$3 trillion for the Iraq War. But no TOILET PAPER for Detroit Public School students.

[Bluebear]

...Things are really that bad for Detroit Public Schools.

The Detroit News reported that Naomi Khalil, principal at (Detroit's) Academy of the Americas, sent a letter this week to parents of students asking them to donate items “that are of the utmost importance for proper school functioning and most importantly for student health and safety.” The list included light bulbs, trash bags, paper towel rolls and toilet paper.

In the letter Khalil said due to “budgetary constraints” the school could no longer provide these necessities.

This is not the only DPS site facing such dire needs. There have been reports of classrooms going without heat, lights or paper to write on. Michigan Messenger has also reported that toilet paper has been a scarcity at other schools in the (Detroit Public School) system.

http://michiganmessenger.com/11300/dps-academy-of-the-americas-begs-parents-for-toilet-paper

[Name removed]

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[Whoa_Nelly]

4. **snort**

Good one! :spray:

[Name removed]

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[Bluebear]

6. Yeah, anigbrowl, sorry for constructing it so poorly & being sorry these kids can't wipe their ass

Is it emotional to think that our priorities as a country are beyond disgraceful?

[anigbrowl]

9. Yes

I don't disagree in the least with the sentiment of your post, I just meant that it was an emotional juxtaposition as opposed to a deep policy discussion. I edited my reply above to reflect this.

[Name removed]

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[navarth]

12. Helping them is interference?

Where's that sarcasm icon, bro?

[whistle]

5. Republican response "Students who wish to wipe their asses can bring

...their own toilet paper or use their hands".

[David Ricardo]

8. OK let me rephrase

Do you support federal funding of local school districts or not. If so, do you approve of federal guidelines attached(i.e. NCLB). If not, do you think that it is likely that school districts will ever get fed. dollars without guidelines and restrictions.

And YES, I'm aware of the Wall Street bailout's lack of strings, I was against it too, so no need to use that as a response.

[navarth]

18. I'm not a fan of NCLB

but I am a fan of helping schools. The public schools of my city, as well as many, many other cities, suburbs, etc need help.

So am I in favor of strings attatched? Show me which string and I'll tell you.

[David Ricardo]

19. It's naive to think the federal government will write a blank check for public schools

They won't say, 'here's a check, help the kids'.

We all know Washington money is political. Is that good or bad? Who knows. It is what it is. So I couldn't give you a hypothetical string. But I think you know the point I'm trying to make. I will say this: the one thing about NCLB I can appreciate the attempt to make sure federal dollars were spent wisely on schools (yes, every branch of the government needs better auditing, but let's just focus on this). The way that implemented that idea sucked though.

[navarth]

27. Nothing wrong with oversight.

My point is that money would be better spent on education than guns or footballs right now.

[Bluebear]

34. exactly my point

[donco6]

31. NCLB didn't give more dollars to schools.

At least, not to my school. All it did was set up an impossible "every child will be proficient by Year X" timeline, with proficient being measured solely by tests developed by Republicans to ensure that public schools fail.

And then we have pallets of dollars going to Iraq with no oversight or auditing whatsoever. No-bid contracts for BILLIONS of dollars from the feds. $750 billion bailout to banks and we can't even ASK them what they're doing with the money.

And people wonder why we get pissed off. I have to explain IN WRITING to my state dept. of education when my revenue received (corrected for receivables and deferreds) is off by $1 from what their accounting says they sent. YES, ONE DOLLAR.

It's preposterous. And people think we need more fiscal oversight.

[Synicus Maximus]

10. What do the feds have to do with tolitet paper in schools?

That sounds like a local school issue to me. If the people of Detroit have a school board that cannot provide heat or toilet paper I would think it would be time to elect a new school board.

[navarth]

13. Elect a new school board to do what?

[anigbrowl]

14. There have been some moves in this direction

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090108/SCHOOLS/901080424/1409/METRO

As usual, there's more to the story than appears in brief extract that can be quoted in a couple of paragraphs. For example:

"Last month, the board fired Superintendent Connie Calloway, alleging poor job performance.

Calloway, who is on paid administrative leave from her $280,000 salary, is contesting her termination.

Meanwhile, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan on Wednesday floated the names of two nominees to serve as the district's emergency financial manager, a position that would have broad authority over all fiscal decisions in the district for at least a year, including budgeting and contract negotiations."

$280,000? I can think of one job that merits a salary cut, even if the saving is only a tiny amount of the $140 million deficit. Administrative positions should also be subject to performance related pay, and costs should be frozen or pared back in tight economic times.

[Bluebear]

15. Elect a new board to do what? Get more tax revenue for the schools? From where?

Your solution for a poor, minority school district is to have an election?

[madeline_con]

44. It worked in the presidential election.

Poor minority members voted, and just look what happened!

[blonndee]

16. Um, what? That makes no sense whatsoever.

School boards don't fund the schools. Surely you know that. Right?

[Motown_Johnny]

32. the issue is funding.... property taxes help pay for public schools. property values have fallen

through the floor (trust me, I am considering walking away from my house because it is not worth anywhere near what I owe on it) so the tax base has vanished.

We need some of the money that has been pissed away by AIG, Citibank etc. to improve the horrible condition of public education.

