March 29, 2010

RUSD lays out its reinvestment wishlist: $73 million...
plus $7.5 million, plus...

 RUSD's two approaches to improving student learning: 
New schools and better operations

A key element of Racine Unified's "reinvestment" plan was made clear Monday night -- its cost.

David Hazen, the school district's financial officer, right, outlined the program to about 50 people, most of whom appeared to be board members or district employees or members of the 72-person committee drafting the plan.

Not to keep you in suspense any longer: $58 million, for the "base" bricks-and-mortar portion of Phase 1. That would be accompanied by an additional referendum for operations funding of $7.5 million.

Those are preliminary numbers, Hazen cautioned, admitting that "some will say no" immediately, blaming the economy. Others will say, "You want what? for what?" and that's where the board must go out to the community for "pushback and feedback."

Key elements of the program, so far, include three new K-5 elementary schools, renovations to five more and district-wide ADA improvements. The $58 million bottom line looks like this:
  • Bull Fine Arts: $4,000,000
  • Jerstad-Agerholm Elementary: $2,250,000
  • Roosevelt Elementary: $5,350,000
  • Schulte Elementary: $2,825,000
  • Wind Point Elementary: $7,325,000
  • District-wide ADA improvements: $4,150,000
  • 3 New K-5 schools: $32,100,000
But that's just a base version. Construction options that would add three classrooms to Bull, or provide a K-8 school instead of a K-5, re-roof all renovated schools, maybe build a new Wind Point Elementary instead of remodeling, since the added cost is "only" about $2.7 million more,  and add air conditioning to Bull and Roosevelt would raise the Construction Referendum's $58 million total by $15,186,389 ... call it $73 million. The construction and remodeling would add 936 spaces for elementary students and free up one building for a secondary school, RUSD says.

The Phase 1 Operations Referendum would raise $3.5 million as an ARRA bridge for the 2011-2012 school year (covering the end of stimulus funding); $1 million for financial stability (money put into the district's "surplus" account, which helps lower bond interest rates), and $3 million for educational efficiencies.

And what would all this cost you?  That depends upon the assessed value of your home, of course. The district estimates that the owner of a $100,000 home would pay $92 to $120 per year in additional taxes, depending on which options are approved. Also relevant is the per-pupil cost at Unified, compared to other districts. The bar chart below shows where the district is today, and where it would be if the referenda pass. Of course, all those districts we're compared to would also (probably) increase spending as well. Hazen noted, "we don't want to over-burden the taxpayers."


Hazen spent time outlining the various "pillars" on which the district hopes to build. The construction funds would provide efficient school size, smaller classes and ADA compliance. All elementary staffing would be revised, there would be a 13-1 student/teacher ratio in K-1st and 26-1 in 2nd through 5th grades. There would be 14 schools with 312 students, 10 with 468 and 1 with 624. Operations funding would fill the district's existing "staffing gap" of 81 teachers (average yearly cost of each teacher: $74,475.)

The timeline for all this:
  • April and May: Community feedback
  • Fall 2010: Referendum
  • February 2011: Issue bonds
  • May 2011: Break ground
  • September 2012: Open new schools
This timeline would be "aggressive," said consultant Peter Scherrer. "We'd need to be moving with the design work as soon as the referendum passes." Another issue the district has yet to decide is where any new schools would be built, because a "rural" school requires a different design than an "urban" one -- and "rural takes longer." But the district cannot begin to buy land for new schools. "It's hard to negotiate when you don't have the money," Hazen said.

Hazen said "now is a good time to build," with construction companies hungry and interest rates low. The program would create 200 construction trade jobs for a year, he said.

"Is the fall too soon (for a referendum), given economic conditions?" Hazen asked rhetorically. "If we wait," he answering his own question, "construction goes back another year."

A Phase II referendum in Spring 2012 would be aimed at reducing secondary school size (High schools: 1,800 and Middle schools: 702), replacing Walden with a Green School, replacing Red Apple, remodeling Olympia Brown and perhaps the new project on the drawing board: a high school partnered with Gateway Technical College.,

The result of all this would be updated facilities ("2012 vs. the existing 1856"); ADA improvements, efficient school size and efficient class size. Looking at the reinvestment program like a business plan, Hazen said nearby area districts have already committed to building: Kenosha has a new high school, Burlington has newer schools, Oak Creek is building, he said. "We need to compete that way," he said.

Two other points: Earlier in the evening, the School Board approved the proposed $8.5 million technology refresh plan, that will replace all 8,000 of the district's computers and servers. Second, the $1 million to "maintain financial stability" would be on-going, with no sunset clause.

Hazen's complete presentation, and more background on the reinvestment plan, will be posted HERE on Unified's website. 

Questions about the plan may be sent to referendum@racine.k12.wi.us Answers will appear on Unified's website at: About us>Reinvesting in RUSD.

