Promises Fullilled

Mar. 14th the Col. Dispatch reports that “Schools’ promises being fulfilled.” At least the apostrophe is in the right place on the word schools. Not much else is right with the world. Voters approved a levy in 2008 which included a $9.4 million package for a longer school day, replacing school busses and upgrading science labs. The devil always being in the details, here’s just one promise being fulfilled that drives a fiscal conservative and a rational person like me wild. One ‘improvement’ is the emergency eye-wash stations, which simultaneously shoots a stream of water into both eyes. Students eagerly volunteer to test the system.” Why not? “They love that,” says a science teacher. No education is involved in the eye-wash station, the new camera systems, the 15 new safety - and -security coordinators or the storage cabinets in the science rooms. No education is involved in public schools with students whose names cannot be pronounced, with teachers who wear jeans and sweat shirts and without citizens appreciating what waste means.

In the Record-Herald, of WCH., recently, it was reported that the ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act ) of 2009 designated $2 billion of taxpayers monies, to the NSP2 (?), 1.8 million was set aside for fixing up homes in this area. Single family houses abandoned or that need fixing up are the targets because one “bad house that’s empty on a nice street could cause trouble,” according to the administrator of this program. Why not take money from the taxpayers to upgrade an area? They didn’t even approve a levy, the consequences of which they did not appreciate.

And for a third absurdity - New York City has more than 300,000 employees who work under more than 100 collective-bargaining agreements, along with layers of bureaucratic state civil-service laws. Too many layers of waste for you? Too many for me to believe unless the report of March 18th in the WSJ by Steven Goldsnmith conjures up facts. Also, state law mandates that over 1,500 job titles must be filled through competitive written exams, specifically ignoring employee’s actual performance or qualifications. A civil-service test must be administered to the head of the Police Department’s counterterrism unit. ( Some how a way was found to get around this requirement).

The public needs to find a way to get around the tyranny of bureaucracy supported by the apathy of an ignorant citizenry. Wake up. Become informed. If nothing else, feel upset enough to vote against the status quo when a thrifty, practical candidate feels the same as you.