A picture that pretty much says it all

[proud2BlibKansan]

In a 5-4 split, the Kansas City School Board voted to approve the largest school closing in the district's history. The Right-sizing plan, recommended by Superintendent of Schools John Covington Wednesday, Mar. 10, 2010, at the Board of Education Building in Kansas City, resulted in the closure of 26 district schools. After the meeting ended, Nancy Haynes, a teacher at Faxon Montessori, sat alone and cried. Faxon's program will no longer exist, as the students will be split into two different schools and other students will move into the building.
JILL TOYOSHIBA/The Kansas City Star 03102010

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/03/10/1803982/kc-school-board-approves-school.html#ixzz0i1if3SSr

[vadawg]

1. what other option did they have, to many schools for the number of students

and not enough money to keep them all open. :shrug:

[Kievan Rus]

2. They had another option -- raise taxes on the rich -- heavily

But of course, we can't do that in this country. They work too hard for all their gains to make them pay the appropriate amount of taxes on it.:sarcasm:

[vadawg]

3. how much more could they tax the locals, before the locals were spent

i read that the falling rolls where due to people moving out of the city proper and sending their kids to schools outwith the system, not sure how much more money they could raise in taxes or if people would be prepared to stay if they did. People will move in heartbeat if they think they can get better schools for their kids, its a fact of life.

[AwakeAtLast]

6. How about stopping the tax incentives to the corporations in the city?

That's what drains every city dry.

[vadawg]

8. not disagreeing, but what happens if the companies up and leave

then the situation gets worse, you have to balance what the tax base can pay with what you need, if you take to much people leave taking their taxes with them.. I saw that 7 schools actually left the district and went to another, i wonder if there was a lot more mismanagement than we can imagine in the school district. Also if there are not enough pupils left for all the schools would you want to keep them open orwould you look to consolidate..

[Chulanowa]

27. And so we must cater to the companies at the expense of all else?

This is known as "blackmail," vadawg. "If you tax us, we'll leave you and go somewhere that doesn't!"

The core problem is the mobility of capital.

[vadawg]

29. well you better cater to the companies if they are your biggest job creators in your city

you got to be realistic, mobility of capital works both ways and lets be glad it does, the very same mobility that allows a company to leave a city if it becomes unprofitable as much as we dont want to see it, allows you to also up and leave for teh same reasons. thats why taxes are a balancing act, tax to much and the tax base leaves, thats what has happened to a lot of the inner cities, the taxes and services didnt come up to what was expected so people leave and the tax base shrinks and the services suffer causing more people to leave...

[Chulanowa]

55. Except when it's used as blackmail

As is the situation you describe, wherein business colludes to intimidate a city into shredding their tax burden, thereby causing rocketing costs and degradation of quality in services the city can provide to its citizens.

[KittyWampus]

48. the -real- problem is supporting small, local businesses that don't leave.

[WinkyDink]

28. Corporate extortion is better?

[hobbit709]

33. They up and leave when the incentives run out

And the jobs they promise never match actual jobs hired.

[proud2BlibKansan]

35. Those 7 schools were given to the district

in the 60s when the people in that school district didn't want to educate the poor minority kids in those schools. Then 40+ years later, they decided they wanted the schools back. They were the most racially diverse in the KC School District and many were among the highest performers. But by taking them back, the Independence district sent the minority kids who were bused into their community back into KC. So the 7 schools were essentially cleansed of the minority kids.

The loss of these schools devastated the KCMO schools.

[The Midway Rebel]

18. Kansas City was unique in the post Brown v. BOE era.

Unlike most urban cities, Greater Kansas City is an urban area divided by a state line. The SCOTUS forbade forced bussing across state-lines to acheive desegregation.

After Brown, white families fled headlong along the newly built Eisenhower freeway system into neighboring Johnson County, Kansas. Johnson County, Kansas now boasts several of the best school districts in the nation. The white flight that took place left Kansas City, Missouri as one of the most racially segregated cities in the entire US.

The tax base and the support for things like school bonds left the KCMO district years ago. To raise taxes on the remaining residents would be to tax them out existance.

