$20 million cut in wake county education? Really?

Submitted by markey mark on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 9:44pm

I realize that budgets are tight all across America and all but I need someone to explain to me why taxes can't be raised on the rich, and only the rich for once, instead of cutting education funding. North Carolina has been run by Democrats for as long as I have been here, for 24 years (out of 39), and to be honest, I wonder if the bought-and-paid-for Republicans would be much different. When will Democrats in NC take some progressive stands against the entrenched business interests in favor of the working people? We know Republicans are hopeless of course but Democrats aren't supposed to repeatedly raid the state treasury and furlough teachers while the students suffer.

This is outrageous to me that Democrats can't stand up and do what's right for the community. We are reaching a point where even teabaggers are pushing for punishment of the rich at their "tea parties" so why can't NC democrats stop raiding the state treasury and instead tax the rich ONLY for once?

They're the ones that got us in the mess AGAIN and AS USUAL with their greed.

The Wake County school system needs to cut $20 million from its central services budget for the 2010-11 school year to erase a projected deficit, Superintendent Del Burns said Thursday.

"Given what we see in the leading indicators, we must take proactive steps now to address the problem of rising expenses and decreasing revenue," Burns said. "As we did last year, as information became apparent regarding our financial situation, we made decisions to absorb the impact. This year, we are trying to avoid going back to the classrooms for cuts."

http://www.wral.com/news/education/story/6456624/

I guess the results of the Wake county school board election means that Democrats should just act like Republicans now and bleed the schools dry.

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don't get me wrong

Submitted by markey mark on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 10:06pm.

i realize that democrats, even compromised ones and there are plenty of those in DC, are better than the best republican politician.

the time has come to hold dem pols' feet to the fire and make sure they are representing the people who voted them into office and NOT the business interests who try to bribe them.

I thought they WERE Republicans

Submitted by James on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 10:32pm.

maybe I'm wrong

Do good. Be nice. Have fun.

Taxing the rich

Submitted by SPLib on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 10:09am.

I realize that budgets are tight all across America and all but I need someone to explain to me why taxes can't be raised on the rich, and only the rich for once, instead of cutting education funding. North Carolina has been run by Democrats for as long as I have been here, for 24 years (out of 39), and to be honest, I wonder if the bought-and-paid-for Republicans would be much different.

One penny on the property tax rate in Wake County generates $11.7 million in revenue. Two pennies generate $23.4 million.

On a $100K home, a $.02 rate increase means a staggering $20 more a year- ~$2 on your monthly mortgage payment
On a $200K home, a $.02 rate increase means a staggering $40 more a year- ~$4 on your monthly mortgage payment
On a $400K home, a $.02 rate increase means a staggering $80 more a year- ~$7 on your monthly mortgage payment

There's no need to "tax the rich, and only the rich." Wake County can afford to spend $20 million more on schools if they want to. The REAL problem is that County Commissioners in NC live or die politically based on how they handle the property tax rate. The Realtors do a very good job of making the tax rate a bigger issue to people than a couple buck here or there from everyone for education.

The root of the problem, in my eyes

Submitted by Apex Rich on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 10:40am.

The root of the problem, in my opinion, is that the county has lost faith in the school system's ability to use money wisely. Many of the people I speak to see WCPSS as a big gaping hole that consumes tax dollars without regard. Here are the reasons people don't trust the system that I can think of.

