Got Votes?
...Apparently not.
Yesterday was election day. Some locales had big time elections (Kudos to Virginia's new governor!); some, smaller, local issues. Our town was in the latter category. Only 17% of registered voters here voted yesterday. Yes, you read that correctly: seventeen. Disgusting. I wish people would understand that just because we're not voting for President or Governor doesn't mean an election is not important. Sometimes it's more important.
Which may be the case with yesterday's election. Four years ago our town voted on an 'override' to put more money in the school's budget. It passed. Yesterday it was time to renew this override. It didn't pass - just barely 48-52. But what's the saying - 'close only counts in horseshoes'? This, unfortunately, is not horseshoes. It's our future.
The money from the override provides for things like all-day kindergarten, reading specialists (who, by the way teach our Spanish speakers to speak English - in AZ we have a large # of kids who speak Spanish only), school nurses, 'specials' - which include PE, Music & Art as well as library and computer as well as other smaller things.
I will be the first one to admit that throwing money at an issue doesn't necessarily make it better. Often times it makes it worse. And I think that taxpayer money needs to be spent very, very wisely and frugally. But after having a child in our school system for a couple of years I understand that the override money is used, for the most part, wisely.
The loss of this funding means 2 kindergarten teachers at our school will be without jobs next year. Our sweet school nurse will be unemployed. It's the tip of the iceberg. More layoffs will be taking place over the summer. I would like to think that the district administration would be able to cut costs elsewhere to keep some of the important programs running. Time will tell if they have it in them.
Speaking of school & money: we are having yet another 'fundraiser'. They are calling it the 'winter fundraiser.' Don't they know it's still fall? Unfortunately, we can't use this money to pay to keep a teacher...
Yesterday was election day. Some locales had big time elections (Kudos to Virginia's new governor!); some, smaller, local issues. Our town was in the latter category. Only 17% of registered voters here voted yesterday. Yes, you read that correctly: seventeen. Disgusting. I wish people would understand that just because we're not voting for President or Governor doesn't mean an election is not important. Sometimes it's more important.
Which may be the case with yesterday's election. Four years ago our town voted on an 'override' to put more money in the school's budget. It passed. Yesterday it was time to renew this override. It didn't pass - just barely 48-52. But what's the saying - 'close only counts in horseshoes'? This, unfortunately, is not horseshoes. It's our future.
The money from the override provides for things like all-day kindergarten, reading specialists (who, by the way teach our Spanish speakers to speak English - in AZ we have a large # of kids who speak Spanish only), school nurses, 'specials' - which include PE, Music & Art as well as library and computer as well as other smaller things.
I will be the first one to admit that throwing money at an issue doesn't necessarily make it better. Often times it makes it worse. And I think that taxpayer money needs to be spent very, very wisely and frugally. But after having a child in our school system for a couple of years I understand that the override money is used, for the most part, wisely.
The loss of this funding means 2 kindergarten teachers at our school will be without jobs next year. Our sweet school nurse will be unemployed. It's the tip of the iceberg. More layoffs will be taking place over the summer. I would like to think that the district administration would be able to cut costs elsewhere to keep some of the important programs running. Time will tell if they have it in them.
Speaking of school & money: we are having yet another 'fundraiser'. They are calling it the 'winter fundraiser.' Don't they know it's still fall? Unfortunately, we can't use this money to pay to keep a teacher...
Comments