The auditorium at Starbucks was mostly empty for RUSD's presentation

168 comments:

  1. Keep wishing Unified! My only wish is that you get your spending under control and you give your employees a benefits reality check!

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  2. Three new schools at $10M each? By the time they get started and done, the cost will be $20M each. He is living in OZ.

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  3. I can barely afford my property taxes now. This will put me over the edge. People who live on a fixed income can not pay these types of increases. A plan to cut spending would be a better approach.

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  4. Once again, why is the money all going to elementary school projects when the three high schools are all overcrowded and falling apart? One of these days, RUSD is going to have to start from the top down. If the district does nothing to improve the conditions of the high schools, why should the kids care?

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  5. $120 on a $100,000 home - or $360 on a $300,000 home.

    $360 here, $360 there, pretty soon you get to the unsustainable tax burden we face in this community. My property taxes are pushing $7000 per year. We pay high state income taxes too. We pay sales tax as well.

    Racine's tax burden is out of control compared to other communities. It is time to draw the line.

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  6. I have said for years that RUSD could save millions just by replacing the in house trades with sub contractors. And how hard would it be to cut out about a million in un needed administrators? Shaw is no different than the other Supers that promised to raise graduatiion rates and control spending. We have to fix this thing before it kill Racine. Why is it that everytime I voted "YES" for a referendum the money always went somewhere else. A I to believs this ASchool Board is any different than those of past years? For God sake "Liberal Kim" sits on this one.

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  7. With a filthy depression in full swing and sway over Racine as well as its rank-and-file residents, the last thing we need is higher property taxes to fund Unified's mummery and flummery. Cut the sports programs, ditch the dancing, eliminate the musicals, halt the Horlick Madrigal Dinners and start teaching the kiddies the basics. If Unified drops its follies and jollies, it may find enough cash to remain operational. Regardless of Unified's viability or lack thereof, please don't inflict additional property taxes on our long-suffering citizens.

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  8. How about making SCJ pay the property taxes it's been dodging through dirty deals with Becker and Doyle? Doesn't Mayor Dickert have the guts to confront the Waxleeches?

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  9. Per thousand of annualized property value, Racine gives the lowest amount to its schools than the 10 similarly sized metros in the state, by far.

    If your taxes are too high, it's not because we gave it to the schools.

    Also, by the time shovels are in the ground, this recession will be over and recovery here. Stop thinking only about today. We need better schools to attract jobs.

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  10. For heaven's sake, I attended classes with forty to fifty pupils apiece at parochial schools. Although it wasn't fun, it didn't kill me. Believe it or not, the good Sisters taught me what I needed to obtain scholarships and, eventually, earn several doctorates. It's time that RUSD learned to live within its budget and keep its prehensile predatory paws to itself.

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  11. Why a corporation gets out of property taxes and we are continually asked to give more is beyond me.

    And why would I vote yes on this when it was shown that the LAST time we voted yes, RUSD didn't even DO what they said they were going to do wtih the money.

    Sorry guys - it'll be a no this time.

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  12. I recall that the last referendum was larger because there were not going to be any referendums needed again for years. I knew that was a lie from the beginning.

    As for people not attending, guess what Pete - people aren't stupid and they don't want to waste their time. These are not "listening sessions", these are "here is what is going to happen because we will always have enough teachers, staff and parents to vote for the referendum" sessions.

    I honesty don't know why they dont't just say they want a $billion - that's the new $million in government-speak.

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  13. How much more property tax revenue would be generated if we took half of the non-taxed property and taxed it?
    How many 501(c)3 orgs are in Racine that don't pay property taxes (and own property)?
    I think RUSD should look more closely at wages and benefits before it comes to the taxpayer for more.

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  14. This ain't going to happen. What are these guys smoking. We are in the worst economic times in recent history and we have the worst academic scores in the state. RUSD is a losing proposition - send your kids to a private school and avoid guns, gangs, knives, fights, cops required in the schools, high dropout rate, low percentage going to collage, dealing with the worlds worst element (unions), an incompetent School Board and Administration - parents should be ashamed of themselves for putitng thier children through this.

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  15. These big dummies sit in their offices on North Western Avenue just looking at ways to spend money. They are all to eager to show where we stand per pupil spending. We are not Kenosha. We do not have the growth Kenosha has. Our stores are closing. Just because other districts are spending more doesn't mean we need to find ways to spend the same. That is not the objective. Where are the results we were promised? This referendum is a joke and a waste. Can't wait for all the cry baby PTA members at Walden to go out trying to drum up support.

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  16. Dummies? Are you kidding? This will be voted in - it might be close, but like I said, it could be billions of dollars and every teacher, staff person and many parents will vote yes. Hell, the referendum could call for property taxes to increase by 50% for every home valued at over $35,000 and it would pass! These are not dummies - they have the right game in the right place and it will ALWAYS be the right time!

