I get a chuckle every year when I read the wording of the RUSD referendum question. Every year the referendum asks to exceed the revenue limit for "non-recurring purposes."
This must be a mistake. I think they meant "ever-recurring purposes."
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I think they are correct. They won't be able to use the maintenance problem as the excuse for the next referendum lest someone get the hint that they didn't use the money to fix anything. This makes it "non-recurring".
Ummm, have you seen that Racine has well over a 10% unemployment rate? Do you think that maybe the extreme poverty of much of Racine's public schools leads to severe problems which cost a lot more $$$ to solve that having more equality of class in the first place?
You think?
Yes, you?
What gets me about all this is that they aren't asking for that much money from us as individuals. There is a calculator page at rusd's website where you can put in your property value and it will calculate how much money will be coming out of your pocket. A home owner with a house worth $100,000 will pay $73 in extra taxes over the course of 5 years. Is this so much to ask?
Michael, of course they are asking for money from us as individuals. This year I will pay about $9,000 in property taxes, roughly half of which will go to Unified. Now I would be fine with that if we were getting our money's worth. But as I see it, Unified is a monopoly which serves to restrict the educational choices of local children, and no doubt this is harmful to our local children. So it is too much to ask, as they already are spending over $12,000 per student. How much would be too much in your view Michael?
Are you suggesting that we have nothing but private schools in Racine? Not everyone has the money to send their child to a private school.
When you say that they spend 12,000 per student, is that on a per year basis or throughout the time that they spend in the district?
This referendum in particular is necessary, as it is for building maintenance. At Walden there are water fountains that we can not drink from due to rusty plumbing and single pane windows that you can feel cold air blowing through. The stairs in the older part of the building bend under pressure. The boiler hasn't had proper maintenance in decades upon decades. The roofs on some schools are about to start leaking. This is just a short list of things that can be done.
The $12,000 amount is per student per year. We spend more in Milwaukee with worse results, sigh. If you think that the schools are under-funded I give you permission to send them as much of your money as you would like. As long as you're at it, I need some maintenance on my place so send me some of that sugar too.
No Michael I am not suggesting that we have only private schools. I am suggesting that children and parents, if given a choice via a school voucher, would be better off because they could choose among many educational options, and those options would include both public and private schools. The main obstacle to this increased freedom are the teachers unions who would lose money and power if they lost their monopoly.
Michael, it saddens me that you are so tragically misinformed about the cost of a public education. But then, I don't really expect you to get the truth at school. Keep reading FreeRacine. It is good for you.
Make everyone like yourselves, and you solve RUSD's problems of attempting to educate a city impaired for decades from systemmic class division.
Go to Prairie, elitists.
Monopolies - what a right wing trick. Read the Cardinal Stritch prof. in the Mil. Journal that is a market ideologue?
You took her story.
I see that several of the incredible PB&J "consultants" were hired by RUSD. The fun never ends as long as someone else is paying -
Anon 7:53
Those of us who send our children to private schools are not elitists, any more than the many people who don't even consider living in Racine because of the poor quality of the schools are elitists.
If you want to treat your one shot at raising your children as a grand social experiment, and think they would benefit from attending school with kids who suffer from the worst social problems you can imagine, including gang violence, drug abuse, and a general failure to adopt the rules of civilized society, then good luck with that.
However, after hearing about, and seeing directly, the problems which afflict RUSD students, I choose to send them to school with the children of other parents with similar values to mine: hard work, faith, education, and morality - instead of sending them to school with kids whose parents deal drugs or wear an orange jumpsuit.
Elitist? Hardly. Call it pragmatic. Class division? I worked for what I have, and climbed my way up the occupational and social ladder from the bottom rung. Many of my childhood friends are in jail, or leading lives that fall far short of their potential. I don't choose to associate with them, either - nor would I send my kids to school with their children.
And, by the way, the word is "systemic."
Again Anon.
"Make everyone like yourselves, and you solve RUSD's problems of attempting to educate a city impaired for decades from systemic class division.
Go to Prairie, elitists."
At least your proposing a solution this time. Let's expand School choice to include Racine. While the parents that care take their voucher funds to higher quality schools, we can see the results of what the Public school will be left to provide. They will be forced to focus on those kids, (and they'll have more funds to work with, per student). and they can try to create specialty schools, where parents are forced to invest time, energy, and effort to make sure those kids succeed. If they can't more Choice schools will be created and the market will work. Call John Lehman, and Bob Turner, and the other reps of Racine, and lets expand Choice. My kids are grown, we went thru the Private system. I want U to have that choice too!
Anon 11:24 a.m.
I see your point and I am glad that you had the opportunity to send your child to a private school. However, you can not turn your back on the children who do not have that opportunity. By ignoring them you are only making the problems that we face worse.
As an RUSD student, I understand why you would not want your children to be mixing in with some of the kids who go to the large public schools. However, you can teach your children to ignore them and stay away from them as much as possible. I have had my fair share of downright crappy friends, but I learned from those experiences and I now use better judgment. If you don't expose people to others who may be somewhat "undesirable" when they are young, they may not know how to deal with them if they are encountered by them in the future.
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