It was obvious there wasn't anything really that he wanted. There wasn't anything in that store he was crying out for. Sure, there were many things in the store he needed. But that was not the something he was out for. He had a dollar and he was going to spend it. He was going to buy something because he had a dollar. Something
I was reminded of that vignette when I read the latest chapter in the Champaign School Board's drive for a $64 million bond issue.
We are going to buy something.
I have never voted against a school bond issue in my many many many years on this planet. But this one troubles me.
They want to spend $64 million dollars, but they still don't know for sure what they're gonna spend $64 million on.
From Tuesday's News-Gazette:
School board members Monday voiced significant concerns about district building priorities on a list drafted in December by citizens' committee members.They're pretty sure they want to spend money to upgrade existing schools, upgrades that may or may not include air conditioning. By court decree they have to build an elementary school north of University Avenue, but they're definitely not sure where. They're pretty sure they want to build an elementary school in Savoy (for no other reason than to stop the incessant whining from the spoiled Savoy folks whose history is to scream and cry and throw trantrums on every issue until they get what they want). And they're pretty sure they want to acquire property somewhere to build a new high school some time later.
There's an awful lot of somewhere, some time, some kind, some work in the school board's plans.
I'm more than willing to support any bond issue that includes concrete plans, concrete ideas and fills concrete needs.
But maybe not a bond issue that comes at us backwards: "We'll ask for $64 million. Then let's find something to spend it on."
The Champaign school district has many needs. It probably has $64 million of them. But there's no plan here. If they're not sure what they're gonna spend it on, I'm not sure I want to give it to them.
I really don't like "I'm going to buy something."
And so it goes.
4 comments:
Exactly..."Concrete" being the essential term. I'm all for construction, but not for expensive central air conditioning. Get a fan or a window air conditioner.
I kinda gotta disagree with the air conditioning thing. We as a society have been conditioned to expect and function in an air conditioned society. To expect teachers and students to perform at acceptable levels in an atmosphere less that which they can find nearly everywhere else in society, I think, is unreasonable.
I'm sure students could get an acceptable education in 2006 without computers in every classroom, too. But that is the world in which we live.
If we don't adapt to the world of today, those students won't be able to join the work force in acceptable numbers and at high enough positions to pay for my Social Secutiry benefits.
I'm with you on this one, Old Guy. Why should Champaign taxpayers shell out for a new school for Savoy, when Savoy taxpayers aren't willing to help pay for a mass transit system that benefits the whole community by keeping cars off the streets and parking lots where the Savoy people drive too? And, instead of joining the Champaign library system and paying taxes for their use of our library, they join the Tolono system, which doesn't have any branches even close to Savoy, and use interlibrary loan to get books from our library. There are grade schools not filled to capacity now, but the Savoy taxpayers don't want their kids going to the north end of Champaign to help fill up Stratton. They're sure not going to get my vote to raise my taxes to build a new school in Savoy.
Yeah, I'm not particularly inclined to vote for a school in Savoy, either. Sounds to me like they'd really enjoy taking our money, but other than that ... take your radioactive buses and your library levies and all the rest of your municipal services and go away, thankyouverymuch. I just don't think they can have it both ways. Either they're part of the community or not.
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