Probably more than a few readers of Monday's P&C are wondering how the Charleston County School District can afford to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on new security systems when cuts are proposed everywhere else--involuntary teacher and staff furloughs, proposed shorter school years, etc. [See Schools Plan to Update Visitor-security System.]
Is this the most important use for taxpayer money? Of course not. CCSD is doing it because it has the money.
It's the difference between the capital and operating budgets. The capital budgets have been largely unaffected so far by changes in funding for South Carolina's schools (hence the Taj-Mahal-like buildings you see all over the county and now its state-of-the-art security systems).
Teachers' salaries come out of the operating budget.
Such inequities show how flawed the system is. Recently proposed changes in the legislature are practically guaranteed to make the discrepancy worse.
Monday, February 08, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
9 comments:
I have never quite understood how CCSD can list maintenance contracts and software packages under capital funding. The capital fund and the separate taxes associated with it have been a cookie jar CCSD uses without restraint. The way they move expenses from the general fund to the capital fund defies logic. Some of it sounds like a game of bait and switch. The bureaucrats that depend on CCSD have spent years developing this kind of deception. Will they ever explain themselves to the ordinary public? Not likely. The local press should be asking tough questions, but they aren't. Lord knows, Nancy McGinley isn't taking any questions from the floor.
What's next? Parents' DMV records and credit reports just a click away for the entertainment of school district employees?
With all this money to spend on investigative tools, you would think we could at least get the school district's monthly spending record posted on line. I thought that was what the board and the superintendent promised last year. If they can check a visitor's record on demand, the public should be able to check the district's finances in more detail than the power point show they feed us each year.
You folks whining on here would be the first to scream if a kid were hurt at school by an "unscreened" visitor. Complain about all you want, but we are talking about the safety of our kids....grow up already....
HEY Babbie....have you quit braggin on Colwell for some reason?
Red herrings again from visitor 8:04 p.m.
I think Mr. Colwell's red herrings have been found, unfortunately.
What the hell does that mean?
Really. I thought this was about security systems. Can't people at least stay on the topic?
Really. I thought this was about security systems. Can't people at least stay on the topic?
Post a Comment