"It was awful," said Reed, adding that teachers were starting to organize to home-school children who didn't want to attend Hearne schools..,..***
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Texas school district under fire:
***....Bienski serves not only as the school district superintendent, but also as the principal of all three campuses. When the district began its aggressive building campaign in 1997, Bienski served as the general contractor, saving the district millions of dollars. The district owns all three campuses outright.
The school district stocked its computer labs by taking advantage of grant programs. When it launched its high school a few years ago, it focused on academics and avoided costly athletic programs such as football. ....*** Source
We have been down this court-imposed school funding road in New Jersey, and it ain't a pretty sight.
The NJ Supreme Court initially decided that it was unfair that "disadvantaged" urban school districts were not funded at the same level as suburban schools. So they mandated that state aid be given to urban districts to bring their funding up to the state average.
Of course, the money disappeared without a ripple with no change in performance.
Then the Court looked at school funding and decided that it was unfair that the urban districts were not on par with the best funded suburban school districts. So a cap was put on how much suburban schools would be allowed to spend, and a levy was collected to send enough money to the urban districts to bring their money-per-pupil to that ceiling level.
Of course, more money still made no difference. The underfunded failing urban schools just became overfunded failing urban schools. You would think that, at this point, the NJ Supreme Court would cut their losses and run, but nooooooooo!
Now the Supremos have decided that since urban schools are underperforming, they must have higher funding to ensure they can meet the special needs of the urban student. So now spending in urban districts will be boosted until they achieve results comparable to the State at large. As long as they continue to fail, their budgets are required to increase, in a classic example of a perverse incentive.
And you just know that if they ever do actually, by some miracle, bring the average urban school up to the standard of the typical suburban school, the Supremos will decide that it is still not fair until the urban schools perform at the same level as the top performing surburban districts.
So spending in urban districts is zooming past $20,000 per pupil per year, with no end in sight. There has been no appreciable increase in the quality of education. Suburban taxpayers are being whalloped with 20% increases in their property tax bills, year after year, with the money being packed off to Trenton to be redistributed, while actual per-pupil spending in suburban districts is declining, because there is a limited amount of money to go around.
It is a train wreck - a slow-motion disaster. And the crashing will continue for years to come.
Years ago Cal Thomas said that until conservatives abandon the public school system, nothing will change.
I'd love to find the column where I read that (thought I'd saved it) but it was over 10 years ago, and his arguments were as compelling then as they are now.
Hahahahahaha! How naive. Courts have the primary voice. Next would be teachers unions and school boards.
Oh, and courts now set school budget terms as well.