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  17. Want to bet that William Boyd and the rest of the ceraceous tribe will push the referendum? Although they talk about supporting public education,they display a singular reluctance to pay the property taxes which subsidize it.

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  18. Yup, the corporate porkers--who dodge their taxes early and often--demand that the peasantry defray the cost of public education. One way or another, the oligarchy's antics must cease instanter!

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  19. A friend who does this for a living pointed out to me that the graph provided with this article is out of proportion, obviously trying to skew the visual to lessen the negative impact.

    Based on the proportions in the bar chart presented by Unified, the real cost for Kenosha would be closer to $16,000!

    Yeap, let's skew the graph so the idiot voters in Racine think we're spending far less than other school districts. In reality, the cost difference between Racine and Kenosha is less than 4%. The bar graph depicts it as closer to a 30% difference! Wonder if this is courtesy of Dave Hazen?

    Didn't know if Racine Post would allow me to post an accurate graph here, so I'll be doing later on my own blog.

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  20. As we see more businesses and families more out of Racine, tell me who will be left soon to pay the taxes?
    As property values drop and more homes are occupation by renters then owners or simply abandoned, who will pay the taxes?
    As Racine becomes the next Detroit who will pay the taxes?
    It sure will not be the min wage jobs wen seem to attract.

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  21. People sufficiently wealthy to own Frank Lloyd Wright buildings and other pricey architectural white elephants should be taxed at double or even triple the current rate. Meanwhile, the ordinary citizens of Racine must shout "NO" in thunder at the evil fools who dreamt up this horror.

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  22. Enough is enough!

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  23. Now is the time to clean out the cesspool on Northwestern Avenue. The dirty dough-bagging bastards must go a.s.a.p.!

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  24. I would be happy to vote yes, if RUSD take a 25% pay cut across the board and pay 5% more of the cost of their benefits. I think that will not happen

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  25. The contracts of all administrators should be terminated with due deliberate speed. The day has dawned when Racine's hardpressed homeowners must evict the venal bloodsuckers FOREVER!

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  26. Kick out the art farts and coaches! What Prince Brattykins and Princess Bratanella need is discipline plus good old BASIC EDUCATION.

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  27. To employ the original Latin plural of the nefarious term, we must squelch the neverending demand of avaricious administrators for additional referenda!

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  28. Referenda? Hell, my Dad called them "rat-fart-end-dumps." Pending the end of the current economic crisis, referenda/referendums belong out at the landfill.

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  29. How about naming them "referen-DUMBS"? I think that designation is appropriate.

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  30. Amen! Until we're FLUSH with surplus funds, all referen-DUMBS belong in the cosmic commode.

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  31. Bring their health care plan into line with the rest of America and I'll vote yes.

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  32. Don't let them fool you.....the money "expensed or spent per student is NOT the same as money "budgeted".

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  33. 11,000 per student? the kids should all have world class educations. This should be a big pat on the back for thoses union employees.

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  34. One school at a time -- not all at once! They found 8 1/2 million for computers. How much more is hidden in their budget.

    I just can nor see such a big outlay when most of the RUSD residents ( taxpayers ) are suffering from the mess the economy is in.

    I hope everyone gets out to vote in an effort to counter all the RUSD employee who will be out in force to make sure the referendums pass.

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  35. Now is the hour to end Unified's power!

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  36. sMobilize the RTA and get rid of the greedy gougers!

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  37. Tell the clowns at Northwestern Avenue that the circus is leaving Racine and their cash-cadging carnival is OVER!

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  38. Here's a question for our legal eagles: how do we dissolve Unified?

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  39. The sooner we eliminate Unified, the better!

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  40. This is the absolutely wrong time to propose this. A failed economy, near 20% real unemployment, jobless slow economic recovery seen/predicted, people still losing their jobs/homes and taxes people already can't afford. Talk about a bunch of people completely out of touch with reality. The staff and board members must be living somewhere else but still coming here to spend money.

    Wake up RUSD this community is suffering and broke. You can't get more out of touch.

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  41. The IT manager should be fired !! We now have 6,500 computers. REPLACE with 8,000 ? Some are brand new, why replace ? Why do ALL at once ?? Do 1/3 or 1/4 per year. That would only be ~$2 MILLION /year,not $8.5 MILLION.
    Save $6.5 MILLION per year for 4years = $26 MILLION ???
    The $8.5 million is already "funded" so we have to spend it ?? IDOIT !! School board no better !!

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  42. Anon 5:57 said "My property taxes are pushing $7000 per year."

    If you can afford a home that generates that tax bill, you can afford to pay the property taxes. Stop whining.

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  43. Does "can" make it your right to take? My taxes are also that high and guess what there slick - hamburger helper is what's on the menu.

