Two weeks ago Parkesburg Today readers gave Octorara a passing grade when 66% of respondents to the weekly poll said they thought Octorara provided a quality education.
But if this week's Parkesburg Today poll is to be believed, those same readers by an overwhelming majority of 78%, are unwilling to pay more taxes to sustain Octorara's mission.
The results are sobering to the district's advocates, administrators and school board members.
With Octorara parents clamoring, rightly so, for an ever increasing educational quality from the district's classrooms and programs, can district administrators be expected to meet their expectations if district residence are unwilling or unable to pay the district's bills?
School board members will certainly earn their pay as they weigh this question over the next 60 days before approving this years budget in June.
2 comments:
“Two weeks ago Parkesburg Today readers gave Octorara a passing grade when 66% of respondents to the weekly poll said they thought Octorara provided a quality education”
When I went to school a 66 was a D, passing yes, but momma was sure gonna have a talk with me. Octorara does give a quality education but the reason I gave such a low grade is that the quality of education to the tax dollars spent achieving it isn’t much of a value. I haven’t been able to get even so much as a cost of living raise in over 4 years and neither have millions of other Americans. People all over the country have had to relearn the concept that sometimes less is more.
In our house if we cant pay cash for it then we really don’t need it. We do not use credit cards and we don’t write checks that we can’t cover. We eat out less, travel less and “home improvement projects” are now just necessary repairs. By learning to run leaner it seems the quality of life in our house has actually improved over the last few years.
Politicians all the way from the White House down to local school boards seem to think that spending is the best way to improve our overall situation. If that philosophy were to hold true we should all go out and spend our savings remodeling our kitchens. When we have no money to buy food we can just borrow the money. When we cant payback the money let the cash strapped government bailout the banks that lend money to those who cant afford to spend it to begin with. Let the financially irresponsible be the burden of the financially responsible.
The taxpayers are not a money tree that the school board can give a shake to every time they get a dollar and plan on spending two. Instead of following the example of big brother spender perhaps the school board should follow the example of the working folks who can still afford to live in the district.
“But if this week's Parkesburg Today poll is to be believed, those same readers by an overwhelming majority of 78%, are unwilling to pay more taxes to sustain Octorara's mission.”
If the mission is to spend more and more, and the folks footing the bill are making less and less, then I would think that it should be closer to 100%. If they expect us to believe that the primary mission is educating our children then I’d like a little less talk and a lot more action. I cant go to the owner of the company and say I made $200 dollars yesterday but I spent $201 so you have to give me $203 today so I can spend $204 tomorrow. I don’t treat people like that and I expect the same in return.
Thank you for commenting.
You're right. In my high school a passing grade of D started at 70%, so 66% was a failure. I remember because I saw a lot of those low 70's way back when!
When I wrote 66% was a passing grade I was thinking of politics and polling. Almost any politician is thrilled when 66% of polled voters express support for his/her leadership. On election day a candidate with 66% of the vote is considered to have won in a landslide.
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