In this case, deputy dawg is correct.

[The Midway Rebel]

7. The residents of that district have not voted on a school bond issue since 1974.

Good luck squeezing blood out of that turnip.

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. 1969

Not 74.

[The Midway Rebel]

19. Yes! 1969...even sadder.

1974 was the first year a black student was enrolled at Shawnee Mission East.

Thanks for the correction.

[proud2BlibKansan]

32. There might be 3 or 4 there now

The community is still very segregated.

[The Midway Rebel]

39. A few more than that, but not many,

Certainly not enough to indicate that blacks have risen to the ranks of the upper middle-class in that neck of the woods.

SM East
Students Per Teacher ? 15
Enrollment ? 1,987
Economically Disadvantaged 3.6%
Breakdown by Ethnicity
White 91.1%
Black 2.2%
Hispanic 2.7%
Asian/Pacific Islander 2.2%
American Indian/Alaska Native 0.1%

I graduated from SMNW in 1980. As young and bigoted teenagers we called SME "Hanukkah Heights".

[proud2BlibKansan]

40. I grew up in Prairie Village

and I live just a few blocks from PV now. It's still just as white as it was when my husband graduated from SME in 1967. :)

[rhett o rick]

10. your lack of empathy is sad. nt

[vadawg]

11. one can empathise, but it still dosent change the facts that they couldnt keep all the schools open

what would you suggest they do, they cant really force everyone who has left the district to come back, and if they cant raise the funds then what do you suggest they do.

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. No other option really

The TIF giveaways have stripped the tax base. And the voters haven't approved of a tax increase to fund the schools since 1969.

[vadawg]

16. sounds like whats going to happen to a lot of school districts

populations change and move, the districts are going to have to change whether thats wither and die for some or grow for others...

[proud2BlibKansan]

30. Very true

In Kansas City's case, they should have closed schools many years ago.

[midnight]

22. Well, we could rethink what our priorities are going to be. War, bailouts for the

rich, or keeping the working class in their jobs, educating our children. Not enough money to keep our schools open, but whatever the fat cats want we give them....... I think there are other options.

[vadawg]

23. i read it wasnt just the money it was the falling numbers of kids enrolled

the city has been bleeding students for a variety of reasons and you know this is going to cause more people to leave...

[Starry Messenger]

4. So heartbreaking.

Another Broad Academy graduate presiding over this I see. The interview with him was pretty vague about the fate of the real estate of the closing schools. That worried me.

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/03/11/1806920_p2/covington-says-kc-district-is.html

"How many buildings are already vacant in the district and what is going to happen when 26 more get added?

Already there are at least 18 vacant buildings, including at least four that have been sold recently or have sales pending but remain undeveloped.

The district plans to create a “repurposing committee” that will work with community organizations to find new uses for buildings. Some may be sold. The district has money to raze buildings that are in too poor a condition to be worth redeveloping. That would clear space for parks."

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. And now he's claiming the move out of closed buildings will cost $25 million.

[Starry Messenger]

26. Of course it will.

I wonder who's getting *that* money.

[rug]

5. Will the White House praise this too as accountability?

[proud2BlibKansan]

38. While ignoring Wall Street accountability

[omega minimo]

9. Reich-sizing

:evilfrown:

[proud2BlibKansan]

41. Probably not far from the truth

[EFerrari]

15. Kick

[flvegan]

17. No sympathy. She's a teacher, so obviously she's got tons in savings socked away.

Yeah, she might have to downgrade that Maybach to a Rolls but even still, not so bad.



If I need a sarcasm tag, you've had too much to drink already.

[RagAss]

34. Amen...it's the shame of our nation what we pay teachers.

[proud2BlibKansan]

37. LOL

[maryf]

43. Man, after the past couple weeks,

I want to start drinking again, what's that poor woman going to do?? she looks like she has at least 25 years under her belt...

[flvegan]

45. My mom had 23 years under her belt as a teacher

when they told her to get lost. Senior high school english, basic through honors. Shame how we treat those that educate our children.

