School budget cuts that make sense

[flavio]

Trim the fat instead of firing more teachers......

In one of his first official acts as new chief of the cash-strapped Oakland public schools, Randy Ward has turned off 500 district cell phones used by employees and others who were chatting their way to $750,000 a year.

From the driver who delivers the milk to nearly all 100 principals, so many district employees were issued cell phones under the prior administration that when Ward asked for a list, just 200 phones could be matched up with individuals.

The rest were floating out there somewhere -- but still getting plenty of use.

"We'd get some bills that were $200 and $300 a month, and when we called the number associated with the phone, a stranger would answer and refuse to identify themselves," said Harold Lowe, director of purchasing for the district.

More...........................

 

[TheBoyBlunder]

Good. It's stupid crap like that that's hurting our schools. Well, apathetic teachers and parents who say "you're racist!" every chance they get as well as try to sabotage their kid's teachers at every turn don't help either.

 

[NogginBoink]

Damn... send him to run the school district in my area!

More power to him!

 

That's exactly what the Ann Arbor Public Schools need. People here are idiots when it comes to managing a district.

 

[Corporate Thug]

good call

 

[flavio]

Originally posted by: shady06
good call

Hey that was punny!

 

[Rogue]

I would say that most of our tax dollars now days go to pure and utter waste like this. I see waste in business, industry and government everywhere I go. My employer runs a pretty tight ship and I have gotten used to that. I am certain that when I run a business or corporation one day, that many employees will quit when I am done cutting their BS programs and frivolous activities conducted during business hours. A local business where I live is constantly on the verge of financial ruin and they actually pay people to come pick up and shred their confidential documents. Nevermind that they could buy a shredder for probably a quarter of the cost of the service they're paying for and do it their damn selves.

Edit - You know, after having read the entire article, I can tell you that just about anyone given a luxury will firmly convince themselves that if removed, they cannot perform without it. The things this guy is doing are common sense, pure and simple. I do not belive that teachers should have unfettered access to long distance calling from their land lines either. I understand where he's coming from and he's gonna catch hell for a while, but eventually, things will work out and/or the most bothersome people will leave to defraud somewhere else.

 

[flavio]

Originally posted by: Rogue


Edit - You know, after having read the entire article, I can tell you that just about anyone given a luxury will firmly convince themselves that if removed, they cannot perform without it. The things this guy is doing are common sense, pure and simple. I do not belive that teachers should have unfettered access to long distance calling from their land lines either. I understand where he's coming from and he's gonna catch hell for a while, but eventually, things will work out and/or the most bothersome people will leave to defraud somewhere else.

Eliminating long distance from most of the phones as his next step seems so obvious that you can't believe it's been allowed all this time while teachers are getting laid off. I guess sometimes it takes a fresh perspective.

 

[imported_Mike]

"So if someone wants to call everybody and their mama, the district won't be paying for it," Ward said.

hehe...i like this guy

 

[notfred]

On average, each person with a district phone was spending about $125 per month.

I pay $60/mo total, for two phones. Who the hell were these poeple calling?

 

[dquan97]

Originally posted by: notfred

On average, each person with a district phone was spending about $125 per month.

I pay $60/mo total, for two phones. Who the hell were these poeple calling?

Abu Dhabi

 

[manly]

LOL cash-strapped is putting it very mildly. The Oakland school district was recently bailed out by the nearly-bankrupt state at a cost of $100 million (later mentioned in the article). I don't know how many kids are in the school district, but Oakland is a small city of roughly half a million residents. Sadly enough, crap like this is probably just a drop in the bucket of their problems. Most likely, it's the worse fiscally-run school district in the nation.

Of course, we shouldn't be surprised. Oakland/Contra Costa County threw a roughly $60 million "loan" bone to Al Davis to lure the Raiders back to Oakland, except the terms of the loan are that they never need to be repaid. Due to poor attendance falling well short of projections, the county had to float bonds to cover the financial debacle, at a rough cost of $300 million to taxpayers over 30 years.

Now, Al Davis is suing the county for $1 billion for breach of contract because after all the money they threw at him, the fans didn't flock back to support the team as he'd expected them to. I'm sure the politicians had rosy predictions that they'd do exactly that. Davis is basically suing because he feels the Raiders should be one of the top-valued franchises in the NFL. They probably would be if he'd stayed in L.A. and somehow gotten a pristine new stadium to play in. Funny thing is Angelinos probably are ecstatic that they don't have an NFL team blackmailing them, and hope their elected politicians don't scheme a massive financial subsidy to allow some multi-billionaire to own the next L.A. NFL team.

This all occurs in the state with the 5th largest economy in the world. :|

Edit:
Since I've already strayed off topic, I'll stray back to education. As part of a bone-deep spending cuts package in their last-ditch budget proposal, state GOP congressmen proposed to defer children's enrollment in kindergarten. Over 100,000 kids who would otherwise begin their first day of school in September would be asked to stay home if the proposed GOP budget were passed. It's great to see compassionate conservatism ("Leave no child behind") as the new face of the GOP. On a similar note, both the U.C. and CSU university systems would be expected to trim a funding level roughly equal to the costs of operations of its largest campus. I.e. shut down U.C. Berkeley to help craft a GOP budget. Just brilliant.