gunjunkie
Member
Registered: 10/22/08
Posts: 24
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Reply with quote | #1 |
Today I learned that Buffalo Schools Superintendent Dr. James Williams intends to use his $24 million stimulus money to lengthen the school day as a means of "closing the performance gap."
Anybody care to tell me how lengthening the school day is going to help stimulate the local economy?
I'd have thought this money could be spent in a variety of ways that both improve school district property and generate contract work for local tradesmen. The list of such improvements is almost endless but includes things like installing new windows, replacing aging heating plants, reparing or replacing roofs, upgrading technology wiring for computers, fixing plumbing and replacing old fixtures, installing new lighting, painting the walls. You get the picture.
I simply do not accept that none of his school buildings are in need of capital improvements.
Dr. Williams basically thought that this $24 million dollars was for him to create jobs...which he wouldn't do because the money ran out in two years. So, the only thing he could think of was for the district to consume it.
After he's done digesting the $24 million..."burp"... he will not have closed the performance gap. If he can't do it on his current $700 million budget then the $24 million (that's about 3%, if you were educated in some of Dr. Williams' schools) will not help.
Rather than stimulating the economy he's handing this money to his "friends." That's just stupid.
gunjunkie
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FeatTheVoices
Freshman Member
Registered: 10/31/08
Posts: 41
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Reply with quote | #2 |
Sadly it's not money that educates people; it's the quality of teachers, the preparation of students, and the involvement of the parents all involved in the process among other things. There is sufficient evidence to suggest that the amount of funding has little to do with performance levels, consider grades for the children home schooled vs. public.
This is little more than the folly we have become accustomed to from officials in Western New York, the state, and the federal government. As you know, the usual practice of anything related to government is to throw money at any problem. Perhaps if they used that money to prompt the parents to boost their child's grades by requiring parental involvement and accountability. This would probably have more impact, though it would also require effort on part of the parents, so maybe not.
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