General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMichigan District Fires All Teachers, Closes Every School
Summer break has started very early for kids in one Michigan school district.
Buena Vista schools have been closed for five days already, and on Monday, the district's website stated that the school would be closed until further notice. For good reason, this decision has parents, and the community, up in arms.
The problem in Buena Vista is that the school district, educating approximately 450 kids, is out of money. All the teachers have been laid off and a financial emergency has been declared. The district has suffered from declining enrollment, which, in turn, has led to a loss of $3 million in state funding since 2010.
In an effort to keep schools open, teachers said they would work without pay. This is not possible under Michigan law so educators have been left in limbo. To make matters worse, the staff has also lost their health insurance.
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http://news.yahoo.com/michigan-district-fires-teachers-closes-every-school-012040117.html
bluedigger
(17,086 posts)Buzz Clik
(38,437 posts)You have the General Manager (superintendent), coaches (teachers), and the team (students).
When you don't have enough players to field a team, you have a serious problem.
JNelson6563
(28,151 posts)Those poor, rural areas will close up shop and Voila! Poor kids with no choice but to go without education and to toil at lowly service jobs! Hooray! A whole segment of our populace that will guarantee a steady supply of inmates in for profit prisons, cannon fodder in for profit wars and worker bees in profitable businesses that pay shit wages.
I'd say the plan is coming together beautifully.
I have to go be sick now.
Julie
Lindsay
(3,276 posts)entire communities are destroyed.
Gonna go be sick my own self.
Orrex
(63,172 posts)At some point some will be driven by poverty and desperation to commit a crime, and they'll thereafter be denied access to public assistance such as SNAP and public housing. They also won't be able to get good jobs because of their criminal records, so they'll be driven back into crime and back into incarceration.
Lather, rinse, repeat until death by age 50.
What a wonderful system!
a kennedy
(29,618 posts)this is just terrible....
southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)underclass. It isn't fair. I always thought when you all pay taxes that was suppose to go to all your schools equally. My heart is broken because I fear for my granddaughter. Heck I even wrote a her letter for her to read at the age of 13. I want her to go to college. Honestly I worry about her and all the kids who go to her school in our rural area.
KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)while their rural and impoverished can't even afford to stay open?
cali
(114,904 posts)Vermonts school funding system is among the most unusual in the nation (see Vermonts Most Unusual, Most Equitable School Funding System in a Nutshell). It was adopted with lightning speed in 1997, within four months of a Vermont Supreme Court decision (Brigham v. State of Vermont) finding the old system unconstitutional because it tied local school funding to local property wealth, resulting in unequal educational opportunities.
The Equal Educational Opportunity Act, far better known as Act 60 (and now as Act 68 due to amendments passed in 2005) required wealthy towns to share resources with poorer towns, left spending decisions in the hands of local school boards, and effectively converted school property taxes into a flat income tax.
The resistance of the wealthier towns was ferocious, and it was a leading issue in the state for at least eight years. Last year, the Vermont Legislature again asked for a professional review of the law to determine whether it was accomplishing what it was intended to accomplish. The Legislature hired Lawrence O. Picus and Associates, a well-known school finance consulting firm, to conduct the study. Their preliminary findings have been released.
Picus found that the Vermont school funding system is working well and meeting the goals established in Acts 60 and 68. Among the specific findings:
<snip>
http://www.ruraledu.org/articles.php?id=2829
Buzz Clik
(38,437 posts)When you don't have enough kids to operate a school, you close the school and consolidate with neighboring districts.
It's pretty bad, but what are the alternatives?
Botany
(70,447 posts)Bay Boy
(1,689 posts)...by misspending $400,000 of state aide. The state then shut off the spigot and the school district laid off all the teachers.
But it has to be figured out how to get these students back in class, they are the victims of a bunch of adult idiots.
longship
(40,416 posts)R&K
fadedrose
(10,044 posts)Our governor is pitiful.
Yes, I am from Michigan, came from PA, and they could stand a trade too.
starroute
(12,977 posts)Buena Vista School District, MI (2607230)
-- DP1 General Demographic Characteristics
-- Table/Item -- Value Percent
White 2,483 30.4
Black or African American 5,292 64.8
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)lark
(23,065 posts)Oh, it only affects teachers and students and not specific RW organizations so it doesn't matter? MSM makes me sick.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)one turns, decline.