Cripes am I tired. Tons of work at the office and many long City meetings. The joint City-Schools meeting covered here went pretty well. I’ve recieved some questions about my comments so allow me to clarify:
I believe we spend enough for our schools to perform at a higher level and we must endevour to discover the cause of our poor performance. I don’t pretend to understand the root causes (I have my suspicions) but I absolutely will not endorse increased spending to increase performance until I’m satisfied that we are getting what we pay for now. There are other jurisdictions in VA who have challenges similar to ours and they get better results and spend close to what we spend. I would hasten to add that I’m not much interested in turning this into a hunt for the guilty. I’m interested in a hunt for results.
For those that doubt my motives or dedication to this issue I would point out that my kid is in those schools. Sarah and I are very lucky that our child is smart (comes from me!) but she’s there nevertheless. If I thought the schools were a limiting factor she’d be gone in a millisecond. I’d also say that I took a fair beating last year on the budget (older post here) – the same budget that reserved $250,000 for Education Forward initiatives. I want the schools to work better – it’s our number 1 problem and, if after examination and remediation, we come up with a plan that requires more money then so be it. However, we’re a long way from there right now.