<p>
</p>
<p>Well, not only did you think with your heart, but also with a very clear head. The problem, as you stated, exists and will only get worse. In a separate thread, I introduced the extravagant expenditures in the Allen ISD, a suburb of Dallas. If you’d draw a circle around Dallas and compare the districts to the South and East to the districts to the North and Northwest, you would see incredible differences. A direct result of the citizens (who can afford it) either made the sacrifices to send their kids to private school, or moved to the new suburban Shangri-Las that allow for an effective, and perhaps covert, economic, and let say it, racial segregation. There is a world out there that find it justifiable to spend 60 millions on a football stadium for high schoolers, lavish the same students with grand pianos, or even find a way to spend close to 40 millions on a glorified bus barn. </p>
<p>The justification hinges on the fact that the people of that district approved the lavish expenses --even if a cynic could point out that the pro voters were pretty much as numerous as the … staff and faculty of that district, as just over 2,000 did cast a supporting vote. In a way, you cannot blame the citizens of that district to direct their educational exenditures in a manner that should DIRECTLY improved the lifestyle of their offspring. After all, they looked around and made a decision to move to such districts for the precise reasons of obtaining an education that rivals the more glorious (and richest) private schools.</p>
<p>However, what one could (and should) blame are the generations of corrupt politicians, clueless school boards, and academic “leaders” who have rejected measures that would change the current system in deliver the justice and the equality that public education pretends to deliver. In Texas, there is a Robin Hood plan that “robs” the richer districts and redirects some funding to the poorer districts. Unfortunately, just as Allen found a way to justify building a football temple in the Dallas boonies, the poorer districts often used their “windfall” for projects that did not improve the education per se. </p>
<p>Those stories highlight two distinct problems. The first one is that the finding based on local property taxes is one that deepens the chasm between the have and have-nots; the second one, and one that is even more nefarious, is the lack of spending controls and the misdirection of funds in the entire academic system. While there is a debate about the need for more money (as the results of increased spending are nebulous at best) there is no doubt that the districts are ravaged by corruption, wasteful spending, and dragged down by the “need” to fund numerous programs, including social programs, that only exist because they sounded good to some interested parties. </p>
<p>Our system is based on denial and excuses, and it will only get worse.</p>