First, I will without hesitation state that I one hundred percent agree with the decision of the school board. The measure proposed passed on a 5 to 2 vote and would like to quickly point out the two dissenting vote came from two school board members that have previously announced they would be running for other higher offices. Their dissent obviously politically motivated in the future advancement of their careers in our city government in their pursuit of higher office of which they have expressed their intent.
One parent wrote about the $2000 in property tax they pay each year of which nearly all such tax payment funded education for her children. Must be from a low rent district...but regardless she would be wrong. Property taxes are cut up into funding many city and county services with schools being one of many such services funded. With the average family having approximately 3 children of the $2000 this parent declares she pays even if the whole $2000 amount were to go to schools (which it does not) that would equal $666 per child of which the parent is receiving benefit, where someone such as myself paying the same $2000 in taxes who has no children gets very little benefit from the same amount paid. So it is very easy to see who is reaping the most benefit here and that would not be me! Yet it is a part of homeownership and the contribution I must pay as a citizen of this community of which I have never voiced issue or complaint. But it angers me the entitlement that some people feel and expect they should receive from the hand of others. In this situation, their children are going to school for almost free! Those on welfare, food stamps, and government assistance are sending their children to our public schools for free as you know they are paying no property taxes. And yet just a few days ago my mother and I were a gasp when one such welfare free loader complained to us on the issue of these schools closing. The last freaking person on this planet that should be complaining in my opinion when my tax dollars are sending her child to school for a free public education, not to mention the welfare benefits and food stamps that my tax dollars provide to her so that she and her child can eat and have a roof over their head at night. Yet it is the people with this mentality that already rape our system collecting free hand outs that are always the first to complain.
The decision that was made in the closing of these schools was long over due. Back when the money freely flowed like water from the faucet they spent money hand over fist just wasting it thoughtlessly instead of buckling down and conserving during plentiful times. Now that the faucet has been shut off they are finally buckling down, being conservative, closing schools to fill up classrooms that were until now half empty and getting rid of some teachers and their salaries that were unnecessary and frivolously being paid to teach half full classrooms in many instances. The school board finally in the face of cutting the budget or going into bankruptcy did the reasonable and prudent thing in making this decision...a decision that should have been made many years ago and of which was long over due.
Now that the well has run dry and there is no bottomless pit of money to abuse we have the school board scrambling and parents crying due to past recklessness, negligence and abuse. Yet, there remains many options open and available for these parents and their children. Maybe not easy options or the most convenient options but none the less many options are available other than wasting tax dollars keeping open schools and paying teachers salaries that we don't need. Many parents are voicing and making excuses to not close these schools in that they bought property in that particular neighborhood because that is the school they wanted there children to attend...Then move! The school board was quite cleaver, they had Realtors on hand at last nights board meeting when the decision came down the pipe for the pissers, moaners and cry babies that were using this as their excuse. Or the excuse that two of the four schools were four star schools, one of which President Bush visited a few years ago. So what? Anyone that forks out enough money or kisses the right tail feathers can persuad someone or some outside organization to dawn them with a gold plaque to hang on the wall and say how great and wonderful you are...but that doesn't make it so. (you can look at the New Albany, IN high school statistics and figure that out) Or how about saving some of that money being spent going out to eat three and four nights a week or saving some of that money spend at Bonnie Sloan (the VFW) slamming back $3 drinks and leaving $5 tips more nights than not and using it for the education of their child in a private school of their choice if the free public school no longer meets with the parents approval. We have at least two private Catholic Schools that would be happy to educate your children (for a price) and it is not required that you be catholic for your children to attend. They also provide excellent educations and the students have higher aptitude scores than those in area public schools. Or how about those big vacations, road trips, season basketball tickets to the Wildcats game, greens fees, country club memberships, eating hamburgers instead of steak, running up debts on your 52 credit cards you have to have and all the other places in ones budget that personal cuts could be made to fund your child’s private education if public school is no longer good enough for you and you recent the appropriate and prudent decision by the school board that was made? And for those that can afford or budget their families so that they can send their children to a private school it would certainly be to the advantage of their children as the New Albany High School graduation rate is only 87% and of those graduates only 8% aspire to further education of a bachelors degree or higher...which in our economy and job market is almost a must to get a job of which you can comfortably survive. Oh yes, that's right you have “entitlement” to bitch about what basically amounts to the free ride you're getting by sending your children to public school...I forgot. But I tell you what I have not forgotten and that is the thousands of homeowners just like me in this community that pay property taxes that have no children. We are paying just as much and probably more than most in our community for your child’s free education that you bitch about and of which we get little or no personal benefit at all. Yet we don't complain that we are funding your child’s education…nor should we.
Bottom line...this was the right thing to do. This should have been done long ago and if the free ride is no longer appealing to such parents then there are many other choices for them other than sitting around bitching, pointing fingers, name calling and crying about something they have no justification what so ever to be crying about. These pissers and moaners have the choice if desired to move to a new neighborhood in the area, they can home school their children, they can send their children to private school, and if none of those options sound good to them how about picking one of the other 49 states with hundreds of thousands of different school districts to select from to send their children to school. However, don't think for a moment that this is just a New Albany, IN problem as the economy and recession has effected the entire country and regardless where you live I'm sure as a reader your community and maybe even your schools are going through similar budget cuts, reorganizations, and have their own sets of problems and issues of a similar nature.
The New Albany/Floyd County School Board did the right thing. If faulted for anything it should be for wasting our tax money all these years and not doing this ten or more years ago. Finally the reasonable and prudent decision in closing these schools and releasing teachers that were unnecessary is being done. From a practical, financial and business point of view I see no other reasonable options or fundamentally sound choice the school boards could have or should have made.
Gus
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