifetime.
"You" reserved the restaurant for the whole year.
"We", the rest of the school district taxpayers, paid most of the tab.
See Post 54.
We are paying for food that you are leaving on the table.
LOL!
True.
If I only paid taxes for 12 years, then you might have a point.
But I've paid school taxes for 35 years, and have YET to use them for any children, unless you want me to count myself, (in which case, who did my Dad's taxes pay for?)
And it sound like the OP and you want me to pay EVEN MORE, because I homeschool my son.
Schools are big on attendance these days and I support that with no problem. In fact, if there is a student with a high absence rate schools are now taking parents to court for truancy.
But to fine parents because a child skips school is wrong.
Horse puckey.
What exactly is this "food" that the alleged "educators" are "leaving on the table" and is therefore ruined, because Johnny skipped class?
I could see it if they reserved a trip to the museum and got tickets for all the kids, and then Johnny didn't show up, after they got the tickets.
But in everyday stuff, I don't see it.
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