Cobb: Schools confront a $100 million deficit. Jobs will be cut.

And yet Cobb is expected to send I-don’t-know-how many millions to be redistributed to other counties under QBE. My kid has to sit in a classroom with 30 other kids, but my tax dollars are going elsewhere…what is wrong with this picture???

Why would we rather tax people in hospitals than allow alcohol sales on Sunday? Why would we rather cut education instead of raise the cigarette tax?? (and I don’t want to hear about that being a “tax on poor people” – some of those poor people are saving close to $30 per week per kid because they have free lunch – they can afford another buck on the cancer sticks). Why are we so dead set against allowing OTB or online gambling??? Why can’t we have a “Thanks for passing through Georgia” toll on I-95??? (works for Delaware). Why can’t we sell family appropriate advertising on the sides of school buses? Why can’t we get more creative?

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Well, I guess they’ve discovered that public education is neither a “right” nor a Constitutional mandate. The Law of Economics is as reliable as gravity. If you continue to buy what you cannot afford, eventually you lose your shirt.

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They have to spend the money or they will lose it to other programs. That is the way government spending works. You spend what you have so they will give you more the next year because you did not have enough last year.

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The article says “nothing is off the table”. I don’t see a massive cut to the sports program being considered. I think sports are great and needed when our kids are getting fatter and more unhealthy. But how is it that a program that costs so much money has has almost nothing to do with test scores and learning is not on the chopping block during these extreme times?

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@Binford2K actually GA requires that every school system have 1 month of money for expenses set aside THAT CANNOT BE TOUCHED. Go figure.I would think this is a time to use the savings in part to at least reduce classroom size. But we are in GA.

Cobb may be playing it safe after seeing DeKalb in the AJC everytime something changes at the state level as far as revenue and the changes that the governor reports. When you are proactive, you are raked over the coals, when you wait you are raked over the now cooling coals that DeKalb was raked over. At least Gwinnett has gotten a notice that they are next to be discussed. Hopefully when AJC moves to Gwinnett they will be able to be more critical of Gwinnett schools and government. the excuse for being critical of Atlanta, fulton, and DeKalb has been that they are the closest to the AJC headquarters. Glad they are moving to Gwinnett to ruin it.

Make it a great day.

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Last semester I had 32 ninth graders in my class. Was I able to teach them well? No. Was I able to give individual feedback? No. Yes, it will save money to increase my class size, but it will decrease learning and demoralize the teacher. As more expectations are put on us, more cuts are given. At some point my family will have to come first. I’m not a miracle worker. I need help and support in order to give YOUR child a decent education. Parents, community…please step in and volunteer. Help me with my grading, help me with disciplining your child…maybe then I won’t feel so exhausted and I can give my children the love and attention they need. If you keep burdening us, the trickle down effect may not be pleasant. I love teaching, but the pressure is becoming surreal.

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We would have more money to spend on the children of US citizens and legal residents if we were not spending hundreds of millions of dollars on K-12 educations of the children of illegal aliens. This happens in each county from the metro-Atlanta area. $10,000 for each child each year starts to add up very fast. We need politicians that will put the interests of US citizens before those of foreign nationals in our country illegally!

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All of you criticizing government spending and school spending forget that it was the private sector (the banking industry) that got us into this current mess.

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Oh, and even though I believe we have a nationwide crisis, I think our state should be responding better. Approving money for a new sports dome in the midst of these educational cuts sort of suggests to me where their priorities are…

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Alcohol sales on Sunday, regardless of the budget situation, should be allowed. Would someone please explain to me how prohibiting Sunday sales is not a violation of the First Amendment?
And please, don’t even try the “it would increase duis and domestic violence” argument. If that is the reason, then Friday night sales are what should be banned. And if people are truly worried about the increase in duis, make dui a felony and increase the fines.

