On November 2nd we saw a monumental election in which the American people rejected the Obama-Reid-Pelosi socialist agenda which has given us an enormous amount of national debt and no improvement in our economy. The voters clearly stated that the path we were going down is not one that American’s want to be a part of, and we need to get back to common sense budgets that promote job growth - not job killing taxation and bloated deficits.
This was most clearly seen in Wisconsin where the US Senate and US House switched to Republican control and ALL 3 state branches did also. The state suffered tremendously under 8 years of Doyle with irresponsible budgets and questionable ethics of pay to play. The state constitution requires a balanced budget so in order to pay for the Democrats’ excessive spending the taxes jumped to cover the costs. This drove companies and people out of the state looking for relief. For the first time in state history the number of government jobs exceeded the number of manufacturing jobs!
Scott Walker has a proven track record of a fiscal conservative and has a tough job to correct the 2 billion dollar shortfall in the next state budget. We know he won’t address the short fall by increasing taxes once again on the hard working people of this state. What we don’t know is what areas will he reduce spending and what the impact will be for K-12 budgets. During this time of uncertainty the best thing for us to do at the local level is to maintain our existing programs and wait to see what direction the state takes.
The current WGSD board president, Dan Jensen, has talked in a supportive way of the above changes. Unfortunately his actions speak louder and he is embarking on new spending initiatives.
The first sign was last spring when Dan introduced a new string program for band during a time we were discussing reductions in programming due to reduced state spending. The initial cost of this new offering is low ($18,000) during the introduction phase next year at just the 4th grade level. But the costs of the program will continue to go up as it is rolled out to each successive grade. This can put funding available for the current band program at risk for future years.
Recently Dan proposed spending $50,000 to introduce Mandarin Chinese to the district at just the kindergarten level. This program has the potential for spiraling costs as the program is rolled out to the other 8 grades! Chinese is not a language that is in huge demand in Waterford and those who take it will quickly forget the language since there is no opportunity to use it outside of the classroom. This program would be money not well spent during a time of tough economic times.
IF there are monies available the best course of action would be to roll out Spanish to all grade levels. Languages are learned more quickly at a younger age, and with our inability to address the porous borders and illegal immigration this language will be used more widely than Chinese ever will.
To top it off Dan is proposing spending up to $9 million dollars to add on to Fox River middle school. This is the same school that just 2 years ago the administration proposed replacing with a new school for over $20 million. That proposal was not met with much support from the community!
Even though our enrollment numbers have not increased in the last 2 years and we went to a house system to better utilize our resources, Dan is bringing forth again a proposal to spend millions of tax dollars on a school that some in the administration think needs to be replaced. Our Fox River enrollment was as high as 501 in 2000 and is only at 390 this year. Projections for 2013 are we will be down to 368 students.
We still owe over $15 million from the building done in 2000 since the notes are back loaded to try to get more people to approve the referendum. The economy is still struggling and could potentially take a turn for the worse when inflation hits due to the bloated federal deficit. Now is not the time to spend money on capital building projects while enrollment is holding steady or reducing!
Waterford is a conservative area based on past voting records and I ran for office to support those principals. I talked to Dan about this move away from fiscal conservatism, which he talks about supporting. He instead is embracing excessive spending and a negative impact on our taxes. He failed to change the path he is on at our last board meeting and I can no longer support him given the new direction he is embarking on.
I encourage those who agree with my positions to voice your concerns about the current excess spending proposals during this time of transition at the federal and state levels.
Chuck Poole
WGSD School Board Treasurer
Note: The opinions in this article are mine alone and not an official position of the WGSD School Board
