For sheer brashness, Keller ISD gets high marks. For fiscal responsibility, they fail miserably. The Metroplex-area school district has put a knife to the throat of every classroom teacher (and therefore school-age child), demanding taxpayers pay up, or else.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram editorial board, in supporting this thuggish behavior, today notes that the district is demanding voters agree to a massive tax hike… or it “would eliminate 93 teaching jobs, 16 librarian positions and other staff. Fine arts programs would lose 34 positions…”
Of course, the FWST doesn’t mention that this is a school district spending more than $10,900 per child – with only $4,550 going to the classroom. Or that the superintendent makes a $225,000 annual salary. Or that they have their own natatorium. Or that they have a 1-to-1 ratio between teachers and non-teachers.
Nope, taxpayers need to fork over more cash or the teachers feel the axe and kids get left in an empty classroom.
This is just one more disgusting example of how the out-of-touch the edu-administration establishment really is. They clearly feel no sense of fiduciary responsibility to their bosses (the taxpayers), shame for their behavior to the teachers in their employ, or concern for the children in their care.
The over-spending ISD, and their cheerleaders at the FWST, lay the district’s fiscal problems at a legislature not giving them as much money as they demand. They inexplicably chastise Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst for suggesting that there is adequate dollars available to pay for education.
Remember, 60 percent of the state’s General Revenues are now going toward education. And that public education saw an increase in spending at the same time the state budget is being cut $15 billion.
No, the Keller ISD leviathan demands more money.
Keller ISD – and many others like it – are clearly not interested in adequately funding education, despite their claims to the contrary. They regularly under-fund classrooms; how else does one explain that less than 40% of Keller ISD’s expenditures are devoted to the instructional expenses?
No, the bureaucrats in the administration buildings are interested in padding their pockets and pushing programs, while doing the bare minimum to educate Texas’ kids and reward our teachers.
There is simply never enough money for those who recklessly spend it, no matter how much fear and crisis they may try to manufacture.
