Thursday, September 06, 2007

Somebody Needs To Do Something

We need to assure the safety of students, teachers, and others at public school sites.

It will cost money.

The money will come out of APS' budget; or somewhere else.

If it comes out of APS' budget, it will still hurt students, but in a different way.

No one has a budget that will accommodate this cost.

Unless they are cuts to be made; taxes will have to be raised.

That will be a whole lot easier to do if voters aren't worry about a bunch of bureaucrats pissing away their hard earned money.

Establish a tax ear marked for kids. Put our money where our mouth is.

Administer the proceeds in a manner that is absolutely transparent. Require that administrators hold themselves honestly and transparently accountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence, and directly accountable to the public.

I would vote for it.

(Please participate in the Reader Poll on this issue. Top right side bar. Thanks)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd vote for it too. Where is the State - Homeland Security on this issue?
I love how the Federal Gov. and local officials jump all over school safety when a school shooting occurs or the media reminds us that schools are soft targets for terrorism.
Whole lot of talk and very little action. A lot could be done now, with a common sense approach that doesn't require money. But of course, we must talk it to death and wait for it to smack us right in the face first.

Anonymous said...

APS will not get another dime from me untill there is an honest audit with people held accountable. Promises of future accountability are just that, promises

Anonymous said...

One of the comments below: "APS won't get another dime from me"... huh???? If I don't my property taxes, of which a huge allocation goes to APS (&CNM); whether I like it or not, then I will be in big trouble.
Is there really a way to protest that?

ched macquigg said...

The comment was in response to the idea of willingly taxing ourselves additionally in order to pay for school police; and for the intervention, and prevention for at risk children, that we must fund.

Actually, the only opportunity to protest property taxes is to defeat mill levy or bond issues; neither of which is in the immediate future.

Anonymous said...

Mexico seems to have had some success in paying students to go to school and by alloting food to mothers who keep their children properly immunized and such. Could we take that approach, say 400 of the 4,000 that APS gets for each student from the state via the "head count", and use that for the same purpose, but add on some safety requirements too. APS doesn't get the rest of the money unless it starts complying with Homeland Security Presidential Directives on having an All Hazard Plan in place. Could the State PEd hold Districts accountable that way, hold up the funding for the administrators only (teachers and field troops need to keep getting paid)? I wonder if, likea "day without a Mexican" we could have a "day with no layer of administration" - unlike no immigrants, I bet teachers would not notice that some former administratoor getting paid both his/her retirement and a technical salary was NOT sitting on their ass at Communications or HR that day.

J. Lopez - former school employee