[Vision2020] Meridian School Bus Controversy

Saundra Lund v2020 at ssl.fastmail.fm
Sat Jul 24 10:55:08 PDT 2010


Sunil,

 

Sorry for not being clearer - I didn't mean to imply that Hinshaw does or
would support any specific candidate or party.

 

Rather, my (secondary) point was that an uninformed "throw the bums out"
mentality isn't likely to result in anything better than what we've got.
Indeed, results from the primaries in Idaho show how dangerous the basic and
reactionary anti-incumbent sentiment that's sweeping the country can be:

http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/05/27/1207884/tea-party-helps-dump-incumb
ents.html

 

Certainly, simply replacing one Republican with another isn't likely to make
any positive difference for our children or for education based on the sheer
lunacy that came out of Semanko's  State Republican Convention:

http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/07/20/1273425/idaho-gop-reshaped-by-tea-p
arty.html
<http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/07/20/1273425/idaho-gop-reshaped-by-tea-
party.html?storylink=mirelated> 

 

My first point, I thought, was pretty clear:  it was sad to me that someone
serving as a PTA president is just now understanding the detrimental effects
a forever GOP dominated legislature has had on public education in Idaho.
Long before I was a parent, I was a public education advocate, and one would
have had to live under a rock to have been oblivious to the problems the
legislature has been creating for public education.  The current budget
crisis is bad, but the state of public education financing in Idaho has been
grim for a very long time before this.

 

 

HTH,

Saundra Lund

Moscow, ID

 

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do
nothing.

~ Edmund Burke

 

***** Original material contained herein is Copyright 2010 through life plus
70 years, Saundra Lund.  Do not copy, forward, excerpt, or reproduce outside
the Vision 2020 forum without the express written permission of the
author.*****

 

 

From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]
On Behalf Of Sunil Ramalingam
Sent: Saturday, July 24, 2010 9:47 AM
To: vision 2020
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Meridian School Bus Controversy

 

Saundra,

Maybe I'm obtuse, but I don't see your point. Seems to me Hinshaw was saying
that the Legislature doesn't prioritize education, and she wants different
legislators. Nothing in the quote you provided suggests she supports the Tea
Party folks. Was that somewhere else in the article?

Sunil

  _____  

From: v2020 at ssl.fastmail.fm
To: rforce2003 at yahoo.com; vision2020 at moscow.com
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2010 22:56:10 -0700
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Meridian School Bus Controversy

A friend on a city council in southern Idaho called me late last night to
share how . . . dysfunctional the GOP is in his particular county (he's a
GOP precinct committee person, although with the results of the State
convention, that may change), and in the course of the conversation, he also
brought up  the article below and read me the last two paragraphs:

 

Ali Hinshaw, president of the Sawtooth Middle School Parent-Teacher
Association, said she has a solution.

"We need to get some new people in the Legislature, because right now
education is not a priority," Hinshaw said. "They're just a bunch of
farmers. And until our kids are more important than cattle, nothing is going
to change."

 

It's sad how people, even the president of the PTA, can be so totally
oblivious to the obvious -- that the Idaho legislature as a whole
(excluding, of course the current Latah County contingent) cares more about
livestock and agriculture than about children and education - until their
own personal ox has been gored.

 

I found myself wondering if Ms. Hinshaw understands that if Idaho teabaggers
like Gresham Bouma are elected, the future for public education will be
infinitely more grim.

 

Food for thought.

 

 

Saundra Lund

Moscow, ID

 

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do
nothing.

~ Edmund Burke

 

***** Original material contained herein is Copyright 2010 through life plus
70 years, Saundra Lund.  Do not copy, forward, excerpt, or reproduce outside
the Vision 2020 forum without the express written permission of the
author.*****

 

 

From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]
On Behalf Of Ron Force
Sent: Friday, July 23, 2010 8:53 AM
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] Meridian School Bus Controversy

 

Many parents blame the changes on the Legislature.

In slashing $128 million from the state's public education budget for
2010-11, lawmakers ordered a 10 percent cut in how much each district is
reimbursed for the previous year's busing costs. For Meridian, with more
than 35,000 students, that meant $1 million in lost transportation money,
plus another $369,744 in lost funding because its per-mile cost last year of
$3.68, and per-rider cost of $881 were above the state average of $3.47 and
$835.

District finance director Alex Simpson said each year the state gives a
district 85 percent of what it paid for transportation the previous year. So
the latest 10 percent cut ordered by lawmakers means Meridian's
transportation funding from the state will be 25 percent below what it cost
to operate its bus system last year.

Brad Jensen, director of transportation for the Idaho State Department of
Education, said he has been receiving "all kinds of calls" from parents
since districts announced major cuts would result in changes.
Meridian has had to cut their school bus services and parents are upset. An
excerpt from the story in the Statesman:

"A child walking a mile-and-a-half is a long way," Jensen said. "As a
parent, I would be concerned, too. But we can't bankrupt the transportation
budget. The money is just not in the checkbook."

Things could get worse. Lawmakers have told districts that continuing high
unemployment and stagnant sales tax revenues could mean mid-year holdbacks
of up to 5.5 percent.

Ali Hinshaw, president of the Sawtooth Middle School Parent-Teacher
Association, said she has a solution.

"We need to get some new people in the Legislature, because right now
education is not a priority," Hinshaw said. "They're just a bunch of
farmers. And until our kids are more important than cattle, nothing is going
to change."

Read more:
http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/07/22/1275799/meridian-bus-plansspark-ire
.html#storylink=omni_popular#ixzz0uWHemxXr

 

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