Posted on 05/16/2005 2:24:48 PM PDT by calcowgirl
The multimillion-dollar campaign paid by starving teachers unions has finally placed our sadly neglected schools at the center of the budget debate.
Across California, children are bringing home notes warning of dire consequences if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's scorched-earth budget is approved -- a budget that slashes Proposition 98 public-school spending from $42.2 billion this year all the way down to $44.7 billion next year.
That should be proof enough that our math programs are suffering.
As a public-school parent, I have given this crisis a great deal of thought and have a modest suggestion to help weather these dark days.
Maybe -- as a temporary measure only -- we should spend our school dollars on our schools. I realize that this is a radical departure from current practice, but desperate times require desperate measures.
The governor proposed spending $10,084 per student from all sources. Devoting all of this money to the classroom would require turning tens of thousands of school bureaucrats, consultants, advisers and specialists onto the streets with no means of support or marketable job skills, something that no enlightened social democracy should allow.
So I will begin by excluding from this discussion the entire budget of the State Department of Education, as well as the pension system, debt service, special education, child care, nutrition programs and adult education. I also propose setting aside $3 billion to pay an additional 30,000 school bureaucrats $100,000 per year with the proviso that they stay away from the classroom and pay their own hotel bills at conferences.
This leaves a mere $6,937 per student, which, for the duration of the funding crisis, I propose devoting to the classroom.
To illustrate how we might scrape by at this subsistence level, let's use a hypothetical school of 180 students with only $1.2 million to get through the year.
We have all seen the pictures of filthy bathrooms, leaky roofs, peeling paint and crumbling plaster to which our children have been condemned. I propose that we rescue them from this squalor by leasing out luxury commercial office space. Our school will need 4,800 square feet for five classrooms (the sixth class is gym). At $33 per foot, an annual lease will cost $158,400.
This will provide executive washrooms, around-the-clock janitorial service, wall-to-wall carpeting, utilities and music in the elevators. We'll also need new desks to preserve the professional ambience.
Next, we'll need to hire five teachers, but not just any teachers. I propose hiring only associate professors from the California State University at their level of pay. Since university professors generally assign more reading, we'll need 12 of the latest edition, hardcover books for each student at an average $75 per book, plus an extra $5 to have the student's name engraved in gold leaf on the cover.
Since our conventional gym classes haven't stemmed the childhood obesity epidemic, I propose replacing them with an annual membership at a private health club for $39.95 per month. Finally, we'll hire an $80,000 administrator with a $40,000 secretary because, well, I don't know exactly why, but we always have.
Our bare-bones budget comes to this:
5 classrooms -- $158,400 150 desks @ $130 -- $19,500 180 annual health club memberships @ $480 -- $86,400 2,160 textbooks @ $80 -- $172,800 5 CSU associate professors @ $67,093 -- $335,465 1 administrator -- $80,000 1 secretary -- $40,000 24 percent faculty and staff benefits -- $109,312 Offices, expenses and insurance -- $30,000 TOTAL -- $1,031,877L
The school I have just described is the school we're paying for. Maybe it's time to ask why it's not the school we're getting.
Other, wiser, governors have made the prudent decision not to ask such embarrassing questions of the education-industrial complex because it makes them very angry. Apparently the unions believe that with enough of a beating, Gov. Schwarzenegger will see things the same way.
Perhaps. But there's an old saying that you can't fill a broken bucket by pouring more water into it. Maybe it's time to fix the bucket.
Tom McClintock represents the 19th District in the California state Senate. Write to him by e-mail at tom.mcclintock@sen.ca.gov.
You got it!
Break up the big school districts and get rid of most of the administrators.
I didn't read your post before I posted mine. Oh well, we agree about getting rid of administrators.
Bump for later
Break up the current control of unions by law if we must and reduce administrators down to maybe 1 for every 40 teachers.
Also take away the power of the union to make it cost us 100k to fire a bad teacher.
The union only has the goal of growing, so they have been big for illegals in the schools because that means more teachers would be needed to educate them.
I think we need a change in the Constitution of the United States so that illegals are not due any free education, benefits of any kind nor should any get a birth certificate for their children born here unless they prove they were here legally at the time.
It's not just the teacher's union. All of the school workers are unionized.
Our school parents wanted to paint our janitor's office last year as a gift for him, but there were union rules against that.
Our parents wanted to volunteer in the library when the district cut the librarians, but the union rules wouldn't allow that.
It's a joke.
Forgot to agree with you on the illegals. I have little patience with the whole illegal situation, and it is one area that I do not agree with our president on.
That's what the kids say... "Dadgummit, let's go over to the Nursing Home and watch Dad gummit!!!" (That's what they say when they're not thinking about gittin the ranch)
Please add me to the list.
Oh! By the way... Was that gardner documented??? (You don't need to answer that unless you want to.) (Grin)
Done! :-)
They do it under the auspices of the PTA, which is nothing more than a front for the union position. I attended one PTA meeting when my daughter was in high school and found they were all in lock step with the teacher's union. Never attended another meeting....
And just as you're entitled to think that, I'm entitled to think that is an entire pantload!!!
Well?
It is!!!
"Was that gardner documented???"
He was Japanese, a good gardener!
Don't inspire him. He continually posts that Tom promised (car thief) Darrell Issa that he would drop out of the race. Of course, that was found to be a fantasy, supported only by Issa.
Tom betrayed no one. The CA GOP betrayed California by supporting a Trojan Horse.
Well you're entitled to think that, but I think that it is really a TRUCK LOAD!
Like he betrayed us by not getting elected?????
Please note: I don't refer to them as "Japanese-Americans!"
Issa betrayed us just recently when he cowed under to Bush and backed out of the $100k he promised to the SaveOurState petition drive!
I hope someone good runs against him in the next election, I sure won't vote for him again.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.