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  44. And when we can no longer afford our homes and leave the city. Who will you get to pay the taxes? To run companies that provide jobs?
    Who?

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  45. Dissolving Unified would be an act of mercy toward our increasingly-impoverished homeowners. I hope that the RTA will investigate the legal issues involved and organize our people to do whatever is necessary to end the feculent farce on Northwestern Ave.

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  46. After taking a poll of my neighbors, I can inform you that twelve out of fourteen loathe the proposed referendums. Incidentally, the two who support additional taxation to benefit Unified have been on its payroll for over a decade.

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  47. Shut down Unified NOW!

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  48. Although the kids can't read worth a damn and their math is atrocious, the spadgers at Horlick can warble Elizabethan ditties like professional Renfair performers. Unless they're headed for careers at such tourist traps, the songsters ought to be yanked out of music class and taught the skills they'll need for survival.

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  49. That's nothing. Our secondary schools possess a bloated sports program which belongs in New Trier or someother high-income community capable of supporting such crap.

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  50. Have you gotten a load of the high school musicals and other non-essential tripe which Unified forces us to fund? The quicker we rein in Unified, the sooner we'll be able to exist minus constant worries about property taxes.

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  51. Assuming that the arty House of Wax and its mega-moolah myrmidons want nonsense at Unified, they can--and should--shell out the sheckels to pay for it.

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  52. No more requests for cash unless and until Unified practices the precepts of prudent money management!

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  53. Prarie School ~$13000 tuition. St Cats at about $8500. Racine Lutheran at $6800 per. Night and day difference in quality. How can RUSD cost so much for so little?

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  54. Easy--RUSD is run by hacks and jammed with hooligans! Garbage in, garbage out. (None of the above comment should be viewed as an attack on dedicated educators, competent administrators and sincere students. Unfortunately, Unified has so many punks, timeservers and overpaid slugs that the positive people tend to get lost in the shuffle.)

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  55. Anon 6:42. What's so hard to understand? Religious schools get subsidized labor; Prairie charges a fortune and is subsidized by the wealthy. All above are able to choose their students, kick out those who don't perform, who act up, who have problems.

    Someday, you ought to try working in a public school classroom -- for just a day. It would be an eye-opener; something you would not ever want to repeat.

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  56. Even so, the RUSD ratfinks make fortunes compared with ordinary residents' incomes.

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  57. You should see the stuff some of those educators have acquired courtesy of our taxed-down-to-poverty homeowners. And when the teachers aren't bleeding us to economic death, the administrators are cadging every buck and benefit they can grab.

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  58. Then there's the expense account racket. Ditto the dough blown on staff development. (My Irish-American Father called that crazy crap "stiff devil-ment.") The sooner we put RUSD on a dollar diet and starve its budget down to manageable size, the quicker we'll improve life for our oppressed citizens.

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  59. However you look at it, RUSD is nothing but a losing proposition. Until we can eliminate Unified, we should spend as little as possible on it.

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  60. Let's cut the electives and other costly caca out of Unified's curriculum. Only courses mandated by State statute or regulation should remain. As for extra-curricular activities, let's slash them!

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  61. Spending money on RUSD is merely tossing moolah out the proverbial window. Even so-called excellent public school districts do a rotten job when it comes to the stuff kids need to know. Just in case you don't believe me, get and read Mark Bauerlein's great book, "The Dumbest Generation."

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  62. In any event, we can't afford the referendums and shouldn't have to listen to six-figure-per-annum charlatans hector us about their ever-increasing yen for our pathetic pennies.

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  63. Every time we turn around, the hoohah hounds from RUSD are howling for more money. We're weary of their noxious noise and wish they'd leave us alone. Instead of annoying the low-income majority, the baying ballyhoo bow-wows ought to confine their yelling to the got-loot Lighthouse goon squad.

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  64. My elderly neighbors and I would like to know how much Unified pays David Hazen to bully us into disgorging money we don't have for objectives which will never be achieved. Also, the old folks and I want to learn how we can persuade RUSD to terminate his oh-so-lucrative contract and replace him with less-pricey personnel. (Hint: I have pals with doctorates who'd gladly perform Doughboy Dave's duties for thirty grand per annum.)

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  65. Considering the two hundred million bucks apiece which the Waxtrash stole last year, I think they can afford to shell out the wondergreen for Hotshot Hazen's little big-buck brainstorms.

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  66. last time they begged for money we gave it to them and they didnt use it as intended.

    JUST SAY NO TO GIVING MONEY TO CROOKED RACINE UNIFIED!

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  67. Amen! While we're at it, let's find out how to dismantle RUSD so we'll never have to fret about its outrageous demands again. (Years ago, a former superintendant I'll call "Dr. P." told my Dad that Wisconsin statutes didn't require any community to have a unified public school district. Apparently, there are other, easier-to-control varieties out there like consolidated districts. As "Dr. P." explained the situation, the big problem was dissolving a unified district in order to replace it with a less-pricey system which would be legal in the Badger State.)

