Posted on 12/09/2004 2:55:13 PM PST by JosefK
I just find this below excerpt suspicious...
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Closures on table as Seattle Schools faces bankruptcy
By Sanjay Bhatt
Seattle Times staff reporter
Seattle Public Schools is considering plans to close the equivalent of 12 to 22 schools starting in two years in order to stave off bankruptcy, district officials say.
After similar actions by urban districts in California, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Minneapolis, administrators in Seattle say closing schools would help stabilize the district's financial health and channel scarce resources to teachers and learning, rather than bricks and buses. Seattle hasn't closed schools since 1988, partly because the decision is so politically explosive.
But Seattle, like other urban school districts, is facing declining enrollment at a time of increased costs and accountability. The city's total population is growing, but its percentage of school-age children is shrinking.
No schools have yet been named as targets for closure, which may explain why public reaction to the proposal has so far been muted. Fewer than 20 people attended a School Board hearing Tuesday on the district's new five-year plan.
While the plan outlines at least $100 million in needs to boost academic achievement, raise teacher pay and close future deficits, district officials say there's no revenue source that can reliably finance that other than changing the system's basic structure. In recent years the district has exhausted its reserves, cut payroll and seen its major grants expire.
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Totally suspicious, coming a week and a month after the defeat of I-884. Moreover, as I blogged at http://josef-a-k.blogspot.com/2004/10/kitsapsuncom-politics-1-cent-solution.html (among other postings), it was a piece of C-R-A-P.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
Friendly PING for the Freepmail :-)
Thanks :-)
Good. Maybe this can be the start of a nationwide trend to separate school from state.
From post: "urban school districts -"
Reminds me of the other article of the liberal/Socialist bragging that the "blue" was "urban" - Lot of problems and it's sort of hard to understand considering all the Federal money going towards education - Is there any accounting of it - like where it does it all go?
Considering the areas - are they bunching the kids up to make it easier to brainwash them? Will we be seeing lots more little Socialist coming out into society - Sad state but our government doesn't seem to notice - or if they do - are good at turning away from the PC crowd -
That is what happens when the gaybirds come home to roost...
>>The city's total population is growing, but its percentage of school-age children is shrinking.
Blue cities, every one of them. The blues can't educate their spawn.
Yeah, it is.
I also went to the Seattle Public Schools website - only 1 mention of bankrupt, bankruptcy or bankruptcies and not related to recent news.
I just forsee this as a cry for more money... INSTEAD of more reform. Let me quote Marsha Richards at ( http://www.mlive.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/politics-0/1099526943173870.xml&storylist=politics ):
"In the case of 884, voters saw through the rhetoric," said Marsha Richards, education reform director at the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a conservative think tank. She said voters didn't trust that the education tax would be spent well.
"Every year we hear we need more money for kids, and there's a disconnect," Richards said. "I don't think it can be fully explained by just an anti-tax mood."
Yeah, it is.
I also went to the Seattle Public Schools website - only 1 mention of bankrupt, bankruptcy or bankruptcies and not related to recent news.
I just forsee this as a cry for more money... INSTEAD of more reform. Let me quote Marsha Richards at ( http://www.mlive.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/politics-0/1099526943173870.xml&storylist=politics ):
"In the case of 884, voters saw through the rhetoric," said Marsha Richards, education reform director at the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a conservative think tank. She said voters didn't trust that the education tax would be spent well.
"Every year we hear we need more money for kids, and there's a disconnect," Richards said. "I don't think it can be fully explained by just an anti-tax mood."
Part of it was Washington's already high sales tax. Increasing it by a full percent made it even higher.
I also wonder if any education liberals' attacks against public education have anything to do with it too. They sure do in my state.
well, each of those "lost" students is $10,000 in federal funding...
they could very well be looking at bankruptcy if they increased pay and benefits too much.... most school districts are...
LA is $125 million in the hole for next year.
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