Dr. Liverman and our local government officials need to face an economic reality: The collective income of the people and business has declined, state and federal tax revenues have correspondingly declined, and therefore, local revenues and budgets must also decline. Those are the economic facts of life—in good times government entities can enhance their service levels (Dr. Liverman has spoken much of this), but in bad times they must contract to survive (or more pointedly, so their taxpayers can survive). Facts are facts, as the saying goes.
Accordingly, it’s time to stop the talk about preserving the status quo and time to start planning and prioritizing the cuts and changes that have to be made in response to “bad” economic times. And hey, when “good” times do return, these same planning efforts will serve as their map for reversing the impact of the required cuts in that same prioritized manner. To rational folks, this is a much more positive and proactive approach because it recognizes economic realities rather than bemoaning them.
So let’s get on with the business of facing facts and addressing reality. And after all, isn’t that what we should be teaching our students?
Dennis Pike
3 comments:
The problems at the SPS are twofold fiscal and performance. Even though they have been bloated by years of double digit assessments an academiac of the likes of Doctor Liverman might be able to improve results at the schools that have repeatedly failed to meet minimum standards. He might be able to address personnel issues and balance that with the wishes of ther School Board. He may even attempt a try to pare back costs. However the other side of the coin is the shortfall of funding from state and local levels. He and "his" school system have been conditioned to take a majority of the city's revenue year after year. They will do so again this year. The crux of the problem is the School Board's lack of vision and direction. It is well past time to move the incumbents out.
Actually, I don't see a problem. The city will continue to over tax the citizens and with this year's 2 million dollar budget surplus provide Liverman and the rest of the SPS employees with a bonus because they got left off the list last year.
Taxpayers pay Liverman and his Assistant Superintendents over a half a million dollars annually plus benefits. This is the core leadership that continues to not produce anticipated outcomes -- high student achievement. At some point, taxpayers will wake up and quit betting on the same losing team. There are plenty qualified unemployed talented school administrators who are hungry and want to work and produce results. I agree it is time to send the school board a Scott Brown message and replace them with leaders that can make decisions and stop the lack of leadership in SPS. Let's vote them out!
SURPRISE $962,000 in forced Public School spending was just a token for next year. The State handed down the decision to cut another $9,000,000 next years. Now some heads will roll and others will get double duty. All this at the administration level and perhaps some curriculum subjects will be tossed out at unnecessary at this time. Closing schools may be a practical idea. Let the cuts begin.
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