Jordan School District Stuff
It's been a rough week for me. I have been busy trying to make sure that the kids in my school district (and my daughter) will have a future. I don't think I can adequately explain some of the things that have transpired over this period of time.
I have been emailing like crazy to the School District, to members of the Education Committee in the Utah State Legislature, to the Governor, and anyone else that I thought I needed to email. This has been done multiple times over this past week to each of them. I let them know that I am thankful when they have voted the right way, let my disappointment be known for those that voted against. There were a couple of bills that really would've helped out a lot, and both of them got knocked down.
One of those bills was one to equalize money between the Jordan School District and the Canyons District. The Canyons District split off from us and were able to take money from us by changing borders and making sure they had the businesses. We got 60% of the kids, and we got less of the businesses that can help us out with paying for the education of those kids. This took us all down from $1600 per student to $1200 per student while Canyons went from the $1600 per student to over $2000 per student. Our side didn't think it was fair, especially since we weren't even allowed to vote on this issue. We let them know at the time that it wasn't fair that we couldn't vote because we knew it would negatively affect us. Of course that is why the east side wanted to split because they knew it would positively affect them. The bill would've made sure that none of that would happen again. Of course, it didn't pass. There was another one that didn't pass either that would've helped us out. In the meantime more equalization bills are being put out there and another bill that will allow us to put take money from various budgets to be able to save our teachers. That is the biggest problem, that we might lose our teachers. Two Hundred Fifty teachers is a lot to lose. This would raise the class room sizes by about four students to a teacher and could lose accreditation of our schools. It is all unacceptable.
Some students walked out of schools to protest the possibility of losing their teachers. I don't know that this did any good, but at least they are trying. I probably am getting to much into the problems. It has taken over my mind and I am beside myself. I have been angry and am still fighting. Another bill is to raise sales tax by .1 percent to help the schools. One that I am against is the cigarette tax which will add $1.00 to each pack of cigarettes. I don't believe you should ever add a tax that is specific to a product. It looks like that one will pass which could help out the budget crises for the schools.
I have attended another meeting (on Tuesday night again) and then went to the State Capitol for the teachers on Wednesday. There weren't as many people at the Capitol as I would've liked to have seen. But, I was there, and did my part.
Well, that pretty well tells you the week. Everything else has taken a back seat. I mean, the regular stuff went on. My kids had a night over at Pam and Annes after Dee Anne had done their hair, and I played a little bit in a new game on the Wii console called Endless Ocean. Time kind of gets the better of me when I am playing that. Well, I don't know what else to put her, but at least this is an update. It wasn't a day by day like I mostly do because the days kind of blurred in together this week for me.
I have been emailing like crazy to the School District, to members of the Education Committee in the Utah State Legislature, to the Governor, and anyone else that I thought I needed to email. This has been done multiple times over this past week to each of them. I let them know that I am thankful when they have voted the right way, let my disappointment be known for those that voted against. There were a couple of bills that really would've helped out a lot, and both of them got knocked down.
One of those bills was one to equalize money between the Jordan School District and the Canyons District. The Canyons District split off from us and were able to take money from us by changing borders and making sure they had the businesses. We got 60% of the kids, and we got less of the businesses that can help us out with paying for the education of those kids. This took us all down from $1600 per student to $1200 per student while Canyons went from the $1600 per student to over $2000 per student. Our side didn't think it was fair, especially since we weren't even allowed to vote on this issue. We let them know at the time that it wasn't fair that we couldn't vote because we knew it would negatively affect us. Of course that is why the east side wanted to split because they knew it would positively affect them. The bill would've made sure that none of that would happen again. Of course, it didn't pass. There was another one that didn't pass either that would've helped us out. In the meantime more equalization bills are being put out there and another bill that will allow us to put take money from various budgets to be able to save our teachers. That is the biggest problem, that we might lose our teachers. Two Hundred Fifty teachers is a lot to lose. This would raise the class room sizes by about four students to a teacher and could lose accreditation of our schools. It is all unacceptable.
Some students walked out of schools to protest the possibility of losing their teachers. I don't know that this did any good, but at least they are trying. I probably am getting to much into the problems. It has taken over my mind and I am beside myself. I have been angry and am still fighting. Another bill is to raise sales tax by .1 percent to help the schools. One that I am against is the cigarette tax which will add $1.00 to each pack of cigarettes. I don't believe you should ever add a tax that is specific to a product. It looks like that one will pass which could help out the budget crises for the schools.
I have attended another meeting (on Tuesday night again) and then went to the State Capitol for the teachers on Wednesday. There weren't as many people at the Capitol as I would've liked to have seen. But, I was there, and did my part.
Well, that pretty well tells you the week. Everything else has taken a back seat. I mean, the regular stuff went on. My kids had a night over at Pam and Annes after Dee Anne had done their hair, and I played a little bit in a new game on the Wii console called Endless Ocean. Time kind of gets the better of me when I am playing that. Well, I don't know what else to put her, but at least this is an update. It wasn't a day by day like I mostly do because the days kind of blurred in together this week for me.
posted by Craig's Blog at 11:39 PM
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