Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Parents Deserve to Know Where School Money Goes

Submitted by: Dania

As news of the Springfield public school foundation heralds the benefits of citizen support of our local schools, there’s no doubt that athletics can cloud our local priorities compared to improving our reading, math, or science scores. However, on the issue of school districts using taxpayer monies to sue the state for more money, the fundamental foul here seems that few if any members of the voting public knew anything about the rising cost of a $4.6M taxpayer-funded suit. While I was glad to hear that some districts, like Springfield, dropped out of the case once the General Assembly increased funding for education, what about the other districts still on this crusade? I would be furious if my local school board didn’t tell me that this suit would waste $81,000. If the school districts have that kind of discretionary dollars lying around, and used it for community needs instead of plaintiff attorneys, maybe we wouldn’t have these shortfalls in the first place.

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