Budget Cuts - And So It Begins

FROM ROSS NUNAMAKER

Last week the Express-Times reported that some individuals attended the NASD School Board Meeting encouraging the Board to not cut any positions or to increase class sizes (read the article here). It also notes that a petition was presented with 187 signatures supporting the same (of note, the population living in the NASD area is roughly 24,000, so this amounts to less than 1% of the population).

The NASD currently faces over $1M in spending deficit after the pending tax increase. The article notes that attendees were told to contact their state representatives putting the blame on a reduction in state support. I expect to hear a lot of deflection of blame, threats to cut sports, band, and music (to rally residents to support tax hikes), and similar attempts to gain support for tax increases and focus the cause of our problems on state cuts.

The reality is that our current financial problems are our own fault. From some previous posts:

“our enrollment is projected to decrease for the fourth year in a row, down to 4628. This enrollment figure is within 50 students of 2004-05 and 75 students of 2005-06 school years’ enrollment.”

“Next year we will spend $20 million more dollars to educate the same number of students as we did six/seven years ago.”

http://nocnews.blogspot.com/