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  68. Regardless, we shouldn't be coerced into subsidizing a worthless school district which benefits no one except its lavishly-remunerated employees.

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  69. With SOAR and scads of excellent parochial schools around Racine, we really don't need RUSD. Thanks to SOAR and other philanthropic endeavors, kids whose folks can't afford to send them to the J-Wax snob snuggery out north can obtain a decent education at the church-related institutions.

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  70. The only people who want RUSD are the well-paid employees and the Waxies, who rely on it to turn out cheap, dumb, docile wage slaves for temp jobs at SCJ.

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  71. Just between you and me, my time at Unified was a total waste. During my stint at Horlick, a now dead-and-damned journalism instructor sexually molested me along with several other kids. When I reported the instructor's dirty deeds to school administrators, I was tabbed as a troublemaker and ordered to visit a psychiatrist. (The Lord only knows how many students this woman--who came from a wealthy New England family--got away with diddling as part of her extra-curricular activities. Since she was a bisexual equal opportunity destroyer of kids' lives, she could have diddled dozens of boys and girls throughout her forty-plus years at Horlick.)

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  72. I don't want to sound offensive, but RUSD was and remains a piggy little Peyton Place full of arrogant pedagogical predators and amorous administrators on the prowl for fresh, young, tender victims to defile and devour. Until we clear out the scabrous scum, Unified shouldn't receive a thin dime above the bare minimum required to meet state standards.

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  73. Just ask yourself a question: what kind of person chooses public education as a career? Although the stereotypical dedicated educator exists, the average public pedagogue is a time-server looking for an easy, well-compensated position. Once he acquires tenure, the edu-hack is well-nigh set for life. Assuming he or she likes to play God with powerless youngsters, he or she will have a field day lording it over them. (Thanks to the legal doctrine which deems teachers to be "in loco parentis," they can get away with practically anything.) If the itchy-gator has sexual desires to gratify, the odds are that he or she will be allowed to prey on the kids early and often.

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  74. Candidly speaking, I wouldn't weep if RUSD were terminated and replaced with a more easily-regulated type of district. (Were it not for the law, I'd rejoice to see Racine freed from ANY kind of public school district. SOAR and charities could send the rank-and-filers' kids to parochial school. As for the eliteniks, there's always the arty-tarty Lighthouse Looneybin.)

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  75. RUSD is an incubus, an obscene burden on the community. Let's dissolve it and silence its incessant cries for cash right now!

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  76. Racine is losing, not gaining, population. The last thing we require is more schools. Instead, we should be making more efficient use of the structures we've already got.

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  77. All the malarkey about improving RUSD is precisely that! Whatever we may do to boost student performance, the results remain the same. No longer must we throw good money after bad in a foredoomed endeavor to achieve the impossible.

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  78. Any way you slice it, public education in this sorry city is a farce. Barring a miracle--which is highly unlikely--we should spend as little as possible on RUSD and the charlatans in charge of it.

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  79. I just paid my physician five hundred smackers for a fifteen-minute visit and two tests. Don't raise my property taxes so some teenagers may twitter "Greensleaves" or "Dona Nobis Pacem" at the Horlick Madrigal Dinner. My neighbors and I have had it with Unified and its nonsense.

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  80. CLOSE RUSD NOW!

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  81. Down with Unified and public education!

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  82. In view of declining property values in Racine, the assessors should lower their appraisals of our homes. Furthermore, there should be no more property tax increases until the end of the current economic crisis.

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  83. Amen! Until the depression is over, RUSD should learn to tighten its belt and leave us alone. If Unified will ditch its unnecessary administrators and consultants, it will find sufficient funds to function. What's more, cutting sports, art, music, theater and other useless crap wouldn't be a bad idea either.

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  84. If RUSD would offer ONLY the courses required by the state, we could save plenty of money. As for extra-curricular crap, it should have been cut out of the budget long ago.

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  85. Most kids need the basics and only the basics. If their parents want them to study additional subjects, they can jolly well pick up the tab for the elitist crap or hock their homes to send their spawn to Prairie. I've had it with subsisting on cheap junk food because RUSD makes local government tax me to support art, music, drama, sports and other frills.

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  86. FIRE HAZEN!

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  87. We know who's behind this scummy, scammy scheme--SCJ! Although they dodge property taxes galore, the Waxlords want a semi-educated peasantry capable of holding minimum wage temp jobs at their facilities. Also, the wicked Waxies like lots of art, music and other folderol to show off to visiting grandees of greed who drop in at their cushy compounds and their fund-abomination headquarters at "Whitebread."

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  88. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  89. The above message was brought to you by The Alliance and the Racine Waxbashers.

