Thursday, May 6, 2010

It is always interesting to hear the comments from people when school districts are forced into the position of having to lay off workers or close buildings.
Letting people go and the closing of facilities or the cutting of programs is the last thing that superintendents and school boards want to be a part of.
Unfortunately, we live in an economic time that has brought nearly every district in the state of Michigan to this point.
Some district are doing better than others, there is no doubt about it. But without fail, each and every Michigan School district will have to make some sort of budget decision this year because the state has cut their financial aid.
That is no fault of these districts.
It’s our faults.
Take a minute and think about it.
How many times have you voted no on a school millage in the past 10 years?
Those no votes when schools were asking for money to build new buildings, upgrade current facilities are coming back to roost.
Trust us when we say that school districts do not stick their hands out because they are greedy. They do so in order to give our kids the best education they can.
They don’t ask for ridiculous amounts of money either. Districts usually ask for a reasonable amount knowing that figure will have to be reduced time after time before voters eventually approve it, if they ever do.
When new facilities are not built for decades and upgrades to buildings are put off for years because voters refuse to approve millages, then it becomes more expensive to fix them down the road.
Then at some point, when districts are forced to look at making cuts, the older buildings fall victim to those cuts because they have become too expensive to maintain and it only makes sense to close them and consolidate.
Also, when districts are forced to continually repair older buildings it takes away from the funds that they try to store up for poor economic times.
Those times are here and now they are faced with some very difficult decisions.
When those decisions are discussed and announced, people come out of the woodwork and start complaining.
But where were those people when the school district needed their help?
A vast majority of them were voting no time after time on a bond request.
No one likes to pay additional taxes and school boards do not want to keep asking the voters for money because they are all tax payers as well.
But when the state fails to come through with funding that money has to come from somewhere.
We either need to step up to the plate and help out or they are going to have to continue to make those tough decisions that will impact not only our children, but our community as a whole.
Another of the issues that always arises at times like this is the salaries of the administrators and teachers.
We can tell you that they are not overpaid for what they do, which is educate our children.
We all expect to get paid well at our jobs when we reach the top of our professions.
So why shouldn’t they be compensated in a similar fashion?
You also pay for what you get. You want to get good teachers to teach your kids, then you better pay them a fair salary that is on par with other districts.
So leave the salaries out of this equation.
What we all need to do now is focus on how we can help our districts get through these tough times and continue to provide our children with the best educational experience they can.
That should be what we are all talking about right now instead of complaining about the decisions that have had to been made.
It’s all our faults that it has come to this. Now it’s our turn to step up to the plate and deliver.
Be a part of the solution instead of part of the problem.