There. You’ve been warned. I’m not politically charged, generally speaking, but there are just some issues that get me going sometimes. Education is one of them.
I’m annoyed. In the 13 years since I was a student in the Flagstaff Unified School District, I see that nothing has changed. Not a damn thing. In short, the district is out of money. Again. And they are asking for taxpayers to cover it. Again.
The funding for the district is so bad, they are projecting closing four schools – two elementaries, one of two middle schools, and one of the three high schools here in town – prior to the start of the school year in August. They simply cannot afford to staff schools that aren’t even full. In March, the voters passed a hotly contested budget override, which would provide additional funds to the district by increasing property taxes. Now the district is asking for a sales tax increase to cover the remaining deficit. Almost half of the educators will be receiving temporary pink slips today, until the district knows what next year’s budget is going to look like.
When is this going to stop? I have never heard the term, “budget override” outside of a discussion directly pertaining to FUSD. They ask for an override every. Single. Year. It’s ridiculous. Where the hell is all the money going?
They try to tug on the heart strings with statements like, “this is going to affect our kids if this doesn’t pass.” Why weren’t you thinking of the kids when you were out wasting spending the money we gave you last year? No one wants to make them accountable. They just want to save the jobs and the classrooms and deal with the repercussions later. They just keep throwing money at the problem in hopes it will go away.
And they wonder why kids are defecting in droves to private and charter schools within the city…