[maryf]

50. I am so sorry...

she must have been devastated, and its a shame for the kids too, nothing like experience...

[Dinger]

No Sarcasm Tag Needed For My Sake (nt)

[Dinger]

49. Self-Delete (nt)

[Drunken Irishman]

20. This happened in Salt Lake City a few decades ago.

It actually happened in shifts.

The first came when there was a population boom in the south-eastern area of the city. Highland High School, my high school, opened in the 50s to accommodate the growing population in that area. However, by the 80s, the population was shifting outside of the city. Salt Lake began losing people at a rapid pace to the suburbs and it just wasn't economically feasible to operate four public high schools in a city of only 170,000. South High, which was one of only three public high schools in Salt Lake prior to Highland, was forced to shut down.

My grandpa taught there until its closing. It sharply divided the community because it represented the blue collar, working class neighborhoods of the city. East High, which was just as old, represented the mostly affluent areas of the city and they were allowed to stay open. As was Highland, because it was a newer school located in the south-east area of the city, and West High, which was located on the city's west-side.

So South High's students were divided between Highland, East and West.

Salt Lake City still has only three public high schools.

[misanthrope]

25. It's all part of the war on the lower classes to keep us divided and ignorant**nm

**

[maryf]

52. yep, yep, yep

its all about class war; workers unite!!

[liberalmuse]

21. That picture is absolutely heartbreaking.

Our teachers have really taken big hits this past decade - namely with Bush's 'No Child Left Behind' BS, and again with politicians hoping to score political points by putting all the blame on our teachers, and now with all the layoffs and school closings. I have a dear friend who is a school teacher and she's an excellent one, but I've seen how hard her job is and how little pay she gets for it. She's had the heart break of having one of her students murdered by her mother who then committed suicide. She's had students who've lived in horrible conditions, and some who act up in class because their parents aren't there for them at home. She works all year round - in the summer going to camps with the lower income kids, and then she's back in the classroom prepping a few weeks before school starts. It can be a thankless job in many ways, but good, caring teachers (and there are so many of them) really do make a difference. It is disgraceful how we treat them in this country.

[proud2BlibKansan]

31. Thank you liberalmuse

:hug:

[misanthrope]

24. Thanks to White Flight and manipulation of housing values based on ethnicity**nm

**

[proud2BlibKansan]

36. That is indeed a huge factor.

[nemo137]

56. Especially in KC, if my memories and my family's stories are correct.

[maryf]

42. That could be so many of us...

This is brutal, I hope enough teachers get really mad...I wish the AFT, NEA, and NYSUT in my state would call for rallies, but its top down unions, we have to organize ourselves...and teachers have to get back to thinking of themselves as workers like most other union members...it won't hurt as much, and we won't associate as much with the management...

[Neecy]

44. That photograph is simply heartbreaking

I haven't been following the KC news in the last couple of weeks - are they going to move some of the teachers to other schools, or are they all going to be laid off?

[proud2BlibKansan]

46. They are eliminating almost 300 teaching positions

They are hoping most will be taken care of with retirees. The rest will be furloughed.

[The Midway Rebel]

47. 285 teachers laid off in KCMO. She looks like I have felt for the last 5 years.

KCMO is not alone.

Even the wealthiest KC area school districts are taking a beating.

http://www.kmbc.com/news/22778902/detail.html

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/03/08/1799024/shawnee-mission-and-blue-valley.html



I picked a f#&# up time in US History to be a US History Teacher.

[proud2BlibKansan]

51. Are you certified in anything else?

My dad who was a principal advised me to be sure and get certification in more than one area. Smart advice - I'm pretty safe now.

[The Midway Rebel]

57. Middle school science

Currently headed back for an MA in History. I give up on a public school career. Apparently, it just ain't in the cards for me.

[maryf]

53. How much concern

is the general public showing? seems everybody must know at least one teacher they care about? thanks for this...

[Supply Side Jesus]

54. That piece of shit Covington

He tried to gut the hell out of the school district in my home town. Fucker got run out on rails, poor KC got stuck with him. Hope there is a special hell for inhuman garbage such as this.