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News, schools, and views from a uniquely Lowell perspective

No surprise local paper doesn’t support schools

No surprise that yesterday’s Lowell Sun sang the merits of the manager’s budget, especially his plan to cut $1.6 million from the schools. Anyone paying attention to past editorials and recent blog posts knows there’s an editor on a mission to denigrate our public schools—especially our teachers. It’s clear, however, that this person never spent a day in an urban classroom teaching anything to anyone—never mind 25 students, many of whom do not speak English as their first language. More importantly, the editorial failed to give historical perspective, such as the hits the schools have been taking since 2002, especially the budget cuts of 2003 (the year I ran for school committee). That year and the following, the city’s contribution to its schools was $12.7 million—its lowest since before 1992 when it funded the schools $25.5 million. Note that number: $25.5 million—the amount the city funded its schools in 1992. Taxes have been going up (about six percent over the last five years) but those tax revenues have not been for the schools. In 2003, the City Council cut the school department’s budget by $10 million, and 12% of school staff (more than 100 people) were laid off. And yesterday, this editor writes: “It is incumbent upon the teachers’ union and school administrators to participate in the efficiencies and cost-savings being implemented on the municipal side of government.” Pleeese!  Although I’m saddened to hear of layoffs on the city side, I don’t recall any municipal layoffs in 2003 or any year in recent memory. Meanwhile, the school department continues to look for efficiencies. The current school budget is based on 25 trade-off positions—17 eliminations at the middle school level alone—as a way to use attrition to prioritize staffing needs. The schools are using data to better meet students’ needs and that requires staffing and programming support. That said, I agree the current city budget is comprehensive and includes actual expenditures, going back five years. Once you break out state support for education, chapter 70 funds, the city’s history of funding its municipal departments has been steady while its support for its schools has not. 

posted in Education, Local Politics, Money Matters | 0 Comments

Paying taxes like getting your teeth cleaned

I heard a caller on the radio ask a city council candidate what he would do to reduce taxes if he got elected. I don’t remember his answer because at that point my morning mind was filled with its own questions: Why does this caller expect anyone to be able to lower taxes when costs keep going up? What services is he willing to do without? Trash collection? Recycling pickup—not an absolute necessity (my sister lives in Maine and has to drive her recyclables to the dump)—but a helluva convenience. Safe neighborhoods and clean drinking water? How about nice parks and paved streets? What about schools where every child, regardless of income, ethnicity or social status, gets a good education that enables him to read, write, do math, and best of all, get a job so he can pay taxes too. How much is that worth? 

The thing is I’ve been paying taxes since I got my first real job at 16, my first car (a very used 1967 Cougar) at 17, and my first home at 26, and believe me, I don’t enjoy giving up my hard-earned money anymore than you do. But I do enjoy the services; they directly impact my quality of life (and yours), and they provide us all with a community that has a future. It’s like going to the dentist to get your teeth cleaned: you don’t want to go (that horrible scraping), but you do because you’ve got one set of teeth and you have to take care of them. We pay taxes to take care of our community. The way I see it, people would feel a lot better about paying taxes if we felt government was efficient and transparent with our money. More on that later.   

 

posted in Local Politics, Money Matters | 1 Comment

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