Harford school officials defend bus service cuts, new fees in face of more criticism Monday

[deutsey]

Harford County Public Schools leaders Monday defended budget decisions which have been extremely unpopular with parents and students and have touched off a fight with the county executive.

About 100 people attended an evening school board meeting in Bel Air where two high ranking school staff members gave a presentation that one called "budgeting 101" and parents continued to criticize planned bus service cuts and new pay-to-play fees for sports and other activities.

Minutes before the meeting started, and in anticipation that school officials would not back away from the position, Harford County Executive David Craig released to the public a lengthy letter to school officials in which he claims the system has more than $25 million in reserve, of which at least $13 million is not obligated for any purpose. School officials later refuted the claim about the surplus.

SNIP

"I understand the need for financial accountability, and I don't have an answer, and that's why we ask you to all to work for us and stand up for our children," said Thomas Scher of Bel Air, who told board members his three children, who previously could take the bus to Patterson Mill Middle and High School, will have to walk 1.6 miles to school when the 2013-2014 year begins.

Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/harford/belair/ph-ag-school-board-0814-20130812,0,4012399.story#ixzz2bwMuYaNL

[KG]

1. welcome to low-tax america

[deutsey]

2. That's what I thought too n/t

[Nevernose]

3. Walking 1.6 miles

That's still better than my large, urban district, where the bus radius is two miles for elementary, and three miles for high school.

Obviously, just because our kids have it worse than their kids doesn't make it right for either group of kids. I'm just saying things suck all over, especially with the way we fund our schools.

[deutsey]

4. Yes...until people wake up from the Reagan's tax-cut fantasies

we'll be living more with these kinds of realities.

I used to walk 2.5 miles to high school (just looked it up on Googlemaps), but I did it by choice. I couldn't stand the people on the bus and I actually enjoyed the time alone to think, not to mention the exercise. But there was also very low risk to my safety.

[Nevernose]

10. School busses are the worst place on earth, I swear

I ised to walk to school voluntarily, too, for that exact same reason.

The problem, I don't think, is "the people" mostly believe Reagan's bullshit. I think billionaires who have never worked a day in their lives -- like the Koch brothers, among others -- do believe Reagan's insane, irrational economic theories, and pay PR firms ("think tanks&quot nationwide to sell ridiculous nonsense about failing schools and low taxes.

[Waiting For Everyman]

5. That is a rural, at best suburban county, without sidewalks along most roads

and many are two-lane country roads which are very dangerous. The school board is way out of line doing this. I know because I used to live there and have driven those roads lots of times. A board that would do this when there is in fact money, is incompetent. Odds are high that a child is going to be hit by a car while walking to school, and then the board is going to be paying out that money in a tragically preventable lawsuit.

That said, being rural, Harford Co.does have a tendency to elect Repubs, so that could have something to do with the beginning point of the problem. I hope the students get their buses back, and I hope the parents learn something from this and elect better representatives next time.

[deutsey]

6. I was born in Havre de Grace in and grew up in Aberdeen

until the mid-'70s.

I haven't been back in decades and was wondering what the political geography is there. I remember it being largely conservative but with a lot of counterculture influence on teens and young adults at the time.

[Waiting For Everyman]

8. Well, fwiw this is merely from my own observation.

I live a couple of counties to the west now, so my overall impression is that the political geography is much the same. The changes involve of course an increase in population -- as is true of all areas anywhere near the I-95 corridor. A second one would be that all of the counties have experienced to some degree what I call the "mini mansion" syndrome, or put another way some upscale money added to the mix here and there. So I'd guess that the increased population would lean Dem, while the upscalers would lean Repub. Not knowing the actual numbers of each, logic would give the net advantage to the Dems. The thing is though, I think there has been some gerrymandering in that part of the state, so I'm not sure what final result that produces.

Maryland was pretty cool in decades past, wasn't it? Still is, but of course the outlying areas have stayed the same much more than the suburban or urban ones.

[deutsey]

9. That makes sense

The Aberdeen Proving Ground also probably helps to tilt the county to the right.

Yeah, I liked growing up in Maryland in the '70s. I still like it here, but like everything, it's changed a lot and not in ways that are always good.

[Octafish]

7. I'm so old I remember when voters valued public education...

...that was before Prunefaceronniereagan bragged about bagging the Department of Education.

[liberal_at_heart]

11. Many of us parents and teachers are fed up and we are ready to fight back.