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School districts ARE required to have 5% of their total budget in reserves. Before all this mess started Cobb had over $100,000,000 in reserves, which seems like a lot until you realize the District had over a $1bb budget at the time. So we had around 10% in reserves but on a $1bb budget that is only about 45 days of cash.
If you go on any Cobb County school web site and look at total staff, and then count teachers of the basics, Math, Science, Social Studies, and English you will find they rarely make up 50% of the total.
The liberals have demended specialists for everything and everyone; come to our country illegally and can’t speak the language, no problem we have a specialest for that…….and the list goes on and on. NCLB, mainstreaming, resource specialist, curricula specialist, multiple levels of councilors…..they all cost!
If less than 50% of staff teach and 90% of the budget is salary, then $400mm of the current budget is for some type of support, not teaching.
Parents may need to pick up the slack with their own child and stop expecting the educational system to be educator, parent, guardian, and moral compass. I’m sure I will come across as heartless but if you had the child you take care of them, the “village” can’t afford it any more. I don’t have a problem if my taxes go up to support education and I don’t have any children in the school system.

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Isn’t this the same county that is spending over a million to put artificial turf in all the county football stadiums?

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Yeah JJ, its the liberals running things in fiscally, conservative (or so I thought) Cobb County.

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How can Cobb School system continue to let supervisors drive county vehicles home and any where they desire? Mr. Sanderson and Mr. Dillon should be willing to for go there bonus. What a waste also too many empty school buses.

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Not pay stipends to teachers holding advanced degrees? I can see this if the teacher has a master’s in educational administration, but stays in the classroom. What about those for whom a master’s degree is required by the state for their particular subject area certification? Not fair in my book.

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From the same AJC article:

Poore said that last year several young teachers were let go after their third year before they could become tenured in what he believes was a cost-saving strategy. Some of the teachers whose contracts were not renewed for a fourth year had been recruited nationally and internationally to make the staff more diverse, he said.

“Many were in good standing their first two years,” he said. “In the third year all of a sudden we are in a budget crunch, the person didn’t have tenure, and they were released.”

Dillon said contract nonrenewals are not used for cost-cutting, but are disciplinary in nature for performance issues.

Poore said he understands the district also is considering not paying teachers a stipend for having master’s degrees and doctorates. “There is only so much you can do for morale when your paycheck keeps getting smaller,” he said.

*****
Why did they have to literally destroy the lives of some young teachers for no good reason other than to cut their budget? Why didn’t they just tell them that they couldn’t afford to renew they? NOOOOOO, they had to cut the rug from under these people with lies of destruction about disciplinary or performance covers. They are slime bags!! After these young people spent their money to prepare for this noble profession, some with young children and life responsibilities, to have them just slit their throats like pigs at slaughter was a sin and a shame.

It’s personal to me because my daughter was one. Three years a star teacher according to the same principal who in the fourth…tenure…year followed the now obvious school system directive and destroy a persons future. The evaluation to accomplish their goal follows those teachers to another system and negatively affects their chance of getting hired somewhere else.

I’m sorry readers. This article and the revelations in it just brought the anger back up in me.

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Before you start blabbing Rush Limbaugh talking points, talking about bloated administration, or blaming this on illegal immigrants(that’s a really tiny cost folks) watch this video on the Cobb 2010 budget and inform yourself.
http://www.http://www.cobbk12.org/.org/

1. SPLOST by law can only be used for capital projects. It doesn’t fund teachers salaries or operating costs.
2. Cobb has the lowest administrative costs in the entire metro.
3. Cobb is virtually the only place where people 62 and up don’t pay school property taxes. If they did we wouldn’t have a problem
4. The federal government only provides about 1% budget(mostly grants), so this isn’t an issue of federal funding.
5. Cobb through QBE basically donates 100 million to the state that goes to mostly rural school districts. People whine a lot about south Cobb or Fulton about south Fulton, but the real wealth distribution in this state is suburbs to rural areas. I guess complaining about mostly working class and poor white people benefiting from suburban wealth doesn’t fit a lot of peoples agenda as well as complaining about poor minorities.
6. Once again building projects, football stadiums, new schools, etc. are funded mostly by SPLOST not property taxes. Get your facts straight.
7. Cobb spends more on classroom instruction in relation to administrative costs than almost anywhere in the state, so cuts in the general fund will cost classroom teachers their jobs and increase class sizes.