[Forkboy]

41. Alrighty then.

[navarth]

11. You called it, Bluebear

Things are tough for public schools and teachers everywhere. Every dollar spent on military hegemony is a dollar not spent on education.

And that definitely includes my city, as the story shows. My wife's career was as a teacher in the suburbs of Detroit, and had to spend a lot of our money to supplement what the public schools there could not supply. This is common with teachers. They have to give 200% ALL THE TIME.

It never fails to piss me off when I think of the incomes of AIG executives, some politicians, Sports Heroes, etc. and then look at what teachers make.

[djkevvy]

17. With this $700B bailout, we could have given EVERY SCHOOL DISTRICT IN THE US $46.6 MILLION DOLLARS

Talk about a bailout? How much local tax relief would that have provided?

[lib2DaBone]

46. So true... we could have had so much more....

$700 Billion to the Banksters... and our kids go without TP. More of the same Republican/NeoCOn insanity that has dropped us into the worst Recession/Depression since 1932.

[Hannah Bell]

47. How many districts are there? That's an amazing stat.

[roamer65]

20. Reminds me of a lil ditty...

"Here I sit in sweat and vapor...and someone has used all the paper...the teacher is yelling...I cannot linger...lookout as@#0le here comes my finger".

Apology, I know I shouldn't joke but that old saying is what came to mind.

Sad state of affairs in Detroit and MI as a whole.

[TahitiNut]

21. No Child With A Wiped Behind?

Gads. :scared:

[anigbrowl]

22. Nicely caught!

[spanone]

23. ain't that america

[crimsonblue]

24. these schools must be wasting their appropriations and tax dollars

I went to a small school in the middle of bumfuck Kansas, and it had plenty of property tax dollars to feed it's budget. I can only think that these "failing" schools are: a) run horribly, or b) paying employees too much.

[Bluebear]

25. The Detroit tax base is evaporating. And the minority schools are indeed "failing"

[crimsonblue]

28. Well that's a matter of the city dropping the ball

The city should have changed district lines decades ago. Plus teacher salaries in Michigan couldnt keep pace with inflation, so who in their right mind would go there? There's no excuse that Detroit has been so auto dependent for years.

[Bluebear]

29. Somehow I don't think the kids are thinking about how auto-dependent the city is.

[proud2BlibKansan]

35. The city doesn't change district boundaries; the state does

And just because your little district in Kansas did well in something doesn't mean you can translate that success or apply that standard to urban schools.

The reason ALL schools are suffering financially is NCLB put more demands (and they are expensive) on school districts with NO FUNDING to help meet the demands. Two years ago, it cost my district over $10 to test each child. It's bound to be more than that now. Plus, as several others have mentioned, urban schools have declining property values which other school districts do not have. And they lose much of their funding to TIF financing.

As far as who would go there, I am a teacher whose career goal has always been to work in urban schools. I would teach in Detroit in a heartbeat.

[navarth]

30. do you really think that 'bumfuck kansas' is a good comparison?

I think an argument could be made that some people in big city schools are wasting money. But 'bumfuck kansas' hardly has the problems of a big city school, I would think. Maybe I'm wrong.

[Bluebear]

36. You're not wrong.

[mmonk]

26. We need a toilet manufacturing lobby and a concurrent think tank

and the problem will be solved.

[Chulanowa]

33. I remember the same thing in Mobile

Particularly the middle school I went to, Mae Eanes Middle School. You had to bring everything - toilet paper, hand soap, paper towels, everything. The school didn't even have door on the stalls (in the boy's room, anyway, never got a look at the girls' lol)

And of course all the text books were from the 70's, except a few that were older. Hoo boy, it was fun being the one white-ish kid in school when Alabama History class had us open books dated from '63...

[zagging]

37. DPS Superintendent address

How much money you got in your wallet? Get busy sending it in.

http://www.detroit.k12.mi.us/admin/ceo/

[Bluebear]

38. Why, did you donate?

[proud2BlibKansan]

39. Huh?

What purpose does this serve? Is the superintendent deliberately underfunding his schools?

[Ikonoklast]

40. It will get those kids used to the rigors of a war zone.

After all, with no education, an economy that is in a death spiral, two wars half a world away will soon need new cannon fodder and for these kids it will be a life of misery, poverty, crime, underemployment, or the military.

Oh, a select few just may be able to tough it out, get educated, and get a good job, but we can't have that.

We need boots on the ground. Limit their education. Limit their choices.




Don't tell me this isn't planned. The Republicans tried to kill public education, and we need to stop being their accomplices, or it will soon become a national emergency.

[madeline_con]

42. The schools' not providijng these items is criminal.

It violates student rights to a healthy, safe school. Parents should inform the school board that they either shell out the $$ for the items or spend it on attorneys to defend against the coming class action suit against the district.

[madeline_con]

43. Oh, snap!

[4 t 4]

45. sick, just sick and lets make

sure we keep sending money to Israel every month. Why do we send money to any country if we can't take care of our own ?? What other countries do we send money to on a regular basis ? I am not being factitious I am just asking.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

48. Does "No child left behind" have anything to do with this?

Thank you bush :puke: