Alexandria City Council Fully Fund the Schools!

[Anonymous]

If you live in Alexandria and care about the public schools please pay attention to who you're voting into city council. They hold the purse strings and are currently refusing to fully fund the schools. 80% of the public school budget comes from local funding. If we want the schools to do better for the children for Alexandria we need the schools fully funded! Please contact city council and the city manager today and let them know where our priorities are.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, I've heard this all before. This was a BS PTAC campaign about six years ago.

More money was thrown at ACPS then and things are worse.

How about demanding accountability at ACPS central office? How about instead of central office workers pulling in 100k+ for clerical work some of that goes to teachers?

[Anonymous]

So your not in support of giving teachers cost of living increases and giving step increases to staff and teachers who haven't gotten them in years? Because that's what the school board is asking for due to parents and teachers advocating. Please explain how paying teachers and staff what they are worth so that they don't leave for other districts will make things worse.

[Anonymous]

You may want to re-read the post. You may also want to look up what a strawman fallacy is.

So tell me, how is this time going to be different? Same campaign from years ago and schools are in worse shape. But this time will be different how?

Why not look at the lavish salaries at central office? Why not advocate for cuts in the obvious waste there? Because that's hard and would mean doing real work.

And please remember that ACPS has so much cash that they couldn't be bothered to spend their $54 million in covid cash in a timely way. Of course, first central office lied to the school board and said it was all earmarked and then a few months later said "Oh! It's not really earmarked! Let's spend it!" and the current school board members didn't say a word. How much of that went to teachers and students?

I have news for you, this money that you're advocating for...a mere sliver will go to teachers. Most will go to the bloat. History repeats itself.

[Anonymous]

You may want to look up what the school board has budgeted the money for before you advocate against it because it's budgeted for the teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You may want to look up what the school board has budgeted the money for before you advocate against it because it's budgeted for the teachers.

You think this school board is going to protect that money? Again, I've seen this all play out before over the years.

Cindy Anderson, the former school board chair, was really good at this - she'd say "it's for the teachers" and the teachers would get virtually nothing but central office continued to gobble up money unimpeded.

I can't take this seriously because 1 - I've seen this exact thing play out many times before and 2 - if no one is willing to have a serious discussion about cutting the bloat at central office then they are just taking the easy way.

You and I agree that most teachers in ACPS aren't paid nearly enough for what they do (and have to endure) each day.

But ACPS is grossly financially mismanaged and that shouldn't be ignored by this school board or city council or parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So your not in support of giving teachers cost of living increases and giving step increases to staff and teachers who haven't gotten them in years? Because that's what the school board is asking for due to parents and teachers advocating. Please explain how paying teachers and staff what they are worth so that they don't leave for other districts will make things worse.

Take it from the free lunches. And expel the kids that require cops in the school. Take those funds and give it to the teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, I've heard this all before. This was a BS PTAC campaign about six years ago.

More money was thrown at ACPS then and things are worse.

How about demanding accountability at ACPS central office? How about instead of central office workers pulling in 100k+ for clerical work some of that goes to teachers?

+1
Compare the per pupil spend to other districts. I compare it to our amazing k-12, and the whole ACPS back office is a disgrace. It’s bloated and inefficient and as a taxpayer I have zero interest in throwing more money at it. Look at some of the small line items they waste money on and you get an idea of how they operate. I’d actually be in favor of a freeze on any increases until they are accountable and cut bloat in the central office.

[Anonymous]

Tell me you send your kids to private school without telling me you send your kids to private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tell me you send your kids to private school without telling me you send your kids to private school.

Not an argument.

If you are begging taxpayers to dump more money into a bloated and failing system without any accountability...their opinion matters. Private school parents or not.

Keep in mind that it was private school parents who funded, worked for and elected Baird to office.

Why do you want more money without accountability? And why is this time going to be different from all the "fully fund ACPS" campaigns in the past?

Make an argument backed up by facts, not emotion and ignorance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tell me you send your kids to private school without telling me you send your kids to private school.

OP started this thread with: "If you live in Alexandria and care about the public schools..."

[Anonymous]

I'm sure you'd prefer your tax dollars to fund an unnecessary arena for a billionaire or to pay millions of dollars for free city busses to shuttle around tourists, rainbow colored sidewalks anyone? Maybe you prefer millions of unaccounted for tax dollars spent funding endless transportation studies. Weird how you're up in arms about giving veteran teachers and bus drivers a budgeted cost of living increase. Where is the outrage over the nonsense city council funds everyday with your tax dollars?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm sure you'd prefer your tax dollars to fund an unnecessary arena for a billionaire or to pay millions of dollars for free city busses to shuttle around tourists, rainbow colored sidewalks anyone? Maybe you prefer millions of unaccounted for tax dollars spent funding endless transportation studies. Weird how you're up in arms about giving veteran teachers and bus drivers a budgeted cost of living increase. Where is the outrage over the nonsense city council funds everyday with your tax dollars?

NP here. What makes you think people haven’t been outraged? Huh?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm sure you'd prefer your tax dollars to fund an unnecessary arena for a billionaire or to pay millions of dollars for free city busses to shuttle around tourists, rainbow colored sidewalks anyone? Maybe you prefer millions of unaccounted for tax dollars spent funding endless transportation studies. Weird how you're up in arms about giving veteran teachers and bus drivers a budgeted cost of living increase. Where is the outrage over the nonsense city council funds everyday with your tax dollars?

So no explanation of why this time the "fully fund ACPS" campaign is going to end differently. No proof for why this time fully funding ACPS is going to end up with better results.

Instead just another strawman argument.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So your not in support of giving teachers cost of living increases and giving step increases to staff and teachers who haven't gotten them in years? Because that's what the school board is asking for due to parents and teachers advocating. Please explain how paying teachers and staff what they are worth so that they don't leave for other districts will make things worse.

Take it from the free lunches. And expel the kids that require cops in the school. Take those funds and give it to the teachers.

Yes, please screw over poor kids. And even if you expel a student, you still have to educate them.