Please folks this is serious. Don’t blabber unless you know the facts. It’s not productive to use platitudes. We can either make people 62 and over pay more property taxes or increase class sizes and dismiss classroom teachers in good standing. If that happens Cobb will lose their trust and many will leave the county and never come back. If this happens Cobb will have a harder time recruiting teachers because teachers won’t trust the Cobb school system. Cobb got where it is on the reputation of schools, so if schools decline Cobb goes with it along with your property values.

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I guess my first post got eaten up at the AJC buffet.

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Before you start blabbing Rush Limbaugh talking points, talking about bloated administration, or blaming this on illegal immigrants(that’s a really tiny cost folks) watch this video on the Cobb 2010 budget and inform yourself.
http://www.http://www.cobbk12.org/.org/

1. SPLOST by law can only be used for capital projects. It doesn’t fund teachers salaries or operating costs.
2. Cobb has the lowest administrative costs in the entire metro.
3. Cobb is virtually the only place where people 62 and up don’t pay school property taxes. If they did we wouldn’t have a problem
4. The federal government only provides about 1% budget(mostly grants), so this isn’t an issue of federal funding.
5. Cobb through QBE basically donates 100 million to the state that goes to mostly rural school districts. People whine a lot about south Cobb or Fulton about south Fulton, but the real wealth distribution in this state is suburbs to rural areas. I guess complaining about mostly working class and poor white people benefiting from suburban wealth doesn’t fit a lot of people agenda as much as complaining about poor minorities.
6. Once again building projects, football stadiums, new schools, etc. are funded mostly by SPLOST not property taxes. Get your facts straight.
7. Cobb spends more on classroom instruction in relation to administrative costs almost anywhere in the state, so cuts in the general fund will cost classroom teachers their jobs and increase class sizes.

Please folks this is serious. Don’t blabber unless you know the facts. It’s not productive to us platitudes. We can either make people 62 and over pay more property taxes or increase class sizes and dismiss classroom teachers in good standing. If that happens Cobb will lose their trust and many will leave the county and never come back. From now on Cobb will have a harder time recruiting teachers because teachers won’t trust the Cobb school system. Cobb go where it is on the reputation of schools, so if schools decline Cobb goes with it along with your property values.

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@RJ: I teach in Henry County. Half of the elementary art and music positions have been cut for next year. Each teacher will serve two schools.

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I know lets spend all the money on WARS.

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The biggest problem is this… until this directly affects little Susie and little Johnnie, a large portion of parents just do not care. Less than 15% parent participation in our school. We are at a very successful Cobb HS. Unfortunately, school has become a child sitting service for most parents. They have no idea what happens on a daily basis at their child’s school and only show up or call when an educator contacts them with a problem. or the parent finally calls the school to set-up a password so they can check grades the last week before finals.
Shameful.
Educators in the classromm will lose their careers because parents are sitting by letting the state and Cobb Board add 5 to 8 students to HS classrooms. Removing all hope of discipline in schools.
Your child will be sitting in a class, on the floor, with a low paid ($8 p/hr) staffer supervising the group while one teacher in a classroom down the hall teaches subject matter over a closed-circuit tv.
Believe it!

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I can’t go to board meetings and present these ideas because we are bullied into not attending for fear of losing our jobs- so much for zero tolerance on bullying!

Get rid of all these textbook adoptions- waste of money

Get rid of all the area superintendents and all these people with assistants to assistants

Put a referendum out to vote to the citizens of Cobb to re-route SPLOST money in times of need (that 88 million of astro-turf could cover a lot of the shortage). Put limits on it that is a one time deal!

