Education Matters US

The school board in Big Hollow School District 38 has voted to punish the children instead of controlling spending. They have now voted to cut the following:

As you can see these are cuts that affect the children themselves. These tactics are nothing more than threats to the parents for not allowing the district to take more of their money. There is a letter to the editor today in the Daily Herald that sees these tactics for what they are as well. They asked some very good questions that the board and administration should answer.

Big Hollow and many other districts use these same tactics of black mail and emotion everytime they try and take more taxpayer money to feed their every growing bureaucracy. You will notice in the articles from the Daily Herald and the News-Sun there is no mention of salary freezes or staffing cuts. The service cuts are directly aimed at the children. Even the School Board President admits these are small cuts:

With salaries being 70-80% of school budgets, why are there no cuts where it can really save money? In a separate Daily Herald article on Friday we discover that the music teacher, Carol Cosman, will be teaching another class this fall. Since this will not be music, what class will she be teaching? What is here degree in? If her degree is in music, then why will she be teaching another subject that she has not mastered? If here degree was not in music to start with, why was she teaching music?

We continue to have teachers that are teaching in subjects they have mastered. This situation is not good for students. Think about this logically. Yes, I know logic goes against the grain for those who only want more taxpayer money. They want you to rely only on emotions. If you question the need for a person with a masters degree or the pay of a teacher, you will hear the argument that teachers put up with so much in the class room and only those that are certified to teach are capable of doing the job properly. If you follow that logic, that must mean the teacher has spent the years of their education learning nad mastering the subject they are teaching. Unfortunately, this argument does not hold water. As in the case here in Big Hollow, it shows that teachers are not neccessarily subject masters in the class they are teaching. They are more likely learn the material they are teaching just ahead of the students they are teaching. This is common because of many factors, but mostly due to the union rules of seniority.

School districts around the state continue to use these same tactics of blackmail. They claim it is only the truth and the only choice. In most cases it is not the only option, it is simply the only option they want to look at. As an example, here in Grayslake District 46, we defeated a 4th straight referendum attempt in 2005. These same threats were made about shortening the day and elminating lunch. They had previously cut art and music programs. The voters elected 4 new members to the school board. The Superintendent was replaced that same year. The new board did not shorten the day. They restored art and outsourced the music program. There has not been a referendum since and music has now also been brought back inhouse.

The spending can be controlled, but only with diligence from the board and taxpayers. Boards can be easily swayed if the taxpayers do not continually watch the spending within the district. If there is a taxpayer in Big Hollow who is willing to continually watch over the district, please contact me. I will be happy to help you setup a website like mine to disseminate the truth with facts, instead of emotion, about the district’s spending problem. As a side note, there is a website setup to aid the tax and spenders. It Preserve Big Hollow. They have already posted about my articles in their critics section. I did not even know about them until recently when a friend of mine informed me. Feel free to pass this article on to them as well. Maybe they can get some of these questions answered for the taxpayers.

The original Press Release form the School Board can be found here.