No on 103

[Zundfolge]

And once again Colorado votes down anything to do that might actually help our schools.

I'm as conservative as anyone here but as a parent in torn on the issue when it comes to school funding. Colorado is always at the bottom of the list when it comes to school funding and I can tell every time I walk into my daughters school.

Don't fall for the lie that more money equals better schools.



If 103 passes it will only kill jobs (which won't help the children of the newly unemployed get a better education) and empower the Unions and Democrat Party (yes, I'm being redundant there)

[jerrymrc]

They also add that line, "and for other uses" Everytime we give them more $$ it finds a black hole never to be seen again.

[OneGuy67]

I voted no on this, but truthfully, was torn. Working in government right now, I know how tight our budget is, how much additional work I've been given, how much prioritizing has been done, how much our pay cuts and furloughs have been and cost me, how much health insurance has gone up. My take home paycheck is substantially less now than it was 5 years ago and consumer prices have gone up dramatically in that time.

I voted my pocketbook, knowing I can't afford to pay more because I don't have the money.

It is too easy to say cut the fat, but from the outside looking in, I don't know what the fat is that needs to be cut. Too much generalization. I know there are some teachers here on the forum and I would really like to hear from them about their schools, their budgets, their administration and their ideas about where their structure could be manipulated to meet the current budget.

[sniper7]

I voted no on this, but truthfully, was torn. Working in government right now, I know how tight our budget is, how much additional work I've been given, how much prioritizing has been done, how much our pay cuts and furloughs have been and cost me, how much health insurance has gone up. My take home paycheck is substantially less now than it was 5 years ago and consumer prices have gone up dramatically in that time.

I voted my pocketbook, knowing I can't afford to pay more because I don't have the money.

It is too easy to say cut the fat, but from the outside looking in, I don't know what the fat is that needs to be cut. Too much generalization. I know there are some teachers here on the forum and I would really like to hear from them about their schools, their budgets, their administration and their ideas about where their structure could be manipulated to meet the current budget.

My wifes school has cut pretty much everything they can at this point. 1 principal and 1 vice principal. they have 580 kids.
there are I think 25 teachers now. 7 periods a day. pretty much all teachers have only 1 plan period where they don't have kids).
2 gym teachers, a music teacher are included in that.

they have a counselor on staff, I think 3 front desk/secretary staff, might be 4.

I don't know what their budget is at, but I know they are tight, the class sizes for my wife range from 35-40 or so. I think she sees 180 kids a day, maybe a bit more.

Then there are Para-professionals. while they do serve a purpose, sometimes there is 1 adult following 1 kid around a day. that is what KILLS a budget. I would say there are 3-5 paras at the school. their pay sucks, but add in health benefits etc and it is adding up big time. so say 4 of them, the cost is probably 200K. that should be cut in half at least if not more. put all the kids who can't function on their own in a normal classroom and put them into a special room where 1-2 teachers can help them learn at their own pace.
Those kids not only slow the class down, they also disrupt the class a lot slowing it down even further. then if a para doesn't show, or if they have to leave half way through class...which a lot of times is scheduled, it leaves the teacher with the special needs student as well as the regular students.

It is the fault of the system. the system needs to be changed.

The kids who ride busses are paying for those bus rides now (expect for those who get it free...usually along with lunch and sports participation etc.)

Gym needs to stick around. a gym can hold 80-100 kids and participation can be achieved by all with 2 gym teachers, but the classroom sizes need to be reeled in to more manageable levels for students to learn better and get more one on one help with their teacher.

The good teachers (for the most part) are being retained, the bad ones are getting weeded out to a degree (tenure changes last year now allow administrators the ability to get rid of bad teachers even if they have tenure). The teachers are going to give it everything they can, if they don't, the principal sees it. At her school, her principal is awesome and really does a good job keeping on top of everything. He really does earn his paycheck.

[Ridge]

They also add that line, "and for other uses" Everytime we give them more $$ it finds a black hole never to be seen again.

that line is why I voted no. Annoys me almost as much as auto shop receipts that say "extra fee for profit". Don't blatantly tell Mr you're ripping me off!

[sniper7]

Don't fall for the lie that more money equals better schools.



If 103 passes it will only kill jobs (which won't help the children of the newly unemployed get a better education) and empower the Unions and Democrat Party (yes, I'm being redundant there)

this graph looks amazingly just like the federal bailout obama said would save us....keep throwing money at it, yet nothing changes.


I do know locally that at my wifes school some jobs were cut, but they were teacher jobs. class sizes now are upwards of 45:1 student:teacher ratio. that is insane and you can't expect any of those kids to get a lot of of their schooling. The teachers are sucking it up, doing what it takes, got their planning time cut in half, have kids in for lunch, for their plan periods, after school etc. etc....all for a pay freeze or to not receive their pay increase when they become more qualified (such as a masters degree). My sister has not receive her masters pay for 3 years now...that is over $20,000 total.

I agree with what has been said that admins need to be cut or they need to be in the classroom to cut down class sizes. At my high school, graduated in 2003, we had a principal, 3 vice principals, 5 deans (basically assistant vice principals), and at least 8 front desk staff/secretaries. I think we had 1800 students. that is ridiculous.