Do NOT rebuild Clarkdale- use that money for other things.

Sell the now useless Senteo technology to other districts.

Same with all the projectors that are brand new but being replaced because of another company winning that bid.

Sell the useless white pull down screens that you mounted Smart & Promethean boards overtop.

Once a month, have a 4 day school week. It only will add about 16-18 minutes to the rest of the month’s school days. That saves transportation costs, utilities, & energy costs.

Remove all the coffee pots, microwaves, refrigerators, fancy lights, and other extraneous items from the classroom. There is a break room, use the fridge there- this would save THOUSANDS on the electric bill.

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a thought- I like your ideas. Too bad Cobb teachers are effectively banned from board meeting with many during the day and teachers being scared to speak out. It’s my understanding that all the students and staff at Clarkdale were easily absorbed into local buildings. So it makes no sense to rebuild now. The 4-day wk once a month or more frequent would save dollars and is a great idea.
Cobb claims to have the lowest cost and smallest central staff – make it smaller.

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Thanks John Q. I know they make sense…therefore we can pretty much guarantee they will not be used!

A note about that central staff issue- their way of cutting central office by 11% was to pull in the technology group under the central office umbrella (it had never been that way), and cut them about 33%, effectively reducing central office by 11%. Nobody truly at central office lost their job. They didn’t advertise that fact.

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@LSH, athletics are funded by booster clubs that are separate from the school. The football stadium football is paid for by a loan the booster club repays along with any other team that uses that facility. Same goes for purchasing uniforms, etc.

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How about this? Put it to the voters..splost money could be used for teacher salaries..I think a majority of voters would support this!!!!

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Worried, I’m sure your concerns are shared by many of your fellow teachers. 32 students seems to be a size which all but denies the personal attention which goes with effective teaching. Being a member of the Class of 64 (Boomer leading edge), I can remember a rather large homeroom…glancing through my yearbook, I guess there were somewhere in the area of 40-odd kids, multiplied by 4 homerooms. Did we raise hell, both in and out of the classroom? YOU BET WE DID! Were our collective minds on everything but the business at hand? No Doubt! Were we, nonetheless, able to get individual attention when needed? NO DOUBT! This is no reflection on you nor on your fellow teachers, but probably a replay of the same song I have preached before. I remember my teachers as all being somewhere between hi-octane hard chargers and fairly competent, but they all had one thread in common. If anyone decided to pursue any but the task at hand, they were quickly reminded, from one-and-two-time warnings to “licks on the six” to get back on track or visit the office, which almost always translated into more paddlings.

I know, times have changed…ya can’t do this an ya can’t do that. Sometime, probably in the 70s or so, some bureaucrat decided that corporal punishment was not in keeping with hi states of morale and self esteem, and the touchy feely era was launched into oblivious failure.

While we are quick to blame low achievement on you guys, the teachers, we seem to have developed a coorelation between educational expenditures and educational achievements when, in reality, the difference can be traced to that lowly relic of the past, the teachers’ paddle, a chunk of wood which, in today’s dollars, probably cost a buck or two.

Maybe I’m oversimplifying a complex issue…or maybe we have taken a simple issue and cast overwhelming complexities upon it.

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in Cobb Booster do pay for all uniforms and equipment for all teams. Most athletic directors are fulltime administrators or 1/2 day classroom teachers. Will consede the power for lights and bus transportation. Security for games comes from gate receipts. Clean-up is typically a volunteer service groups or paid by the boosters to a school group. Insurance is covered by a county wide student policy that covers all students on campus and in school activities. Football does have to carry extra usually paid by parents. So very little is paid for by schools these days.

