Thursday, March 28, 2013

You Really Don't know Where the Money is Going

You don't know where the money is going, you are a fool if you think you do.

Jim was not the sitting board member when Newport reneged on their deal.  Jody , Emily and Angie were the board members.  Emily could not get Newport to stick to their deal.  Newport has not been good neighbors in my opinion.    When you get an increased tax bill this summer keep that in mind.  I did not vote to increase your taxes.

Cathy



Low turnout costs Croydon taxpayers.


High turnout at Tuesday’s town/school officer elections gave hope that perhaps school issues had triggered the attention of Croydon taxpayers.

Saturday’s school board meeting dashed these hopes.  Despite the high stakes of the warrant articles (over $2/$1,000 or 20%+ increase in the school tax rate), the meeting drew only 40 to 50 residents.

One of the most astonishing aspects of the meeting was the administration’s complete lack of preparation.  Article 3 requested ~$138k to pay for last year’s Newport tuition that was under-budgeted*.  One should expect voters to ask for the numbers behind this request – the administration had none.  At best, the front table ventured crude guesses as to the source of the disparity.

While the funding request may have been perfectly valid, the lack of even basic support was troubling.  Worse, a majority of voters passed this large warrant article without this information.

In Special Education, lack of transparency is the norm.  Accordingly, the board requested a 74% increase in Special Ed spending for 2013-2014.  Calls for openness and restraint were drowned out by veiled threats of horrific consequences should all spending not be approved at once.  Board chair Jody Underwood read an impassioned speech calling for a board member to be seated on the IEP committee to represent the taxpayers.

This is a great step forward, though it fails to provide transparency to the other two board members.  It is also inappropriate to phrase this idea as a request or a suggestion; this should be a demand.  The administration works for the board, a fact that seems to be routinely ignored.  It is past time to reestablish the board as the leader of the district, second only to the taxpayers.

Two large warrant articles passed with virtually no information available to the board or the public.  Votes of such cavalier ignorance are not characteristic of the people of Croydon; they arise from a self-interested minority willing to spend their neighbor’s money with reckless abandon.  Democracy works best when voting represents a cross section of the electorate.  Clearly this was not the case.

I personally have great faith in the people of Croydon.  History shows that at times of heightened public interest, fiscal restraint, public good, and self-determination dominate Croydon politics.  When the public becomes disengaged, irresponsible spending, cronyism, and subordination to special interests gain strength.

At Town Hall, the rubber stamp crowd won the day, and we can expect to pay a hefty price.  Families in Croydon will now pay hundreds of dollars more in property taxes with no discernible benefit.

*Amusingly, one of the usual suspects blamed me personally for this budget issue, even though I wasn’t on the board when Newport changed the tuition rates.


Jim Peschke

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Remember When...

At one time the only employee in our one room school house was the teacher.... Oh so long ago when children in Croydon were all learning to read, write and perform math at grade appropriate level.  Now we have upwards of 10 different employees and all of our children can not read, write or perform math at grade appropriate level. 





Friday, March 22, 2013

Mediocre Minds

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly" -- Albert Einstein, March 1940.


Cathy

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Unions versus. Taxaper

Be it unions or schools the have the same affect on the taxpayer in my humble opinion.

Cathy

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

The Blob that Ate Children......and their Minds

John Stossel hits it out of the park and happens to agree with me, or I with he if you prefer.  No town is spared... including Croydon.

Cathy Peschke


"Education reformers have a name for the resistance: the education "Blob." The Blob includes the teachers unions, but also janitors and principals unions, school boards, PTA bureaucrats, local politicians and so on.
They hold power because the government's monopoly on K-12 education eliminates most competition."  John Stossel

Read more: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/03/20/the_blob_that_ate_children_117539.html#ixzz2O5uiBQOt
Follow us: @RCP_Articles on Twitter

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

The Reason for Opposition to Choice

"It’s always been the dream of tyrannical governments to eliminate all competitive thought. Adolf Hitler understood it better than anybody. The following is from William L. Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich:
“When an opponent declares, ‘I will not come over to your side,’ [Adolf Hitler] said in a speech on November 6, 1933, “I calmly say, ‘Your child belongs to us already. . . . What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community.’” And on May 1, 1937, [Hitler] declared, “This new Reich will give its youth to no one, but will itself take youth and give to youth its own education and its own upbringing.”"
Read more at American Vision.


Unions and school employees oppose choice because they want control over you children and our greedy and do not like competition. 


Cathy Peschke

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Greed


How did our society come to a point were it is considered greedy to keep the money for which a person has worked so hard to earn?   Don't answer it is a rhetorical question, I know the answer.  Discuss this amongst yourselves. 


Cathy Peschke


Saturday, March 16, 2013

Are You Puppet or Puppet Master?

Today, was the annual Town Hall Meeting.  Husband asked me not to post this as to not to offend people.  I obliged until after the meeting.   During the meeting an audience member said that we should respect our neighbors.  First, respect is earned not commanded.  Second, As Thomas Jefferson said, "To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical."  Having to support a system and a tax I think is sinful and tyrannical I will not take lightly, a minor majority is taking money against my will and from my children because they refuse to fund their own children's education.  Third, I do respect my neighbors and the Ten Commandments.   I will never support a tax increase because, "Thou shall not covet" and "Thou shall not steal"  any good Christian would never vote to raise their neighbor's taxes.   In my humble opinion, to do so makes said person a huge hypocrite.   Fourth,  our current public education as it is was designed by progressives to achieve their idea of utopia.  The system as it is now as anyone who knows our Founding History would not be one of which our Founders would approve.   If they had they would have not found the need to leave England. "Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal." Martin Luther King, Jr.  Just because a person supports what is legal does make it moral.   Slavery was legal, too.  Lastly, character matters.  

Cathy Peschke





Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Indoctrination Lasts a Lifetime

Sadly, schools tell children what to do and what to think, not how to think for themselves.  Worse yet this carries over to adulthood.

Cathy
  

Tuesday, March 12, 2013