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  90. Tell Hellwitch and her con-sewer-t Crack to get out their magic checkbooks and subsidize Unified. They've got the gold--thanks to the way they've exploited us, we don't!

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  91. Unified:Useless Lies.

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  92. Close Unified NOW!

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  93. After really spending time reading the article I realize that we as voters will need to really watch how RUSD puts their fall referrendum together. I can envision one that give just the ones in the article but no way to vote "no" to the whole thing. These folks are so out of touch that I fear they will assume Racine will support the lowest cost option but want to see how far we will go with the higher prices options.

    I for one, want it clear that the number one option is to do nothing until the economy has recovered and we aren't sitting at 20% real unemployment. Hopefully, everyone realizes the 9.7 unemployement is just those that still try to get benefits. The real number is much higher but looks bad in print.

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  94. Dear 8:24AM, The RUSD squandrels are so out of touch with reality because we've given them too much money and power. Charlatans pulling six-figure annual incomes plus benefits can possess no comprehension of ordinary citizens' misery. All these privileged predators know is how to blow dough on ballyhoo and bawl for more of our pitiful pennies. A firm "NO!" coupled with legal action to dissolve RUSD and replace it with a less-noxious form of school district should solve the problem.

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  95. Take away Hazen's loot and make him exist on a minimum wage toiler's income. Then he'll be more realistic in his demands.

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  96. Somebody corral the RUSD creeps and give them real jobs in maintenance or manufacturing. Put them to work and compel them to earn their paychecks. But first and foremost, VOTE NO!

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  97. Hazen should be fired, jailed and put to work on a chain gang. Then, perhaps, he'd acquire some common sense and cease to leech off Racine's downtrodden toilers.

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  98. Regardless what may happen to that blasted bloodsucker, there must be NO REFERENDUM. If, however, the RUSD scamsters and skunks insist on a referendum, we must reject it by an overwhelming margin. JUST VOTE NO!

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  99. Eradicate all the hyper-remunerated administrators from RUSD, starting with Shaw and ending with the last smarmy mountebank.

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  100. By the Eternal, RUSD goes too far for anyone's good. Either smash it or bring it to heel, but do NOT yield to its demands.

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  101. No more taxpayers' money for art, sports, music and other furbelows beyond the minimum mandated by statute or state regulation. As I write, I'm subsisting on cheap cereal and day-old bread in order to save cash for my property taxes. Enough, already!

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  102. Let the prancing brats' progenitors pick up the tab for idiotic musicals and other non-essentials. Last year one of the RUSD institutions staged a pricey Elton John musical ("Aida"). It would have been bad enough if the kids and their misguided mentors had put on Verdi's opera from which Elton John copied his work. However, there's no way that Elton John's stuff may qualify as educational material.

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  103. If the Johnsons desire to see high-status nonsense in our public schools, they--not our elderly homeowners on low or fixed incomes--should finance the follies and foibles. Otherwise, all that crap should go!

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  104. By and large, the socio-economic classes which dote on art and music possess the means to enroll their children in Prairie or chuch-affiliated private schools. RUSD shouldn't be in the racket of mulcting senior citizens to provide frills for kiddies whose folks can afford the culture-vulture schools where such luxuries abound.

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  105. As for the sports programs, scrap them. While physical education is required by law in some grades, extra-curricular athletics AREN'T.

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  106. Anyway, for most kids education is a generic product. As long as they're offered the basics, they and their parents have no right to complain.

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  107. Thank goodness for SOAR! Today, anyone who doesn't appreciate RUSD can obtain aid enabling him to send his children to faith-based schools.

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  108. During my decades of experience with RUSD, it's been the biggest waste of my tax dollars I could ever imagine. Between arrogant administrators, sexually-predatory teachers and mouthy, ill-educated students, Unified has been a total loss. Even in decent economic times RUSD has been worse than useless. However, in the midst of a depression, additional funding for Unified is utterly indefensible. Until prosperity returns to Racine, there should be NO SCHOOL REFERENDUM!

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  109. As any Realtor will inform you, families are fleeing Racine in droves. This being the case, there is no justification for new schools.

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  110. We ought to be closing or selling off schools, not constructing new ones.

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  111. No more school referendums until the depression is over. May RUSD either learn to live within its budget or tap the obscenely-privileged Waxtrash for extra funds.

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  112. RSUD should publish a detailed list of all its employees together with their salaries and benefit packages. We need to know where our money is going and which edu-hacks are scamming the public.

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  113. HAZEN MUST GO!

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  114. Although some folks will hate me for saying this, I know nobody who benefited from RUSD except the well-paid staff thereof.

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  115. NO! NO!! NO!!!

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  116. Dear Mr. Hazen, What part of "no" don't you understand? Pending the end of our depression, we want NO SCHOOL REFERENDUM.