  1. Transportation scandal. Although a few years ago, the fact is that people remember it and the school system still doesn't haven't transparency.
  2. School building priorities. The leadership screams about lack of money and lack of space, but then they fund weight room renovations and fancy multi-story glass entrances like at Cary High.
  3. Year round schools. Much publicized, year rounds conversions were claimed to save money. People now want to know why the system is asking for more money while backing out some of the conversions.
  4. New school sites. The issue in Apex where the school system bought land at double what it sold for under a year ago through a broker that was on their advisory committee and from a politically well connected and influential school supporter. Now there is Forest Ridge where initial cost estimates are proving to be off (even if no fault of the schools) by millions of dollars.
  5. Funding priorities. Last year one of the first steps taken when budgets got tight was to put a hiring freeze on teachers. People saw this was a scare tactic to get support for a tax increase. Everyone knew that a hiring freeze on teachers should have come much later in the process and the system was playing games.
  6. Administrative salaries. Most people have no problem with teachers getting raising from tax dollars, but when they look at the public information that shows many six-figure salaries for administrative positions that don't have any direct impact on their school or their kids, they think the system has their priorities in the wrong place.
  7. School level funding. The school system has shifted an enormous amount of costs back to the parents. The school system no long supplies tissues for classrooms, something they did ten years ago when I taught. Parents answer the call and supply them. Those same parents are now thinking that they already pay more so that $20 million should have to come from them.

Marky Mark -

We know Republicans are hopeless of course but Democrats aren't supposed to repeatedly raid the state treasury and furlough teachers while the students suffer.

Thank you. I have been waiting years for this to change and it hasn't happened yet. The Democrats have utterly failed public education in Wake County. It is embarrassing.

Completely insane

Submitted by usernamehere on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 10:55am.

Which party controlled the Wake County Board of Commissioners through most of Wake county's population explosion and stifled the school system's budget?

That would be the GOP.

Talk about your revisionist history.

The counties fund school systems. And a GOP county commission board underfunded the Wake County schools for almost a decade. Now some damn liars (or is it just plain idiots) are trying to blame that on Democrats.

Good grief.

 

I think you are missing the point I am making

Submitted by Apex Rich on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 11:09am.

While you are certainly factually correct, what I was referring to is not about facts, it is about perception. People see the school system as wasteful. That only strengthens the County Commission's ability to continue to underfund the schools. That the system already has to make do with less doesn't matter when people believe that they aren't being careful with what they are given.

As for the "population explosion", the WCPSS is now significantly under full capacity. People know this. People also know that many people publicly claimed that the estimates given by the system in the last few years were inflated. The WCPSS ignored and dismissed those objections. Those people were right, the school system was wrong. Yet another reason many don't trust the school administration.

I know a lot of reasonable, middle of the road independents who will be very, very reluctant to ever vote YES on another school construction bond. These are regular family people who are the kind of folks you should be able to depend on to support school funding. But now they won't. Mostly because they think the school system cries wolf.

Again, this isn't about what the facts are, it is all about perception. Trust isn't just based on facts.

The failure of the Democratic Party is that for years they allowed the County Commission to short-change the schools without turning it into an effective election issue. They really handed the keys to the castle to the GOP.

cry me a river

Submitted by markey mark on Sun, 11/22/2009 - 11:42pm.

you must be fucking kidding me. democrats are THE SAME as repubs down here in the south. minus some social issue wingnuttery, they're the same as far as fucking over the middle class and the poor.

This study assesses the fairness of each state’s tax system, measuring the state and local taxes paid by different income groups in 2007 (including the impact of tax changes enacted through October of 2009) as shares of income for every state and the District of Columbia. The report provides valuable comparisons among the states, showing which states have done the best — and the worst — job of providing a modicum of fairness in their tax systems overall. The study’s main finding is that nearly every state and local tax system takes a much greater share of income from middle- and low-income families than from the wealthy. That is, when all state and local income, sales, excise and property taxes are added up, most state tax systems are regressive.

http://www.itepnet.org/whopays3.pdf

yeah yeah yeah. blame the repubs in wake county right? no. i blame the democrats who run the state. there are a thousand different ways they could make those wake county commissioners feel some political pain. but they don't. because democrats are bought and paid for whores just like the repukes are.

i will admit some ignorance to who ran what and when. but i blame the democrats who run the state for not using their power to make a stand for education, which is the main way to break the medieval choke-hold that fundamentalist republican neanderthals have over society.