Weekend News
Nifty graphic on Friday's front page showing the sources of income and outgo for the school district. I'm not sure how many words a picture is worth, but that picture certainly summarized the school district's situation nicely. There's only one slice of that pie that has any significant amount to be cut if the tort fund appeal is lost: salaries & benefits, i.e., big layoffs. And you could empty out the 14th and Maine office and still not get anywhere close to the $4.47 million reduction Mays is talking about. And since sports and performing arts have such monster constituencies in Quincy, my guess would be that those layoffs will come in the places where they would be most politically painless but, unfortunately, will hurt kids the most -- ordinary classroom teachers. Watch those class sizes go up at Baldwin and in the K-3 schools. So what if they pluck a $600,000 figure out of the air and reduce hiring by that much? That only leaves $3.9 million to go.
Maybe the school district should start operating a casino. Hey, if it's the magic solution to the state's budget shortfall......
Saturday's paper had a heart-warming article about how Roy Blunt is going to lead Missouri into the Promised Land of "faith-based" initiatives, i.e., government support of Christianity. I wonder how many of the state's 262 contracts with "faith-based" organizations are with organizations that are Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Wiccan, Native American, or any of the many other religions that exist on this earth.
Sunday's headline about arts organization budget cuts overstated the problem: There won't be any "curtain calls" and nobody said anything about "drastic impact." The actual cuts to local organizations, described in the story's body, represent roughly 3 percent of the QSFA's budget, a bit more than 3 percent of the Community Theatre's, and something like a tenth of a percent of the Art Center's.
Maybe the school district should start operating a casino. Hey, if it's the magic solution to the state's budget shortfall......
Saturday's paper had a heart-warming article about how Roy Blunt is going to lead Missouri into the Promised Land of "faith-based" initiatives, i.e., government support of Christianity. I wonder how many of the state's 262 contracts with "faith-based" organizations are with organizations that are Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Wiccan, Native American, or any of the many other religions that exist on this earth.
Sunday's headline about arts organization budget cuts overstated the problem: There won't be any "curtain calls" and nobody said anything about "drastic impact." The actual cuts to local organizations, described in the story's body, represent roughly 3 percent of the QSFA's budget, a bit more than 3 percent of the Community Theatre's, and something like a tenth of a percent of the Art Center's.
posted by Allthenewsthatfits at 6:46 AM
8 Comments:
atntfob
There is a driver's ed teacher at qhs that makes 90k+/yr. Cry us a river.
I don't know enough about school personnel here to know whom you're referring to, but at the high school I went to, those people were usually coaches. So I'd guess this person's going to be safe if budget-cutting time comes. The district will choose the more expedient route of knocking out a couple of fourth-grade teachers instead.
If that's the case, I hope they give the one's that aren't very good teachers the ax.
What do you suppose is the teacher to student ratio is today as opposed to say 20 years ago. Is the student performance better?
Two good questions, and I don't know the answer to either one.
I know our 2nd Grade teacher at Madison is above and beyond our expectations.
She got a class full of gifted kids and PUSHES them hard. Good for her ! She suplements the incredible DUMB Chicago Math ( worst style ever) with REAL math .
She stresses perfection and she takes no crap.
I like that !
If she was patty cake & feel good fluff , my boss with an Ed Degree would throw a fit.
To the good & great teachers ....teach and fight the system
Two good questions, and I don't know the answer to either one.
You should find those answers before go off willy nilly making unsubstantiated claims like:
...those layoffs will come in the places where they would be most politically painless but, unfortunately, will hurt kids the most -- ordinary classroom teachers. Watch those class sizes go up at Baldwin and in the K-3 schools.
It's not a claim, it's a prediction. We'll just have to wait and see if it's a correct one.
P.S. Please feel free to make your own predictions as to what the district would do if faced with the necessity of cutting 4.47 million dollars out of its operations.
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