Just another reminder of the precarious condition of our schools.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Reminder of Aged Schools/Heat Closure
It certainly is hot out there, and the school district is closing early today.
Just another reminder of the precarious condition of our schools.
Just another reminder of the precarious condition of our schools.
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This week was scheduled for half-days!
I never had air conditioning when I was in school and I survived.
Sorry, but 1/2 days were scheduled for this week anyway.
1/2 days were scheduled for the enitre school district except for grades 6-12 today.
Monday 6/9 was originally a half day, but was changed to a full day for the middle/high school.
All those people out there who said the schools had lousy heating should be eating their hats right now!
From today's BCCT. Doesn't this guy know that the only way you're gonna solve this problem is by getting the names and addresses of all the special ed students so you can.....you can......oh, never mind why, you just need 'em. And doesn't he understand that the best way to handle this situation is to pull out of the IU, and push out the people who are projecting next year's Special Ed. services and costs? Maybe bring in someone who's more to your liking, someone who you think will project less services and less costs? You can't make an omelette without breakin' some eggs. You can't have scorched earth without scorching some earth. Sheesh!
Who should pay the bills for state-ordered special education?
As the Pennsbury School Board wrestles with adopting a responsible budget balancing the necessity of maintaining quality education and the impact of tax increases on its homeowners who are facing economic stress, the public needs to know how school district spending is impacted by underfunded mandates.
I am referring to the degree to which the state and federal governments defray special education costs. Our expenditure for special education services has risen from $17.1 million in 2003 to $27.7 million for 2009, a 62 percent increase over six years. Yet, the state's contribution to fund our program in 2007 was $5.4 million and for the next year's budget is only slightly higher.
Thus, the state pays less than 20 percent of the total cost of mandated special education programs and the taxpayer is left with 80 percent of the cost. Over $21 million is borne locally.
I am not suggesting the state has the responsibility to pay the total cost of this program. However, it is not unreasonable to expect the state to pick up at least 50 percent of the costs. At one time, there was a formula based on excess cost reimbursement for special education, but this was abandoned years ago because the state realized the cost was becoming prohibitive.
If the state increased its contribution by just 10 percent each year until reaching a 50 percent contribution rate, real estate taxes would be impacted favorably. In fact, the governor's educational funding reform does not address the issue of special education expenditures nor does it resolve the inequities inherent in the current funding system.
Without more aid, special education programs will be paid for by dislocating resources from regular programs and/or continued tax increases as expenditures continue to rise.
I am by no means suggesting abandoning special education services to those who are served by this program. I am suggesting that homeowners demand from the state Legislature and the governor adequate funding for these very costly services.
Gene Dolnick
Pennsbury school board
Lower Makefield
June 9, 2008 6:47 AM
We never had this fancy air-conditioning and we liked it. We just tied an onion to our belts, that was the style in those days, and we walked twelve miles to schools, up hill both ways!!!
Dennis Miller: And now here with a commentary is Grumpy Old Man! Welcome, Grumpy!
Grumpy Old Man: I'm oooooold! And I'm not happy! And I don't like things now compared to the way they used to be. All this progress -- phooey! In my day, we didn't have these cash machines that would give you money when you needed it. There was only one bank in each state -- it was open only one hour a year. And you'd get in line, seventeen miles long, and the line became an angry mob of people -- fornicators and thieves, mutant children and circus freaks -- and you waited for years and by the time you got to the teller, you were senile and arthritic and you couldn't remember your own name. You were born, got in line, and ya died! And that's the way it was and we liked it!
Life was simpler then. There wasn't all this concern about hy-giene! It my days, we didn't have Kleenex. When you turned seventeen, you were given the family handkerchief. ... It hadn't been washed in generations and it stood on its own ... filled with diseases and swarmin' with flies. ... If you tried to blow your nose, you'd get an infection and your head would swell up and turn green and children would burst into tears at the sight o' ya! And that's the way it was and we liked it!
Life was a carnival! We entertained ourselves! We didn't need moooovin' pitchurrrres. In my day, there was only one show in town -- it was called "Stare at the sun!" ... That's right! You'd sit in the middle of an open field and stare up at the sun till your eyeballs burst into flames! And you thought, "Oh, no! Maybe I shouldn't've stared directly into the burning sun with my eyes wide open." But it was too late! Your head was on fire and people were roastin' chickens over it. ... And that's the way it was and we liked it!
Progress?! Flobble-de-flee! In my day, when we were angry and frustrated, we just said, "Flobble-de-flee!" 'cause we were idiots and we didn't know what else to say! Just a bunch o' illiterate Cro-Magnons, blowin' on crusty handkerchiefs, waitin' in lines for our head to burst into flame and that's the way it was and we liked it!
Dennis Miller: Grumpy Old Man! Thank you, Grumpy! [applause, Dennis tries to shake Grumpy Old Man's hand but Grumpy Old Man is too ornery to shake anybody's hand, dadgummit]
Grumpy Old Man: Flobble-de-flee! [exits]
MP: Aye. In them days, we'd a' been glad to have the price of a cup
o' tea.
GC: A cup ' COLD tea.
EI: Without milk or sugar.
TG: OR tea!
MP: In a filthy, cracked cup.
EI: We never used to have a cup. We used to have to drink out of a
rolled up newspaper.
GC: The best WE could manage was to suck on a piece of damp cloth.
TG: But you know, we were happy in those days, though we were poor.
MP: Aye. BECAUSE we were poor. My old Dad used to say to me, "Money
doesn't buy you happiness."
EI: 'E was right. I was happier then and I had NOTHIN'. We used to
live in this tiiiny old house, with greaaaaat big holes in the roof.
GC: House? You were lucky to have a HOUSE! We used to live in one
room, all hundred and twenty-six of us, no furniture. Half the
floor was missing; we were all huddled together in one corner for
fear of FALLING!
TG: You were lucky to have a ROOM! *We* used to have to live in a
corridor!
MP: Ohhhh we used to DREAM of livin' in a corridor! Woulda' been a
palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a rubbish
tip. We got woken up every morning by having a load of rotting
fish dumped all over us! House!? Hmph.
EI: Well when I say "house" it was only a hole in the ground covered
by a piece of tarpolin, but it was a house to US.
GC: We were evicted from *our* hole in the ground; we had to go and
live in a lake!
TG: You were lucky to have a LAKE! There were a hundred and sixty
of us living in a small shoebox in the middle of the road.
MP: Cardboard box?
TG: Aye.
MP: You were lucky. We lived for three months in a brown paper bag in
a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six o'clock in the
morning, clean the bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down
mill for fourteen hours a day week in-week out. When we got home,
out Dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt!
GC: Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at three o'clock in
the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of hot gravel, go to
work at the mill every day for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad
would beat us around the head and neck with a broken bottle, if we
were LUCKY!
TG: Well we had it tough. We used to have to get up out of the shoebox
at twelve o'clock at night, and LICK the road clean with our tongues.
We had half a handful of freezing cold gravel, worked twenty-four
hours a day at the mill for fourpence every six years, and when we
got home, our Dad would slice us in two with a bread knife.
EI: Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night,
half an hour before I went to bed, (pause for laughter), eat a lump
of cold poison, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill
owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home,
our Dad would kill us, and dance about on our graves
singing "Hallelujah."
MP: But you try and tell the young people today that... and they won't
believe ya'.
ALL: Nope, nope..
Nope, I can't name that tune, Anonymous...
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