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January 20, 2008

A Public Disservice

Justin Katz

Let it be noted for the public record that it is patently unfair of the Tiverton Town Council and the Tiverton School Committee to have key budget-related meetings at the same time on Tuesday evening. Should interested citizens (few as we may be) follow the doings of those most directly able to take our tax dollars or of those who spend the greatest part of it?

Which do you, dear reader, think I should attend?

Comments

Is it even legal that a SC and a TC meet on the same night?

Yes, there is a Monday holiday (MLK Day) requiring the TC to reschedule. Shouldn't it have been to a Wednesday or Thursday?

Posted by: Monique at January 20, 2008 3:08 PM

If you want to have an impact, attend the School Cmte Mtg by all means!

The Town Council has ZERO control over what the School Cmte does. They give them a bottom line figure for the budget but have no authority over them.

The Caruolo Act has made these people into self-absorbed dictators with little regard for those who pay the bills!

That is a major problem that needs to be addressed at the State level! S3050 was supposed to create Fiscal Responsibility. That said many School Cmtes seem intent on disregarding the intent of the law and are hell bent on forcing the citizenry to pay for their inability to deal with the oncoming train wreck!

Most of these people have little or no background in education nor what goes on daily in their schools. Instead of challenging the ill-conceived and often unfunded "mandates" from the bureaucrats at the RI Dept of Ed, read McWalters, they roll over and comply with this idiocy.

Do any of you realize how much time and effort is spent complying with SALT. This was originally a thesis project for one of these bureaucrats at the DOE and now it has taken on a life of its own. Year after year, they collect the same data. The students don?t really give a damm about providing accurate data and often just fill in the ?bubbles? on the forms in some sort of pattern! It is a total joke.

We are in 2008 and the DOE's website's most recent data is from 04 '05! Does that tell you something about the efficacy of the RI DOE!

Does anyone realize how much time and effort is wasted going through these useless drills? Perhaps you might ask your School Cmte about it sometime!

Posted by: Aldo at January 20, 2008 11:35 PM