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Published: 2008-12-01 18:24:00
Updated: 2008-12-01 21:07:12

Wake schools asked to cut $5.7M


School Funding (Generic)
School Funding (Generic)
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Cutting local funding for Wake County schools was the first order of business Monday for the new Board of Commissioners.

Democrats now hold a 4-3 majority on the board, which observers say should lead to an improved relationship with the Board of Education and school district officials. Relations between the two groups have often been strained in recent years by money and student assignment issues.

But the commissioners face a projected $17 million budget deficit in the struggling economy, so they asked the district to cut its budget by $5.7 million.

The school board is expected to discuss the request at its Tuesday meeting.

Superintendent Del Burns asked the commissioners for fiscal leniency, noting the district already has had to give back about $5.5 million in state funding because of a growing state budget deficit.

County officials said they would work with the district, but noted that tough decisions need to be made to balance the budget. County departments have already been asked to look for ways to cut 4 percent this year and 10 percent next year.

"It's a tough situation, but I'm a tough guy," said Commissioner Harold Webb, the new chairman of the Board of Commissioners.

Despite past bickering, commissioners said Monday they would look past partisan divisions to work more closely with the school district.

"Most of the services that a county provides are basic life necessities – education, (police) protection, fire, EMS. Those types of services don't depend on Democrats or Republicans," Commissioner Tony Gurley said.


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If they announced a program to identify illegals in the schools and send them home, how many seats would that open up, and how much money would be saved. My guess, millions!

You people aren't buying enough lottery tickets. scratch so the kids can win!

"Let's see what gets cut! Probably some things that are needed on a daily basis."

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I can guarantee you what will be cut will be the items that don't contribute to the NCLB-induced core mission of "mediocrity for all".

Special ed programmes are already on the block and you can probably add programmes for gifted students to them. Lord knows they're already mainstreaming kids who shouldn't be and boring the bright kids to tears with their Mickey Mouse curriculum and catering to the illegal population.

It's all about feeding kids the standardised tests and hoping enough of them pass to keep the NCLB enforcers from shutting the school. These people are frightened for their jobs and are strictly in survival mode. *ANYTHING* that doesn't help the kids pass those lame tests is fair game except the holy grail of F&R gerrymandering through busing...errr...diversity.

The sad thing is that the curriculum isn't preparing the kids to survive in the real world.

Let's see what gets cut! Probably some things that are needed on a daily basis.

My suggestion for cuts and probably not going to be a favorable one. Extend the school day an hour each day. Go to school Monday through Thursday only. Give the kids 3 day weekends. Savings: A days worth of fuel cost when you do not have to run the buses.

Second thing needed is to add additional funding raising for after school activities to assist with paying for transportation.

The secret is to quit wasting money on socio-economic based busing.

Stop forced busing for socio-economic reasons. Send kids to the school closest to them. Quit sending kids all of over Wake County wasting a fortune on diesel fuel.

This will save more than what Wake County wants back from the school board.

This will give the school board a surplus that it can spend on class room education actually helping the students learn.

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