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Hey, I am not a huge fan of the central office by any stretch of the imagination, but here are some facts. The entire central office, salaries and operating expenses (in Cobb County) runs about 3 million dollars. Even if you get rid of the entire Central Office and sell the land (a la Kansas City School District) you are still looking at a budget deficit over 100 million, since as of right now the deficit is 104 million not 95 million as has been reported. I am a teacher and as much as I hate to admit it, the situation will not get better for another 3 – 5 years. Gone are yearly step raises, cost of living raises and most importantly, respect. I don’t care what parents tell you at open house they do not appreciate everything we do as teachers for their children. Why do you think Cobb hasn’t had a property tax increase in 10 years or has lower millage rates than surrounding counties? Because the parents/voters would never allow it. I average about 60-70 hours per week doing teaching and coaching student athletes. When I was younger, I decided to do the hourly math too. My calculations came to around $3 per hour. I have hear rumors of doing away with coaching stipends too. Hey, that’s fine. I can find lots of second jobs that pay more than $3/hour and work 20 hours a week. Who’s going to coach for free? Are we honestly talking about the end of high school sports in the state of Georgia, gimme a break! Teachers are continually asked to do more for less compensation and people wonder why we are 49th in education! Teachers are not respected as professionals! Someone earlier mentioned that “most teachers are women and are second income earners”, hey I am all that my family has in terms of income, pal! I feel like a colonial in the 1700’s, taxation without representation, can you feel me. Without teachers unions in Georgia, we have no one to stand up for us, well no one with any real clout.

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@ LSH You are obviously from Fulton Co. with the non teaching athletic director, definitely an lofty position. Hey, here’s one for you, how about a head football coach that “teaches” ISS (In School Suspension) ALL DAY! Is there waste, of course there is, after all it is a government run operation.

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@ John Q I appreciate your bringing to light the unbelievable notion that Cobb is considered by taking away our raises for advanced degrees, that is ridiculous. That is sending the wrong message don’t you think. We are telling our students to be “lifelong learners” but lets not reward our teachers for furthering their education. I have a 6-year degree, an EdS, that cost me about $15,000 are you kidding me Cobb County!

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I do want people out there to realize that there are other ways to affect the lives of kids outside of the classroom. That is why I think that athletics should be and is safe. Coaches do so much more than anyone gives them credit for. I work with an amazing group of coaches at my school and they put in so much time an effort into these kids it is incredible. The thing is a lot of these kids need athletics. For a lot of kids, athletics may be the only reason they come to school, it is sad but it is true. Coaches are great mentors and influences for kids, but the thought of taking away their stipends, wow that is a real statement of how they are valued by the powers that be.

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@ volfan11. Thank you for bringing up coaches and the little respect and pay they receive. My husband teaches a full course load of a core subject and also coaches two varsity sports(one Fall, one Spring). This means that year round, including during the summer, he is either having practice or having off season conditioning with the athletes. We cannot travel during most of our vacations because there are practices or competitions. Every weekend is taken up and he often leaves home at 5 am and gets home at 9 or 10 pm. Give it a rest with the,”Teachers are lazy” mantra! He brings home less than $4,000 after taxes between the two sports. He coaches because he is talented and loves doing it. I am tired of hearing that coaches are dumb and lazy and do not deserve the stipends they receive. People need to get a clue.

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Now there is a proposal by Cox to raise lottery ticket prices from 1.00 to 1.50…so that the extra money can go toward education, yell right, so it can go in lottery officials pockets. Lottery officials just reported record profits. I guess it easy to make a profit when you print few wining lottery tickets.
delaware Downs wanted to bring a casino to Atlanta, they spent hundred thousand on a feasibility study and concluded how many jobs and money it would bring to the state. But, of course, Mr. Perdue wouldn’t hav eit in great state of Ga.
The sell of loteery tickets is okay, but casinos aren’t. The sell of alcohol is okay, just not on Sunday! Just stupid.

