Healthcare/ Consolidation
Dec 3rd, 2009 by Frank Knotts
There would seem to be some similarities between healthcare reform and the proposed school consolidation here in Delaware.
Like those who support healthcare reform, those who support school consolidation , tell us about how much money it will save the tax payers. But when you look behind the numbers and think about how government works, you will see that there will be no savings to the tax payers. There will be only a shifting of where the tax dollars get spent. Remember that the reason the study was done in the first place was to see if the state could “SAVE” money by consolidating the 19 districts into four, because the state is running a deficit “BALANCED” budget.
So this means that if there is any savings by consolidating , the tax payers will not see it. The money “SAVED” by consolidation will be used to pay for the third rail entitlement programs like the needle program, because we couldn’t do away with such an important program as that. So just like healthcare moves money around by cutting Medicare to make it seem as if there is a savings, so it is with school consolidation.
As with healthcare reform, we are also being told, that with school consolidation, that bigger is better. With healthcare the government is telling us that the best way to make healthcare better for everyone, while also making it cost less, is for us to allow government to “CONSOLIDATE” all of our individual healthcare plans into one big government-run healthcare plan. In doing so we would lose all of our freedom of choice. The choice of who we buy health insurance from and how much coverage to carry and most importantly how much we would pay for it.
Well, once again with school consolidation we see the same problems. If we allow the state to take our individual districts and consolidate them into one big state-run entity, we will again be giving up our freedom of choice. The choice of who is on our school boards, the choice of how many tax dollars are collected and where and how that money is spent.
As with healthcare reform, school consolidation would lead to the increase of the size and scope of government. The same as we would lose individual control over the decisions that affect us personally with healthcare reform, so we would lose local control over the decisions that affect our communities, our tax dollars, but most importantly we would lose local control over the decisions that directly affect our children and their futures.
I believe that if you oppose the current healthcare reform proposals, then you should oppose school consolidation and for the same reasons. Protect your freedom of choice, protect your right to vote for your school boards, and protect you local voice. Say no to school consolidation.
You are speaking as a satisfied customer from downstate who didn’t have your districts carved into ridiculous non-geographical pie shapes that DO NOT represent a reasonable control of local schools, especially for residents of Wilmington.
Christina has a section of Wilmington that isn’t even contigenous with the rest of the wandering district that ends in the unwieldy population of Bear Glasgow. It sucks to be Newark – somewhere in the middle.
A reworking of districts to honor geographics and kept school boards intact would serve us well up in this part of Delaware.
I believe that consolidation statewide could still preserve regional school board controls that fed into countywide superintendent administrations.
Nancy, think about what you are saying. You say that you are disatisfied with the way your districts were cut up. Fine then work to change them. But your opening statement was that I was speaking as a satisfied customer from downstate. Thank you for continuing the comparison between health care and consolidation. Just like with health care, government wants to swing the big bat and change not only what needs to be changed , but also wants to change that which doesn’t need changing. I would say that the trouble you are having up state is a result of the exact kind of thinking that has lead to considering consolidating all of the districts.
The state believes that cost out weighs results, that all children are the same , no matter there geographic or community background, but most importantly, the state believes that it knows more about our local needs and wants than do we, and that the state can better solve those needs and wants with a one size fits all approach, when what we really need and what would be most fair and efficient is to take the approach of allowing local districts to decide what and how much they need . We must stop the impingement of state and federal government upon our local freedoms through un-funded mandates and through extortion . Every time a local district accepts a funding program from the state or federal government , they lose a certain amount of control over their district.
Nancy are you aware that local districts are not required to accept state and federal funding? And if we refused their funding we can also refuse their mandates ? We could refuse their state testing, we could ignore their failed “NO Child Left Behind”. In other words we could on a local level decide our own destiny.
Ms. Willing: Weren’t those ” ridiculous non-geographical pie shapes” in New Castle created to force schools to diversify? Schools in white neighborhoods had white populations, schools in black neighborhoods had black populations, and this was wrongfully ruled to be a form of segregation. Is it surprising that government intervention in response to a non-problem resulted in real problems? It’s fairly obvious that the solution will not be reached by further state involvement.
And let me state one more time that the goal of this consolidation idea is not to improve education, and it is not to create a savings for the tax payers. It is in response to the fact that the state is in deficit and must find ways to “SHIFT” money around to cover the fact that our so called balanced budget is not so balanced.This consolidation will be called “CUTS”, but it is anything but . And it is so obvious that when government finally decides to eliminate jobs, it is always administration. Why ? Because that way they don’t piss off the unions. This is another shell game pure and simple.