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Boston parents to rally against school cuts
By adamg on Mon, 02/02/2009 - 4:02pm
The Boston School Committee meets Wednesday evening (6 p.m. at 26 Court St.) to consider up to 15% cuts in school budgets. BPS Parents are planning a rally) before the meeting to protest those cuts:
Our children's right to a decent education is at risk!
Via David Ertischek.
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Comments
Where were these parents before?
I hope these parents come with solutions, rather than just to waste time at a public meeting venting un-informed or ill-informed frustrations (though they certainly have a right). I understand that it sucks. I'm a public school teacher. But the parents should realize that the School Committee is not cutting back because they want to.
I've seen too many School Comm. and other public meetings where an 'angry mob' shows up only after the emergency is announced, and with a lack of understanding of the meeting structure and general process. As a result, the public input portion of the meeting is not used effectively, and the Committee spends more time explaining the way budgets work or even the way meetings work than they do on accomplishing anything.
In other words, it helps to also be involved in the good times.
The Boston Budget Crisis is a Fraud
Ladies and gentlemen - as I write this the City of Boston's latest projections are actually for about a 1-2% increase in revenues next year. The reason we are in "crisis" is because the administration has a) negotiated a 5% across the board salary raise for union employees (which they are now trying to take back)b) thanks to gold plated health care benefits we are projecting a 12% increase in health coverage for city employees - with fewer employees on city payrolls and c) pensions are increasing even faster than payrolls (7% v. 5%). Over the past 5 years we have added 1200 employees to the city's budget including about 75 new teachers and 200 new cops while population is stagnant and school enrollment is declining - exactly what are those other 900 or so people doing and why aren't they on the chopping block long before the teachers and cops. Why? Because it's Springtime for Menino which means it's time to go to Beacon Hill and ask for meals, parking and event taxes so we have to conduct our annual "the sky is falling ruse" to get new revenues for the city.
I don't want to argue ...
I don't want to go off-topic here, but isn't the budget "crisis" because the Commonwealth welshed (worry, Welsh people) on its state aid commitments, halfway through the fiscal year?
I totally agree about salaries and perks and government bloat, just looking for clarification.
Welshing - sorry Welsh - esp. Katherine Zita-Jones
John -
This year (FY '09) is seeing some relatively modest cuts - in the range of $10-15 million - which are easily offset by the supplemental $10 million we put in the budget for increased fuel costs that went away. Plus the city always underestimates revenue so there's room for extra police/fire OT, snow removal etc. Somehow we always exceed the budget on both sides - revenues and expenses - by about 2%.
The bigger problem is next year - projections are for a 1-2% revenue increase (state is cutting aid about $45 million and local revenues like excise taxes will drop a little - but that's offset by a $61 million property tax increase and a few other increases in various fees and fines - nets out to a slight increase). However, the gorilla in the room is a 6.25% total expense increase. So basically, because the city has refused to exercise any level of fiscal discipline by granting raises at double the rate of inflation, health benefits that can't be touched in the private sector and pension benefits that have become non-existent in the private sector - we are facing a "crisis". Bottom line with the savings from fuel, the hiring freeze and an honest assessment of how much revenue we really collect (which typically exceeds budget by 40-60 million) you take away half the "deficit". If the unions take a salary freeze or even half a freeze and some other efficiencies the city should have implemented a decade ago (mandatory participation in the state health plan, more efficient school bus routes, elimination of excess non-mission critical positions - like 25 of the 75 admin positions in the city council) and you fairly quickly round out all or most of the balance of the so-called deficit.
We have been funding the city with new development money for the last 25 years - but that game is over and the scheme has been revealed. I've been giving presentations to community groups around the city about this for 3 years and telling the mayor's office and our city council that this was going to blow up on us - just thought it would take another 5 years or so. It's time to face the music - there's only so much blood in these stones known as the residents and businesses of Boston.
For the next 18 months this is an inconvenience - not a crisis (Boston only - does not apply to other towns or the state where problems are far more severe).
FY2010 Budget
The Parents are rallying against the FY2010 cuts (July '09 to June '10). And the cuts are very real. All BPS schools have to submit a budget that is anywhere from 10% to 20% less that last year.
As an example, Boston Latin School's budget is required to go from about $12M to $10M. That's about 30 positions.
With the same amount of students.
I'd challenge Steve to go tell the students at any BPS school that the cuts are fake and it's all one big joke.
Not a joke-just plain vanilla fraud
Andrew - have you asked why expenses are supposed to outpace revenues by just 5% but the city is looking to cut the budget for BPS by over 10-20% (these are the city's own numbers)? Have you asked why the city is talking about cutting teachers and cops before they cut all the other fluff in the city's budget like the 75 secretaries on the City Council's budget? Have you asked what happened to the $10 million we saved from lower fuel costs or the $10 million we saved from the hiring freeze? How about the City Council President's new Communications Director - is that more important than a teacher? Or perhaps the 5 people in the "Office of new Bostonians" - sounds like someone needs a lesson in nice to have vs. need to have? Is there a reason we have 130 lunch monitors and 180 bus monitors? Can't these all/mostly/partly be the same people - cut the staff in half and save all the health care and pension money? What happened to the extra $50 million in revenue that the city never budgets for but collects anyway? How about the $40 million in expenses that the city always finds a way to spend over and above what's budgeted for?
I know the city is saying it. I just don't think they mean it and if they do ask them what happened to the $150 million or so mentioned above.
This is the result of poor planning, poor leadership, threats and incompetence. The parents of the students should demand better as should the taxpayers.
My question is - I assume the students at BLS do their homework - the parents better do theirs or the city will feed you a load of garbage and you'll say to the rest of us 'raise taxes' we need more money - it's for the children. I say - 'SHOW ME THE MONEY!' because there's plenty there - you just have to do your homework.