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P.S. and some of those were instructional technology positions, which had definitely been part of central office previously

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Rick I agree with you so much, illegal immigrants are driving our country into third world status. The important people that actually contribute to society (teachers, police, firefighters, sanitation workers, ect) are the first in line to be screwed, while all the fat cats sit back and get fatter.
Dumbing down America should be the national quote, the government is so quick to cut programs that will benefit our country in the future. The republicans as well as the democrats have no interest in what is going on in our country (obviously), the special interest groups have their souls, the entire constitution needs to be revamped. The majority vote for a “representative” whom they think will do what is right and fair for their constituents. What a crock of bull, they promise they are not part of the Washington “bureaucracy”, but once they are elected, what they promised is no longer on the agenda for them.
If you really think about it the United States is is borderline communist, the majority vote for the minority, and the minority does whatever they want with no regard for the American citizens. The majority of the members in the Congress and Senate are millionares, who cannot possibly relate to the plight of America, they don’t have to worry about healthcare, losing their jobs or homes. It is absolutly ridiculous as to why grown people cannot work together and come up with a viable solution for healthcare, I have an idea, why can’t every single American have the same insurance coverage as the members of the Congress and Senate.
We need to revamp the welfare system, why is it that a fat lazy woman or man can sit at home eveyday and earn more money than a person that works, that makes absolutly no sense to me. Illegal immigrants cross the border, drop a baby and the gvernment not only takes care of the one born here also the ones she brought with her, this is incomprehensible.
The states are cutting education as the first measure in an effort to to bring the budget in line, I only have a Master’s degree, and I am not claming to be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I think there are other areas that could be looked at first.
The children in this country are out of control, there have no respect for their elders, no regard for human life, they are pathetic.
I am an African American woman and I must say I am totally ashamed of young black men, they are the worst, 90 percent come from single family homes, the mothers are too busy trying to get and keep a man, instead of doing the best job possible in raising a man, notice I said 90 percent, so that does not include all black people. For many young black men, from the day they are old enough to understand anything, the notion is drilled in their head to become a basketball/football player, or a rapper. I don’t understand why parents aren’t telling there children to go to school become a doctor, a lawyer, chemist, engineer, ect. I tell my grandson you can own a basketball team, don’t settle for being a player. Everyone needs to wake up and see what is going on around you. Whew I feel better!!

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When is the bleeding going to stop? At this rate our kids are going to be the least educated in the world. Also how can one of the most powerful countries in the world fail to properly educate its future generations? The politicians would rather blow up mounds in the dessert using billion dollar jets and rockets than invest in education. They are the lucky ones that can afford to put their kids through private school, that’s the reason they aren’t concerned or care about the school budget cuts. We on the other hand depend on public education in order for our kids to get an education. For this reason alone we should take a stand and say, no more. After doing extensive research schools get about 10 cents per candy bar that our kids sell. So therefore selling candy is not going provide the sufficient alternative funding required to fund schools. Here is the name of a website that will donate a portion of their low listing fees to a school of your choice, Main Street Fair. Look them up on Google they seem creditable.

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I have bad news for everyone that is willing to pay an extra penny sales tax, it will never happen. The current philosophy of most of those in the “party in power” is to never raises any taxes. Chip Rogers and his ilk would like to see all public schools replaced by free market alternatives. They live in this fantasy world where the business world is always superior to govt. They want to give vouchers (for less money than parents would need) so everyone would have choice. Have anyone ever bothered to ask the privates schools if they want vouchers? The really good private schools will only take the best students, not the slower learners or the ones who lack parental support. They won’t even allow bills that would call for a tax raise to get to the floor.

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I’m paying slightly more for property tax now than I did two years ago. Most of my neighbors are the same way. The homestead exemption has existed for multiple years, and I’m sure the population of seniors in Cobb is not drastically increasing.

What caused this $100 million shortfall, exactly?

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@Cobb Parent,

Be careful about making cuts to ‘peripheral areas’. Music teachers at the HS and MS level have a class size limit of 100 students. You cut one, you have to hire at LEAST 3 other teachers to share that load…

PLUS, MOST of the big companies are hiring folks with music backgrounds these days. These are people who use their entire brain (not just the analytical side) and can think much more outside the box than traditionally educated folk.

