Monday, March 5, 2012

Two cents worth

The other day I was listening to some oldies,as I'm prone to do, and Bob Dylan was singing the Times they are a changin'. I couldn't help but think how relevant that tune is even today. The times certainly are a changin'. The news was on and I happened to catch a small piece about the school system in Baltimore city. Like the majority of public schools in the country today they are having financial difficulties. Teacher salaries,administrative costs and building maintenance were being discussed. When the budget was analyzed and expenses tallied a surprising thing was now plainly evident. By far the largest expenditure had been on Police presence in the school. Regular time plus overtime added up to more than any teachers salary or any other support personal.
Whoa ! The times they are a changin' for sure. We have arrived at a point in this country were we have to have police protection in our schools to try and maintain discipline. I've known that for awhile but didn't realize that more funds went to that than to actually educating the children. Am I the only one that thinks their is a problem here ? How did this come to be ? As an aside the top dog administrator, Dr. Alonzo has a personal driver. His driver made more than he did last year. And we are talking well over six figures here. The Dr. gets a 750 dollar a month stipend for transportation costs. Talk about an administration out of control.
All this has come to light because the city wants to impose an additional bottle tax. An extra two cents per bottle of soda sold. A reporter did some checking into this. How this has gone unnoticed and unchecked this long speaks volumes. Surely they are quite a few that were aware of this. The accountants and others involved in disbursements. None of these individuals said anything.
A pretty sad state of affairs if you ask me. Bad enough to have to have police in the schools. A shame that the buildings are shabby and in need of serious repairs. Tragic that our educators are so poorly paid. But it is a travesty when the Police and a chauffeur earn the largest salaries ! The mayor and all the other politicians are always talking about " the children." We need this bottle tax to increase revenue for " the children." The reality is more like, give me more money and the children can take the hindmost !
Yes, the times they are a changin' Bob and not for the better.  

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