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  117. Academic excellence is largely a by-product of upper-middle class incomes, lifestyles and preferences. Anyone who thinks that Shaw and Hazen's hocus-pocus will turn poor and working class kids into scholars as defined by the elite has been smoking winky-dinky-doo weed.

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  118. Costly crap like the Horlick Madrigal Dinner belongs in ritzy Shorewood or the cosmic can. I've got low-income neighbors who have to choose between buying groceries or prescription meds because our property taxes have gutted their budgets.

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  119. Hooligan Hazen should be stripped of his power to rob us everytime his edu-hacks have brainstorms. Shut down RUSD NOW!

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  120. Who recruits, interviews and hires thugs like Hazen? There are plenty of qualified candidates who'd perform his duties for a third of his salary.

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  121. The role of so-called good schools in attracting businesses and jobs is a myth. Since upper-echelon types tend to send their spawn to private institutions, they aren't too concerned about public school districts. All they really want is low taxes plus cheap labor.

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  122. Keep taxes down to reasonable levels and most businessmen won't yell about RUSD, a system whose schools their kids won't ever attend.

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  123. Anybody with half a brain and full pockets will move heaven and earth to keep his kids out of public schools. Historically, public education has been poor education. No referendum is going to alter the socio-economic facts of life.

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  124. If the law didn't require communities to fund public schools, many of them wouldn't do so. Most public education is just a welfare program for middle class aca-dumb-icks.

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  125. Once they've acquired tenure, it's well-nigh impossible to oust the edu-twits. (For decades, my parents and other concerned citizens tried to get the Sapphic predator at Horlick fired. Instead of being terminated, the Lez remained on the payroll until she literally died with her boots on in her classroom.)

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  126. By and large, sick people are drawn to careers in public education. Anyone who can't make it in the adult world or wants a captive audience of disadvantaged kids to abuse heads for the relatively-undemanding field of public pedagogy and reaps a golden financial harvest.

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  127. RUSD: Never have so many done so little to obtain so much.

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  128. No more referendums!

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  129. If Unified were to close tomorrow, only its over-compensated employees would miss it.

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  130. How did this become a "re-investment" plan all of a sudden? They want to take more of our money and put it into a failing system that has not been able to do anything positive for years.

    Lets be honest and call it what it really is: a plan to waste more of our hard earned funds to build new school buildings. A building referendum would be a more appropriate name for it!

    The spin will not fool the voters.

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  131. Today my neighbors and I received postcards from an outfit calling itself "Racinians for Academic Progress." Is this organization connected with SCJ, the Waxtrash clan or the fund-abomination at "Whitebread"? By any chance, is it part of a campaign to inflict another unnecessary school referendum on us?

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  132. The last time we had a school referendum crammed down our throats, Mr. and Mrs. Boyd were out there promoting it. Are the Boyds mixed up in the current farce?

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  133. My neighbors and I--who can barely survive in today's economy--want to know who is behind the school referendum. You can be sure that the sudden cry to give RUSD more money to waste didn't emanate from our poor and middle income residents.

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  134. Want to bet that some SCJ loot lackeys are responsible for it? The same clan that ducked out of paying property taxes on its so-called architectural treasures had a kinsman (Mr. Boyd) promoting the last school referendum.

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  135. Until the Johnsons renounce their property tax exemptions and pay their fair share of Unified's expenses, there should be no more school referendums in Racine.

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  136. Pending the end of our depression, there must be a moratorium on school referendums!

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  137. Much of the pricey garbage in our RUSD curriculum is there because the eliteniks want it. Way back in the seventeenth century, the French aristocracy thought that appearing in school plays developed poise and self-confidence. Consequently, schools designed to meet the oligarchy's perceived needs featured lots of theatrical performances. From France this nonsense spread to England and, eventually, to the USA. By the late eighteen-hundreds, school plays were the norm in our Eastern cities. Today, these pricey productions are sponsored by school districts throughout the country. However, school plays aren't necessary, do not form part of an adequate education and are just a relic of the days when privileged families thought that participating in them would make their progeny into successful courtiers. Since we don't have a royal court and courtiers here in America, this expensive crap should be eliminated from the curriculum a.s.a.p.!

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  138. The same applies to music, both instrumental and vocal. Centuries ago, the advantaged classes wanted music in the curriculum because courtiers who could sing and play instruments received royal grace and favor. Like school plays, music lessons became part of the elite course of studies. Later on, this stuff found its way into ordinary folks' curricula. So, even though we don't have a royal court and courtiers, we're stuck with expensive music programs and subjecting modern working class kids to a curriculum that originated at elite schools like Saint-Cyr Academy before the French Revolution.

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  139. If the current depression accomplishes anything worthwhile, it may force us to ditch extravagant courses and programs which date from the age of royal courts and schools which trained elite spawn to shine there.

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  140. Concentrate on basic education for modern American kids, throw out the courses left over from the monarchical era's training programs for courtiers and save a lot of money!