Just a though….

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prootwadl

What caused this shortfall is essentially two-fold. 1. Major “austerity cuts” over the last several years (thanks, sonny) 2. reduced revenues from local property taxes (thanks to foreclosures, etc.). We’re bringing in less. Just like your household budget: if you’re bringing in less, you have to cut back AND figure out a way to bring in more. Both of these ideas need to apply to get us out of this.

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I know im just a student, but i believe we should have some type of opinion in this matter. I just don’t get why The school system doesn’t cut stuff that is unnecessary. From what i have read from he comments, i do believe that some of the administration in schools need to go away. Teachers are the ones making the school what it is, and once you get them out of the picture, you have lost your school, and lose the school, you lose the education this country needs. Even though this article doesn’t discuss the Fine Arts department of schools, those are the ones that always go first if they were to take away subject in school. Im a musician, and yes this can be biased, but the people that are “in charge” fail to realize what is really important…the education and music. Everyone loves music whether you deny it or not, and taking that away will just give the rest of the students a sign that you don’t care about them, so they will show even more that they don’t care, and so all the test scores will go down, and school will fail to give what is expected of them. I know i kind of went off topic a little here, but once i saw this article my mind went straight to the music programs at schools.

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Mark, you did not go off topic at all, but rather, you are right on target. Judging from the tenor of your comments, you strike me as take-charge leader; you seem to be quite aware of the impact irresponsible fiscal management has on your education and on your generation’s future. While we adults express our views through this forum, I would suggest that you, your student government, and your parents establish an audience with the “power brokers and influence peddlers” within your educational system. I am quite certain the news media would accommodate any request to be present at such an open meeting.

Mark, good luck to you and your classmates. I know the future holds many exciting opportunities and challenges for your generation; with the leadership and insight you seem to be blessed with, I have no doubt you will prevail in all you do.

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Why not start the kids back to school in Sept. instead of the middle of summer when you have to run all those air conditioners that we all know electric bills in the summer are out of sight, also, I see bus drivers just sitting in parking lots and from my understanding as long as they are on the bus they get paid (and I know for a fact they arent running a field trip). Why cant the free lunch program charge at least 30 cents toward their meals a parent can find that in the sofa cushions. Get rid of computers Kids are coming out of school dumb enough make them go back to the old school ways like we did.

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Besides the obvious fact that music and art are subject areas that teach all those higher order thinking skills, and through GAPPS reviews, most schools are deficit in Higher Order Thinking Skills Teaching, there is a another reason to avoid cuts. Keep in mind that when your student is in art, music or PE, classroom teachers are in collaboration meetings and have just a few minutes to make parent calls, grading, planning, and at times, pulling aside an individual student. Plus, this is the only time of day a teacher may use the restroom besides lunch. Specialists see 32 students per class, and PE has 40 students at the elementary level, HS and MS 100 students.
Cut Music, Art and PE, and you also cut teacher’s planning and meeting times. Teachers might tolerate pay cuts, furloughs, limits on classroom spending, but eliminate planning time, and prepare for a protest like you’ve never seen!

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I would luv to see a violent teacher strike, just so we could use greater violence to break the strike. All strikers would be immediately fired, with prejudice, meaning they would get no accrued vacation and leave time, and would not be eligible for COBRA. Yes, bring on a strike, we will break it and you at the same time.

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Fire the lazy pe teachers like gina and its ilk…..fat old hag.

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R gina and rene buddies?

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No worries, they can just raise taxes – come on BOE, raise taxes while we’re at it the state shouldn’t hurt either, nor should the county, city, He77, just take 99.9% of everyone’s paycheck – sooner or later a tax revolt will hit and everyone in government will be running around like roaches in the light. As Marie said, ‘Let them eat cake’, that is until her head rolled off the chopping block.

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