Curt Brown has a post here about efforts underway to bring full day kindergarten to all Dartmouth kids. The post says,
"The plan, along with a funding request, will be presented to the spring Town Meeting in June."Another part of Curt's post quotes School Superintendent Dr. Russell as estimating that 260 students would likely be enrolled.
I support the goal of having all kids attend full day kindergarten. There are tons of evidence ...
... that early childhood education provides a lot of benefit.
That said, the Town does not have the money to fund a full day kindergarten in September. This is not as much a concern to the School Committee as it is to the Select Board and other town departments. Once the children are enrolled in classes, the state will raise the required school spending for the Town. For 260 students at roughly $9,300 per student, that raises the Town's required school spending a whopping $1.2 million. You may have noticed that $9300 times 260 is $2.4 million. But since the Town already has 1/2 day kindergarten, the number is halved since we are already assessed 1/2 the amount as required school spending. As you can see, that is a big increase and some reduction would be seen in increased Chapter 70 aid from the state. The final result would be around $900K to $1 million.
Once the full day kindergarten program is established, the Town is required to fund it by the state's minimum school spending formula. The school department is guaranteed the money. But if Dartmouth doesn't have the revenues to support the increased cost, cuts will have to come from other town departments, police, DPW, library, COA. There's need for caution here.
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13 comments:
Bill, the math you cite changes considerably if the school department opts for a tuition based full day kindergarten program and if I am not mistaken they have committed to making both paths (tuition and non-tuition based)and their costs fully known to the community prior to any decision making.
Whether or not the town funds this should be up to the voters not town meeting since money may be coming from the general fund. It will be an override voted on by town meeting instead of the voters. Of course, how could I be so stupid? That's the plan right? What happens when we don't have enough money in the general fund to cover our costs because it is going to the schools instead?
The schools got the transportation fees eliminated, they want all the meals tax money and now they want money from the town for this. When does it stop?
Bill
At time of birth, all mothers should have their child turned over to the state. Why not allow the state to start teaching on day one. The mother could have visitation rights, along with all that other government controlled crap. Upon graduating from high school, the child can then decide if they want to stay with the state, or find a nice mother to live with or a same sex marriage couple.
When Prez Obama lectured to the united nations, he should have mentioned how our states allow same sex marriages, have a child, or rent one. This is amazing stuff. According to Freud, all kiddy's problems starter with mothers, and toilet training.
The question that I have and the point that I was making is about required school spending. If we have more students enrolled, does our required spending increase, tuition or no tuition? Does tuition payment reduce the amount of required spending by the amount of tuition assessed? I will inquire about these questions and post about the answers.
Bill
You nailed this one. I never gave it a thought. This will increase the towns mandated cost to the school department. Just when I thought it was safe to trust the school department.
The schools will never stop until they have picked the town clean. You give them something (bus fees) and then they want more (meal tax). Now that isn't enough so they want the town to fund all day kindergarten. And don't forget the activity fees. They want that too. The game plan is to take as much as they can without anything having to go before the voters. Way to build trust in the community guys!
Dont you people read the newspapers or pay any attention to anything? Nobody is sneaking anything by anybody. It is no secret that more kids in school cost more money-where is the rocket science there? Just as less kids in school saves the town money. There is no smoking gun - pick up a paper, watch or better yet go to a school committee or finance committee meeting where all of this is being talked about in the open in public forums. You'd think Dartmouth was the first community in Massachusetts considering full day kindergarten - in fact we're among the 1/3rd that does not have it.
PS - you did not give 'them bus something' HS parents paid the bus fees and got them back for one year because of savings accomplished by the school department. How is that giving anyone anything?
Once again, let me explain my point. If required school spending increases due to more students, the town MUST appropriate that money. If the town's revenues cannot support the increase, the spending in other town departments must be cut to provide the required increase in the school department.
PS- At town meeting, I asked if the funds from the bus fees would be used for student transportation. I was told they would be. Now the Select Board votes to rescind the fees and the school department, that turned back $263K in transportation funds, asked for $91K to replace the revenue from the fees. It is on the warrant in article R. Why? Because they were not used for transportation but other things.
But Bill, the school committee and the school super. wouldn't lie to us...would they? They certainly wouldn't use money appropriated for one thing on something else...right?
The schools have proven time and again that they cannot be trusted. Scare tactics, untrustworthy numbers and behind the scenes deals and maneuvers.
Schools cant set up revolving funds for fees. simple as that. The town can but the schools cant.
Not true, the schools have revolving accounts for sports, lunches, and many other things.
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