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Up to now, as even a casual reader of this blog surely noticed, I have been a supporter of the Measure H parcel tax campaign. But oh, how wrong I was.
Our schools don’t need my $120, or the programs the money is supposed to help pay for. They need to get a clue. A good education that produces well-rounded young men and women is passé. In fact, the dumber our kids are, the better they will do. Sports, music classes for tone-deaf tots, fancy AP classes – it’s all a total waste of money. As they say, youth is wasted on the young. Because they don’t waste enough of it.
Need proof? Look no further than the White House, my friends, where George W. Bush has rested his head every night for the last 7 1/4 years. He beat not one, but two men who were supposedly smarter and better educated than him. Wanna bet they played sports and dinged the triangle each week in an elementary music class while ol’ George cooled his heels on the cheerleading squad? Suckers.
Did Britney Spears waste her time picking up high school electives with a dream of someday getting into Brown to study contemporary French lit? Hell no! And look at how her life turned out.
So you may be asking yourself, “What changed her mind?” It’s a new campaign against this unnecessary tax, which I will be the first to unveil, here on my blog. It’s called simply “I’m With Stupid.” And I guarantee that they’ll change your mind too.
The folks behind this campaign have a simple message: You’re wrong. In constantly begging for more money to keep our public schools functioning each year, we are telling our children that they’re not good enough just the way they are. They need quality schooling to make us love and accept them. Instead, we should embrace our undereducated little urchins, if not for who they are, then for who they may someday become. And who knows? Maybe they’ll get to be President.
Besides, not everybody participates in all these music classes and sports and whatnot, so why should everyone else pay? If they want AP classes, let the kids go out and get jobs to pay for them. It’ll build character – something that clearly is not being taught in our public schools right now.
The “I’m With Stupid” folks aren’t kicking off their campaign until next week. But The Island has obtained copies of their advertising spots, posted here, and the photo of IWS leader Chuck Stupinski in the group’s campaign T-shirt (posted above).
So what do you say? LET’S DO IT FOR THE CHILDREN, PEOPLE. I’m with stupid. Are you?
The Alameda Unified School District’s finance chief laid out the impacts of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget proposal for next year, and they are grim. Under the proposal, the district could lose more than $4 million in state funding for the current year and 2009-2010. And that’s not counting the $650,000 it will lose when the new Nea Community Learning Center charter school opens next year, taking an anticipated 250 students off the district’s rolls.
If the governor’s plan were to be enacted, the district could face layoffs and even the loss of five days of the school year, district chief financial officer Tim Rahill said, though it could allow the district to take money out of “categorical” programs – money that is designated for specific programs that can’t be used for any other purpose.
Declining enrollment and increasing costs – Rahill said worker’s compensation costs, for example, will probably rise – will also impact the district’s budget.
“Alameda is facing a state budget crisis. We are facing the opening of a charter school. Also, we’re experiencing declining enrollment,” Rahill said.
He said parcel tax dollars generated by the passage of Measure H could also be used to help cover the cuts, if the board wishes to use those. This year, the district is slated to get $4 million in Measure H tax funds, and it has only budgeted $1.2 million of that.
Schwarzenegger has proposed a number of additional taxes to bridge $31.3 billion in budget shortfalls between the 2007-08 and 2009-10 fiscal years.
The district wants your input on its budget situation. They’ve scheduled budget workshops for February 11 and April 2. We’ll update you when times and locations are available.
If the governor’s plan were to be enacted, the district could face layoffs and even the loss of five days of the school year, district chief financial officer Tim Rahill said, though it could allow the district to take money out of “categorical” programs – money that is designated for specific programs that can’t be used for any other purpose.
Declining enrollment and increasing costs – Rahill said worker’s compensation costs, for example, will probably rise – will also impact the district’s budget.
“Alameda is facing a state budget crisis. We are facing the opening of a charter school. Also, we’re experiencing declining enrollment,” Rahill said.
He said parcel tax dollars generated by the passage of Measure H could also be used to help cover the cuts, if the board wishes to use those. This year, the district is slated to get $4 million in Measure H tax funds, and it has only budgeted $1.2 million of that.
Schwarzenegger has proposed a number of additional taxes to bridge $31.3 billion in budget shortfalls between the 2007-08 and 2009-10 fiscal years.
The district wants your input on its budget situation. They’ve scheduled budget workshops for February 11 and April 2. We’ll update you when times and locations are available.
posted by Michele Ellson at 9:00 AM on Jan 28, 2009
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