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 sort of related to angela's budget issue question 
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this won't directly answer angela's question because, rather, its a story and a subsequent question that i thought of simply because i read angela's post. so thats why im starting a new thread on it - like starting a new paragraph, right? :D

i cringe to hear the word "budget" in relation to education. there's never enough money anyway in the world and there never will be. so i just try to cope with that fact. if the money's not being provided from the higher-up's, then sometimes, we, as educators, must make the personal sacrifice of the monetary kind in order to provide for our students. that's as far as i think about that topic... so on to something sort of related.

a recent and pretty big controversy in my home county (you guys must think my county is completely screwed up with all the horror stories i have - it is :wink: so that's why im going back there) came from the chairperson/leader/whatever of the board of education. this woman proposed big changes and cut backs in the county budget for the schools. a certain amount of money was given by the state, but she was trying to appropriate to whom it was or was not going to go to. the problem was that her proposal meant cutting teacher aids, SIMS secretaries, custodians, and bus drivers. other teachers and administrators were outraged b/c theres already a lack of all of the above in our county. but here's the clencher: this woman had not been voted into her position - she got there when the first leader guy was fired for looking at porn while on the job! haha yeah, i know you must be rolling your eyes and chuckling to yourself over all this drama... but let me continue. so A) the woman was not an elected official and she was trying to make these big decisions. but B) was that she didnt even support public education b/c her only child was home-schooled! do you see where i'm going with this?
oh, and C) this woman never finished high school - she had a GED. um so yeah, the board of ed. got split over the issue. the county became a riot zone at open forum meetings. and the woman refused to step down from her position so that a more informed and experienced member could make the money decisions.

so that leads me to my questions concerning this stuff. should people in administrative positions, especially as high up as the county level, be allowed to serve if they openly dont even support public education? or better yet, should a person who failed to even complete a public education be allowed to make such decisions? does any of that matter to you guys? i mean, this woman almost caused a war in stokes county! another overall question i have is: do you think issues as big as budget should even be put in the hands of one person or even one board of people? should teachers have more of a say? in a case like this, does a simple representative democracy do the people justice?

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Casey McKnight


Tue Mar 23, 2004 4:13 pm
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Well I can add my two cents in on this one too. Everything Casey is saying is true. This whole issue caused major problems in our school system. The other big problem in all this is that this lady didn’t even have the authority to make the decisions she was making. The School Board in our county only makes suggestions on how the money is to be spent. The Superintendent of the county is hired to take care of where the money goes. I’m not completely sure how it all turned out because it became so frustrating that I couldn’t listen to it anymore. But to answer the questions, no I don’t believe that people who don’t support our schools should be in charge. I, of course would think this in that I come from Stokes County myself and completely see the side of the educators on this issue. I would also like to hear some other opinions on this matter though.

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Andrew Voss


Tue Mar 23, 2004 10:05 pm
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It seems too much of the money is used in the wrong places ( or where it does not help the students) Shouldn't we use the money to educate the student? Isn't that what it is all about? But instead political issues take president. What can we do?

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Sherry Caudill


Wed Mar 24, 2004 8:32 am
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Casey, my personal opinion is that teachers should have more say in budget matters. I don't think it is fair that one individual or school board should make these decisions. Most of the people on the board have no idea what the needs of the students are anyway. They are just there for the political power.


Wed Mar 24, 2004 10:40 am
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