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Between
all the money taken in by the lottery and borrowed under bond measures,
you would think that we would have the best schools in the nation.
However, for every dollar input into the system from these sources,
almost all of it is removed by reduced school funding to the
classrooms. With school bond measures continually on the ballot, I finally
figured out the warped reasoning behind these bond measures. California's
constitution limits yearly spending increases proportionately to
population and inflation increases, except for financing bonds.
In other words, spending is being increased beyond the constitutional
limits through bond measures disguised as an increase in school
funding.
We can have
the best schools in the nation if we spend the money more efficiently.
Currently, more than half of the money budgeted for schools does
not actually reach them. I propose that we hold the Department of
Education, elected officials and administrators responsible for
the current waste. One way to do this is to send checks directly
to the schools based on the amount we spend per student; the Department
of Education would then have to justify their bloated budget and
bill the schools for their operating costs and expenses. This would
show each local community, how much money is not going to the children.
The local communities would then be able to pressure the local representatives
to solve the waste or be voted out at the next election. If you
shine a light on the waste and threaten to not vote for your representative,
they might actually do their jobs.
Also we are
not spending all the money on American children, we are financing
the education of children of other countries. In Los Angeles,
it is estimated that the graduation rate of these foreign children
is less than 50%. Are these the kind of numbers that you want
to sacrifice your children's education for?
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