[Vision2020] MSD is at it again!

[Art Deco]

Kerry,

There have been many attempts to solve these two problems, many have been unsuccessful or only marginally successful.

In some school districts there are strenuous and successful efforts to involve parents with student's homework and other educational activities.  These efforts cost money, hence taxes.  Other public agencies also try to encourage familial relationships where child-parent educational activities flourish.

Taxes, of course are only a part of a solution to this problem, which is actually quite complex -- dysfunctional families, anti-educational families, poverty, television time, parental indifference, competition for children's/parent's attention, etc; these impact children's education and the time and willingness parents are willing to spend on educational time with their children.  Well engineered/designed programs from public agencies costing money, hence taxes, have also had some, but obvious not nearly enough, success in dealing with the problems at issue.

If spending tax dollars can improve the public educational situation with respect to these issues, and thus improve the overall quality of public education, and that education's impact on our society, then I am willing to spend tax dollars financing that effort.  That does not mean I support every single thing in the public education system, or believe that it cannot be greatly improved, or that it doesn't suffer from a sometimes arrogant, narrow-minded resistance to change.

I come from an era and place where many parents valued and participated in their children's education.  60% of those in my high school class when on for further education; almost all of those became self-sufficient and productive not only because of the quality of the education we received but because of the work ethic and focus that education helped to build.  That public high school was in Bonners Ferry, Idaho.

I wish there were simple, no cost/low cost solutions to the problems we agree upon exist.  If there are, they have certainly eluded most of America, though not several other industrialized nations, particularly in northern Europe.


Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
deco at moscow.com



----- Original Message ----- 
From: kerry becker 
To: deco at moscow.com ; vision2020 at moscow.com 
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2007 5:01 PM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] MSD is at it again!


I highly agree with these statements, however, why should it be a tax issue?  

3.    More and more parents are unwilling to take the time to participate with helping their children with their education thus slowing the rate of education and causing expense for remedial actions.

4.    Public schools have more and more non-educational problems to deal with, many of them wrought by inadequate/irresponsible parenting.





------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  From: "Art Deco" <deco at moscow.com>
  To: "Vision 2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
  Subject: Re: [Vision2020] MSD is at it again!
  Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2007 16:10:47 -0800

   
  The vapid Lemon-O cites:

  "I’ve asked this rhetorical question before: why, when the number of students are increasing, do the school districts say they need more money; and, when the number of students are decreasing, they say they need more money?"

  1.    Inflation, which is greater for some things than others and most likely impacts schools more than many other activities.

  2.    Requirements from the unfunded/underfunded "No Child Left Behind," a Bush program which places additional burdens on local school districts, but either does not fund these burdens or funds them inadequately.

  3.    More and more parents are unwilling to take the time to participate with helping their children with their education thus slowing the rate of education and causing expense for remedial actions.

  4.    Public schools have more and more non-educational problems to deal with, many of them wrought by inadequate/irresponsible parenting.

  5.    Etc.


  Also Lemon-O, it is nice of you to pass on these nuggets of illogical rhetoric from chicken-shit Courtney's web-blot as he covers in fear of being found out by those he thinks he is preventing from accessing his pathetic efforts to be almost as vapid, and certainly at least as dishonest and hypocritical as you are.


  Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
  deco at moscow.com



  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: <heirdoug at netscape.net>
  To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
  Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2007 3:47 PM
  Subject: [Vision2020] MSD is at it again!


  > My latest installment for those under the ban!
  > 
  > Wednesday, January 24, 2007 2:13 PM Right-Mind
  > 
  > 
  > MSD to send out newsletter to residents regarding levy increase
  > I’ll post a copy of this as soon as I get it.
  > 
  > I’ve asked this rhetorical question before: why, when the number of 
  > students are increasing, do the school districts say they need more 
  > money; and, when the number of students are decreasing, they say they 
  > need more money?
  > 
  > Here’s what one local blogger had to say about this:
  > 
  > But in this case, and in this election, I think all these standard 
  > issues are really beside the point. The real point in this election is 
  > one of simple affordability. The major industry in town (the University 
  > of Idaho) is in serious decline. Our Moscow civic leadership has been 
  > busy chasing new prospective businesses out of town. Within the next 
  > year, a good portion of the tax base is going to move just across the 
  > state line, and the businesses in the new mall there will no doubt set 
  > up some blinking lights to summon Moscow shoppers over. Ross Perot's 
  > famous phrase about the giant sucking sound comes to mind.
  > 
  > Another illustration that comes to mind is the one about champagne 
  > tastes and a beer budget. And you can't chase all the champagne vendors 
  > out of town, and then complain about the beer. As a simple matter of 
  > economics, tax support for the MSD requires a thriving tax base. When 
  > you cut the latter, you cut the former. Some might want to complain, if 
  > this levy goes down, that it was the nefarious work of home schoolers, 
  > Christian conservatives, or what not. But this one appears to me to 
  > have been done already, without any opponents of "government schools" 
  > lifting a finger.
  > 
  > No, this was done by the liberals running the Moscow show. You can't 
  > take a chain saw to the orchard, and wonder resentfully the following 
  > autumn about the apple shortage.
  > 
  > As reported in today's edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.
  > 
  > The Moscow School District is moving forward with plans for its $1.97 
  > million supplemental levy increase, which will go before voters March 
  > 27.
  > 
  > Superintendent Candis Donicht worked with the district’s school board 
  > members during their Tuesday meeting to develop a draft of an 
  > informational newsletter that will hit mailboxes in the coming weeks.
  > 
  > The newsletter will give a brief explanation of the indefinite 
  > supplemental levy. It also will explain how the levy increase works, 
  > what it will cost taxpayers, and what it pays for within the district. 
  > The newsletter also will answer other basic questions.
  > 
  > Board members discussed changing the time the polls would be open for 
  > the election. Board clerk Annette Erickson reported to the board the 
  > effects of a 7:30 a.m. opening of the polls that had been suggested at 
  > their December meeting by board member Margaret Dibble. The board 
  > decided to maintain its current plan to have the election from 8 a.m. 
  > to 8 p.m. at the Exhibit Building of the Latah County Fairgrounds.
  > 
  > Board members also discussed how to support and offer their assistance 
  > to groups of parents who want to support the levy.
  > 
  > In other news, Donicht reported on the district’s first participation 
  > in the city of Moscow’s 18-month long-range planning process. Three 
  > district administrators and two board members participated in a 
  > facilitator training session about 10 days ago. If selected by the 
  > city, they will go into sections of the community to help gather input 
  > from residents on issues such as neighborhoods and growth.
  > 
  > 
  > ________________________________________________________________________
  > Check Out the new free AIM(R) Mail -- 2 GB of storage and 
  > industry-leading spam and email virus protection.
  > 
  > =======================================================
  > List services made available by First Step Internet, 
  > serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.   
  >               http://www.fsr.net                       
  >          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
  > =======================================================
  > 

  >=======================================================
  > List services made available by First Step Internet,
  > serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
  > http://www.fsr.net
  > mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
  >=======================================================





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Search for grocery stores. Find gratitude. Turn a simple search into something more. 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20070124/81b79881/attachment-0001.html