Sunday, December 20, 2009

Local vs. state taxes for school funding

I know many of you know this chart well, but still thought it'd be worth showing. It's a 20 year trend of school funding obtained through local taxes (in white) and state taxes (in black):Tim White

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

How high will this go before someone screams enough?

Tim White said...

WRA on the Seymour teachers' contract:

No raises in first year of teacher's contract in Seymour

Anonymous said...

We should assume in future budgets Cheshire will get virtually nothing from the state for school expenses. The state is running billions in deficits and in order to comply with court rulings, needs to keep funding the "disadvantaged" school districts. Therefore, you don;t need to be a Ph. D to ascertain the more affluent school districts are going to be cut to shreds so cash can be shovelled to Eddie Perez and John deStefano.

Then again, Cheshire elected one fiscal conservative (Caligiuri)and a bunch of bleeding hearts to Hartford; the voters are going to reap what they have sown.

Anonymous said...

Gerry Brittingham's Letter to The Editor (Cheshire Herald) Feb 6th, 2003...my how the BOE can change a person:

"School Board Out Of Control With Spending, Bureaucracy
Editor, The cheshire herald:

As the parent of two children in the Cheshire school system, one at Dodd and one at the high school, I would like to make the following statements:

It is high time that the bloated, sacred cow that is the Board of Education be hauled off to the slaughterhouse. As the members of this self-serving body have so cleverly shown time and time again, fiscal responsibility and the effective education of our children are unknown factors to them. It would seem that equating immense paychecks with quality education is their only guideline. Whereas in the past a bonus was for an exceptional performance, now (it would seem) it is to be expected. What is more, these become part of one’s salary for the coming year. At least the teachers’ union made its greed apparent in the late contract “negotiations.” But not only is the money grab abhorrent, so also is the immense bureaucracy that is in place: assistant superintendents and their secretaries and their assistant secretaries, principals and vice-principals and their secretaries and assistant secretaries and on and on.

But do beware, those who would dare question this august body; prepare to be vilified as anti-child, anti-community, etc. The flag of “our children’s education” will be paraded and your anti-American values will be excoriated.

And to Ms. Podgwaite who wants to sacrifice learning materials instead of “cuts,” for as long as my sons have been in this school system, copied handouts and the lack of the most current teaching materials have been the norm. Ma’am, you seem to be out of touch with the realities of this system, please remove yourself from it. A quality education is based on involved and aware parents, up-to-date materials and qualified teachers, and a Board of Education that is more than a rubber stamp. To suggest that it is more important to feed the greed of a bloated bureaucracy and its unions is to be reckless at best and irresponsible at worst.

In closing, before you call me or write your replies, ask yourself this question: How much of my hard earned money would I give to an investor or charity if I was told almost 90 percent of it would go to salaries and benefits?

Gerry Brittingham
Cheshire


Does anybody remember this letter? More importantly, does anybody remember this version of Brittingham? Funny how people change once they become elected.

Anonymous said...

One has to keep an eye on the budget process. Let's see what they (BOE) come up with before we judge. 2012 is around the corner.

Anonymous said...

2:04 Interesting letter. Perhaps when the budget process begins, you could give the board a copy of the letter.

Anonymous said...

Let's see what Gerry does this year. He wasn't calling any shots last time out