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What to do when a school district goes broke - 1/14/2012 11:10:00 PM

erieangel

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"One school district outside of Philadelphia is going broke. Straight-up broke. The Chester Upland school district has already laid off 40 percent of its teachers and professional staff and about half of its support staff, raising class sizes to 40 students. The district has no superintendent and teachers have not gotten raises they were supposed to get. And now the district does not have money to pay its teachers. At all. It is, in case you hadn't noticed, the middle of the school year. What happens to students when the schools just stop paying their teachers? What happens to the teachers who are suddenly without paychecks?These teachers plan to keep working without pay as long as they're able to do so..."
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/762549/after_pa_school_district_goes_broke%2C_incredible_teachers_agree_to_keep_teaching_without_pay/#paragraph2
I hope these teachers are able to stay on through the end of school year. Working for no pay...would they be able to get unemployment?

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RE: What to do when a school district goes broke - 1/14/2012 11:16:13 PM

tazzygirl

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I dont know about other cities, I do know that Pittsburgh is facing a crisis too.. and its their own making. We have not had a property tax increase in ten years... and they did it this year, and got it all wrong. Some property increased 2x to 4x's the previous value. Few can come up with that kind of tax money. So they had to put it on hold another year. Its all messed up and we have closed 5 schools already.

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RE: What to do when a school district goes broke - 1/14/2012 11:21:32 PM

MrRodgers

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quote:

ORIGINAL: erieangel

"One school district outside of Philadelphia is going broke. Straight-up broke. The Chester Upland school district has already laid off 40 percent of its teachers and professional staff and about half of its support staff, raising class sizes to 40 students. The district has no superintendent and teachers have not gotten raises they were supposed to get. And now the district does not have money to pay its teachers. At all. It is, in case you hadn't noticed, the middle of the school year. What happens to students when the schools just stop paying their teachers? What happens to the teachers who are suddenly without paychecks?These teachers plan to keep working without pay as long as they're able to do so..."
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/762549/after_pa_school_district_goes_broke%2C_incredible_teachers_agree_to_keep_teaching_without_pay/#paragraph2
I hope these teachers are able to stay on through the end of school year. Working for no pay...would they be able to get unemployment?

Imagine in America it has come to this. And here I thought we were ALL getting richer.

Kinda reminds me of most of the world's historical slavery. "Well, I may own you and steal your labor for your entire life but if you want to eat...you'll just have to grow your own food."

It makes me wonder, can govts. sell their district or county ? It may come to that and taxes will be their cash flow. Hey, we'll really get services then...won't we ? That's the ticket, maybe a whole new profit center. We are almost there anyway...aren't we ?

< Message edited by MrRodgers -- 1/14/2012 11:25:19 PM >

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RE: What to do when a school district goes broke - 1/14/2012 11:22:35 PM

Musicmystery

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Wait. I thought cutting taxes generated extra money magically.

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RE: What to do when a school district goes broke - 1/14/2012 11:29:57 PM

MrRodgers

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Musicmystery

Wait. I thought cutting taxes generated extra money magically.

Yea...I tried cutting my trees in the back yard to see them grow even taller. It has never worked.

How is it BTW that so-called fiscal conservatives argue a tax theory designed to increase govt. revenue ? Not only is that a very strange thing for a conservative to seek but isn't that just...feeding the monster ?

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RE: What to do when a school district goes broke - 1/14/2012 11:32:41 PM

erieangel

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quote:

ORIGINAL: tazzygirl

I dont know about other cities, I do know that Pittsburgh is facing a crisis too.. and its their own making. We have not had a property tax increase in ten years... and they did it this year, and got it all wrong. Some property increased 2x to 4x's the previous value. Few can come up with that kind of tax money. So they had to put it on hold another year. Its all messed up and we have closed 5 schools already.

Yeah, we're pretty desperate in Erie, too. It doesn't help that a few years ago the school board voted to give the superintendent a huge raise in order to keep him. Why they wanted Barker to stay is beyond me (and he has since left) but at the time, he was the highest paid school superintendent in the country. I think his successor gets more even, making him the most highly paid superintendent. And our schools are failing our students.

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RE: What to do when a school district goes broke - 1/14/2012 11:33:04 PM

DaNewAgeViking

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We have a similar situation here in Washington state. The court recently issued a ruling that the state is 'underfunding education', which will do about as much good as King Knute berating the oncoming tide unless the court indulges in some 'judicial activism' and overturns a recent initiative petition repealing a recently introduced income tax. What we're seeing here is the slow unwinding of our whole economic system as the prolonged depression drags on. It's only going to get worse before it gets better, if it gets better.

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RE: What to do when a school district goes broke - 1/15/2012 3:58:35 AM

joether

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Updated information on this topic

Frankly I would be amazed if the Republican Governor actually did something to help the school district out rather than file it away under 'to do in their next term of office' bin. And I'm not talking just this year, but next year. Including getting those folks that were laid off back to work.

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RE: What to do when a school district goes broke - 1/15/2012 4:57:25 AM

erieangel

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Thanks for the update, joether. I don't imagine Corbett will do anything, despite the fact that it is state law that Harrisburg provide for the public education of any all all students from the age of 8 (I believe) through 21.

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RE: What to do when a school district goes broke - 1/15/2012 12:21:45 PM

Miserlou

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the answer is simple, you raise taxes. in a case like this you institute some sort of emergency levy or deficit financing until the increase in tax revenue can be instituted.

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