Lately, the Baltimore Sun, has been full of reports of a recently approved city school budget that is nothing but a bunch of miscalculations and ineptitude. The entire school board approved a document that, among other things, allocated 6.2 million to zero city employees. One has to wonder who got the job for such embarrassing mathmatics skills. Columnists such as Jean Marbella sarcastically point the out the difficulties of long division, and insist it is all an honest mistake.
Circuit Court Clerk Frank Conaway is insisting that there be a freeze on funds and the city budget be taken over by the state--a very controversial issue early last year between Nancy Grasmick and then-Mayor O'Malley.
Many people want to point fingers and find who is to blame, but they are, as usual forgetting who really gets lost in this mess of a system-the students. How can I possibly expect my students to become proficient in Math on their MSA when, not only are the people in charge of them incapable of simple mathematics, but in that mess of a situation, they are also missing out on much needed resources that have instead been allocated to imaginary employees
It is yet another instance when the system is not practicing what it preaches. As written in the previous post on the budget, the real culprits to this atrocity are complacently keeping their jobs. All those NCLB buzzwords like accountability? Not for these guys! I am accountable for overcoming countless barriers in the educational system to help my students succeed while needless extra barriers are being placed in the way.
While all this controversy is discussed, reviewed and everyone has a respectable bit of outrage, the significant problems are not being addressed. We instead deal with unnecessary and unacceptable missteps. This budget consists of 1.2 billion dollars and not a single person on the entire school board had the time to review simple line item expenditures?
And on a superficial level, how does this look to the rest of the country? Should this information be presented to anyone, BCPSS looks ridiculous. I remember feeling outrage at the statements Oprah used when she discussed giving donations to Baltimore. She said, and I quote, “What I've learned from my philanthropic giving is that unless you can create sustainable change, then it's a waste, you might as well pee on it." This statement infuriated me, because I thought, “Wow, if Oprah doesn’t believe in us, we must be in bad shape.” Such bad shape in fact, that adults with considerable authority can’t add and subtract.
It is yet another instance when the system is not practicing what it preaches. As written in the previous post on the budget, the real culprits to this atrocity are complacently keeping their jobs. All those NCLB buzzwords like accountability? Not for these guys! I am accountable for overcoming countless barriers in the educational system to help my students succeed while needless extra barriers are being placed in the way.
While all this controversy is discussed, reviewed and everyone has a respectable bit of outrage, the significant problems are not being addressed. We instead deal with unnecessary and unacceptable missteps. This budget consists of 1.2 billion dollars and not a single person on the entire school board had the time to review simple line item expenditures?
And on a superficial level, how does this look to the rest of the country? Should this information be presented to anyone, BCPSS looks ridiculous. I remember feeling outrage at the statements Oprah used when she discussed giving donations to Baltimore. She said, and I quote, “What I've learned from my philanthropic giving is that unless you can create sustainable change, then it's a waste, you might as well pee on it." This statement infuriated me, because I thought, “Wow, if Oprah doesn’t believe in us, we must be in bad shape.” Such bad shape in fact, that adults with considerable authority can’t add and subtract.
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