Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Gibson on education: Takin' it to the state.

To my knowledge, this is city attorney Shane Gibson's first Tribune contribution since being offered what amounts to "equal time" (whether or not is is being defined explicitly as such) by Coach K.

Note that this even matters because Gibson (D) is contesting the House seat currently held by Ed Clere (R). I've spoken to both candidates during the past few days, and foresee an entertaining and informative race come summer.

GIBSON: All schools should be created equal, by Shane Gibson (Tribune).

... In simple understandable terms, does anyone think that a 4.5 percent decrease in funding is going to have the same effect on the daily operations of the Monument Lighthouse School who received a 45.17 percent increase for the year 2010 when compared to New Albany-Floyd County Public Schools? Monument Lighthouse will now only see about a 40.67 percent increase. On the other hand, New Albany-Floyd County Schools, after being shoved a .20 percent increase in comparison, will now have a decrease in funding for the year of -4.30 percent.

1 comment:

Kathy - said...

I'm not a politician, and I'm not real well versed in how it all works. But here's my take on Gibson's POV.

Our school corporation administration has been more top-heavy than Jefferson County public schools. Do you realize just how much bigger JCPS is than NA-FC??? Further, some of the upper crusts make some of the highest salaries in comparison to other school corporation administrators in the area.

Then we have antics such as the following: our school corporation bought a building on Market, put over a million dollars of really sophisticated renovations into it, then decided it was too old, bought the property on Grant Line, moved-in, and then even bought the adjacent church and extensively renovated it, leaving the Market Street property vacant and for sale for quite some time. *inhales* Eventually, they sold the Market Street property for about half a million, never blinking an eye at just how much money they utterly and completely wasted. All the while that was happening (prior to and during FOSSE’s formation), Silver Street sat, being accused of being old and outdated and being told there wasn’t enough money to do anything for them.

Again, these are MY opinions and not that of anyone else – Ed obviously speaks for himself - but the problems happening here are NOT entirely because of states funding or lack thereof - - it’s because of VERY poor management and judgment on the part of our school corporation.

I urge you all to go to the Indiana Government website and watch some of the debacles happening! I am registered as a democrat, but I do research the candidates for which I vote and common sense and logic over-rules party in my book. Go to this link, and watch the second segment from February 24th’s session and somewhere from about the middle forward, tell me how proud you are of the democrats who throw some hissy fits. http://www.in.gov/legislative/house_democrats/webcasts_archive_2010_house.html

I don’t know what Ed’s thought process was when he requested the amendment wording be changed from “employee” to “teacher” other than the reasons he states when making the proposal, which are very logical and justifiable. But something he may have never even considered was that it is COMMON SENSE to change the wording in the amendment to “TEACHER” from “EMPLOYEE” when our very own school corporation employs the highest ratio of admins:teachers over most of Indiana, and pays them some of the highest salaries in the state and shows a history of bad financial judgments.