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  141. Let's go through the current curriculum and weed out all the nonsense left over from the age in which schools prepared advantaged brats to be courtiers. Ditching this obsolete junk is long overdue.

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  142. Unless those songsters at Horlick are training for Renaissance Fair jobs, the Madrigal Dinner should go.

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  143. Until the depression is over, RUSD should offer BASIC EDUCATION ONLY!

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  144. You bet! I've got working class friends who are going crazy finding the cash for field trip related expenses for their kids. Excursions, athletics, music,art, drama... It seems that RUSD promotes everything except the type of solid, non-glamorous, low-cost basic education necessary for survival in the real world.

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  145. While some of the non-essential crap goes back to the age of royal courts and institutions which trained courtiers, a lot of it is here because RUSD felt that it had to compete with J-Wax's witty wonk factory, aka "The Fairy School." Shame on the Waxies for founding that farcical facility----and DOUBLE SHAME ON RUSD FOR EMULATING THAT FANCY FOOL SCHOOL INSTEAD OF PROMOTING BASIC EDUCATION!

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  146. Slash expenditures at Unified NOW!

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  147. RUSD: Where the queer and the hand-gropers play. I've had it with being taxed to support a Peyton Place for pedagogical predators. Get rid of the legal doctrine granting quasi-parental power to teachers and eliminate tenure if you want me to support RUSD.

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  148. Citizens of Racine: Mobilize NOW to defeat the school referendum before higher taxes drive more of you out of your homes and our community!

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  149. If Boyd and his hyper-privileged woman want the school referendum, let them pay for it. Between Boyd's boodle and his bimbo's Waxbucks, they can afford to defray all expenses. In fact, they could cough up millions to finance everything on RUSD's wish list and never miss it.

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  150. Someday fortunes like the Waxstash, the Leipold loot and the Boyd bundle won't be legal. In the meantime, TAX THE TREASURE TYRANTS!

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  151. With our sorry city's population in decline, we ought to be closing and selling schools, not building pricey new structures. Mr. Hazen, please get real!

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  152. If RUSD fires its superfluous administrative personnel, it will save sufficient funds to function sans another referendum.

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  153. If RUSD fires its superfluous administrative personnel, it will save sufficient funds to function sans another referendum.

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  154. Amen! But, first last and foremost--NO SCHOOL REFERENDUM UNTIL THE DEPRESSION IS OVER!

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  155. Amen! But, first last and foremost--NO SCHOOL REFERENDUM UNTIL THE DEPRESSION IS OVER!

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  156. Let's be honest. Much--if not most--of the stuff we inflict on the kids in the name of education is of no conceivable interest or use to them. Because the dead hand of the obsolete past determines the curriculum, youngsters can wind up singing Elizabethan madrigals or memorizing verses scribbled by long-gone poetasters. (I know a fellow who dropped out of Horlick because his English teacher insisted that he learn "Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes" by heart. If we cleared all the crap out of the required courses, we could concentrate on practical skills and modern material which the kids could utilize in the real world. What's more, assuming we made a clean sweep of the irrelevant junk, we'd save a bundle.)

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  157. Public schools should provide basic education only. If parents want their children to study subjects left over from the days when only nobles and wealthy burgesses' spawn received formal education, they should send their kids to The Fairy School or some other pricey snob snuggery. However, socially-ambitious parents shouldn't force laboring class taxpayers to fund elitist courses.

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  158. The workers in my neighborhood are weary of subsidizing bunk like the Horlick Madrigal Dinner. To hear them tell it, Mr. Pavao should have taken that thing with him when he moved to Chicago to warble in the Lyric Opera.

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  159. Anyway, events like the Horlick Madrigal Dinner possess a peculiar history rife with snobbery. Back in the early nineteen-hundreds, wealthy corporate porkers who liked to emulate royalty started this crap. Pretty soon, a pricey hotel at Yosemite met the oligarchs' demands by recreating the court of Henry VIII as part of its Christmas festivities. From there, the concept spread to other expensive hostelries and, eventually, to private schools. Still later, public schools caught the costly contagion. If budget slashing during the present depression cures RUSD of this dollar-splurging disorder, it will be worth it.

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  160. Although I realize that the Horlick Madrigal Dinner is a minor extravagance compared with the high pay handed to administrators, it's symptomatic of the frivolous mentality presently pervading RUSD headquarters. It's time for this folderol to depart.

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  161. A school district whose pupils can barely read, write and cipher has no business hitting the taxpayer for big bucks to blow on athletics, art, musicals and other tripe.

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  162. If Mr. Hazen doesn't want to "overbrurden the taxpayers," he can keep that precious referendum on hold until the end of the economic crisis.

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  163. In the meantime, Hazen and his squad of squandrels can start looking for ways to slash the RUSD budget down to size.

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