School bond issue Tuesday.

[attutle]

Voters to decide $351 million APS bond package Tuesday

Statistics show Albuquerque has an on-time graduation rate of 52%. This is the percentage of ninth-graders who graduate in four years

Comments

What about choice 3?

[buddhafiddle]

There is a whole continuum of options between abandoning public education altogether (if that's what you mean by "rethink") and just jacking up the spending.

Every modern country has a public education system. The countries that don't (Saudia Arabia, for example)--don't give us much of a model to go by.

I don't think schools just keep getting more money, but they need the objective resources they require.

The APS bond package is primarily for buildings, mostly to relieve the extreme overcrowding on the west side. If we had a reasonable growth policy in this state, in my opinion, the money to build those schools would have to be put up by developers before the housing was built

Re: What about choice 3?

[attutle]

"There is a whole continuum of options between abandoning public education altogether (if that's what you mean by "rethink") and just jacking up the spending."There certainly are. I figured I'd toss a couple perspectives out there to get things started

Assent

[buddhafiddle]

I agree with all the major points that you make here. There are widespread beliefs that either (a.) Public Schools are a burden on everyone to benefit a few people or that (b.) Public Schools are an end in themselves, and that everything should be bent to maintain schools against decline with no challenges whatsoever. One of these is wrong, and, in my opinion, both of them are.

[wookie_x]

I will ALWAYS vote for more money to schools. Whether you agree or not with the way the money is being spent, that's the fault of the administrators. If schools don't have enough money, everyone will suffer eventually. Keep increasing money to the schools.....and get people in position who know how to spend it.

[fruitylips]

Which, as noted above, is just a stupid thing to do. Why would anyone bother to learn to spend it properly when people will just keep giving you cash? As buddhafiddle noted, telling APS that they can't just keep getting wheelbarrows of cash is what it took to get them to look at how they spent the money.

[wookie_x]

You're right. Let's NOT keep increasing money to schools, even though the cost of supplies and books, not to mention the living requirements of teachers, KEEPS increasing. Let's NOT keep increasing money to schools, even though our schools are over-crowded and what little education the students get is worth less and less every year. Let's NOT increase money to schools just as an object lesson to those administrators who don't know how to spend the money. Let's not concern ourselves with getting administrators in place who KNOW how to spend the money (as I stated previously). The kids won't mind. We'll just put them on welfare and put them up in prisons because they didn't get an adequate education and either couldn't get jobs in an increasingly difficult job market, or just flat out turned to crime because it was easier. Damn them for being born and having to go to school anyway! It's just STUPID to keep increasing money to schools, when there's oh so many OTHER things we can be spending our money on, like another giant iron

[fruitylips]

If they're wasting money then they don't actually *need* more money. They have plenty of it. It is just being wasted. Thus, giving them more money to waste is stupid. if you get the right people in place, now you're overspending, thus wasting money. If you don't you're still wasting money. Step 1 is to stop giving the people who waste money more money to waste. Luckily voters three years ago realized this and apparnetly things are better now.