How Could They Possibly Have Known?

 Known what? Well, perhaps that those student loans were not such a good idea, that's what. 

They could have used their prodigious interweb skills to research the ROI on the desired degree and make it a cut and dry financial decision. Let's pause for a working definition of financial, as clearly these debtors and soon-to-be debtors likely have no clue: pertaining to monetary receipts and expenditures; pertaining or relating to money matters; pecuniary. Yep. It's all about the money. And this has become increasingly and painfully important. A recent article (originally Fortune) posits 

"The government is poised to take a bath on its student loan portfolio over the long term, even as that portfolio expands in size every year as the higher education system sucks up more federal funding." 

And this is because the ignorant were allowed, nay encouraged, to take out very ill-advised loans. 

"What we’ve considered to be economic prosperity of the last 10 years, prior to the pandemic, was in fact economically punishing to younger cohorts forced through the wringer of increasingly costly higher education and into a labor market characterized by stagnant wages and deteriorating job ladders."

Then consider that in the before times borrowers were having trouble repaying loans. What is hard to imagine is parents suffering the burden of loan debt not recognizing their mistake and instead encouraging their children to go down the same path. 

And we know this how? 

Well, that darned interweb again. There is a rather interesting site with data on Student Loan Debt by age group. Turns out folks in their 30's and 40's (the latter most like of the newest debtors) are carrying an average of $40.5K in debt. To be fair, those in their forties represent less than half of the total debt held by those in their thirties and half of that held by those in their twenties, indicating that this debt has gone from being a useful tool for some to an addiction for many, many more. Simple math: there are well over two times as many debtors in the 30-39 age bracket as in the 40-49 as the average debt is virtually identical. For the 20 year olds it is even worse as their average debt is one half of the forty-somethings so there are four times as many debtors in this age group, hence the pandering to that voting demographic. 

As a parent you might want to encourage your budding debtor to research salaries based on college major, and make sure they look not just at the widely touted highest paying but at those majors they are most interested in or most likely to acquire. They might start by searching for lowest-paying majors. Acquire a real idea of what you are getting into. Look at the monthly cost of piling on $40K of debt. Online calculators will tell you that will set you back over $225/month for 20 years. And that is if you get a 3% rate. And it took you at least 4, most likely 6 years of no income to achieve this wonderful life. 

Then investigate the options, perhaps a skilled trade. Look into starting and average pay. Check out the cost of preparing yourself to be an electrician, plumber, welder, HVAC technician, auto technician, project manager, etc. You may be surprised at the economic viability of what seems to have become an alternative career. 

Unfortunately this would require that someone considered to be smart enough for college be smart enough to determine, for themselves, whether or not college is right for them.

Pig Lipstick

Part of the school super's job is spin control but it is a fine line between messaging and spinning out of control. The state audit reports are in and the distance between rhetoric and reality suggests things are spinning out of control. The super is pleased the audits were completed in a timely manner despite the fact the school system didn't meet the auditors requirements in a timely fashion or with anything resembling accuracy. And she hopes this audit will result in a positive credit rating from Moody's. 

Has she even read the report?

What They Are Really Telling You

If you've been paying attention to mainstream media on the topic of student loans and especially if you heard the UGA Graduate School commencement speaker you know you are being conditioned for a groundswell of student loan abandonments. And this has been a long time in the making. Let's look at a few things that have been insinuated into our daily mantra:

• A college degree means you will make more money
• Investing in a college education is investing in yourself
• Everyone must go to college--it has become a birthright

The increased cost and supply of graduates is why over 1 in 10 will leave college to face over $40,000.00 in debt while at the same time seeing fewer job opportunities at the entry level. Some report that the total student loan debt exceeds $1trillion, far in excess of credit card debt. At least this money went to a good cause, one that will strengthen the future of the students and society as a whole, right?

Not really.

There has been a mad dash to get a degree--any degree--and many of these provide no value-add that is respected in the employment marketplace. No one in academia is telling the public, the students or the parents this. They ignore this reality while at the same time touting the general value of a college education--no breakdowns by major, degree level or institution.

While the cost to acquire a sheepskin has climbed at a rate far beyond inflation the money has been absorbed by bloated administrations, bureaucrats and boutique, Club Med calibre dorms and non-educational facilities.  At the same time we're seeing fewer full professors and more adjuncts. More money. Less education.

Parents and students have been duped. And we are all being had.

The education establishment has created a bubble, something the educratic bubble blowers and mass media like to call "a crisis". But it is a bubble and it is about to burst.

Those who created the bubble want to see Americans walk away from a commitment that they made in good faith and many others seem to think that is exactly what they should do. This is an attempt to keep the money flowing freely but will only allow the greedy to continue to feed their lusts--money never solves a fiscal problem. But should this come to pass it will prove beyond doubt that American society has abandoned the spirit of self-reliance and integrity that once made a college degree, regardless of field, valuable.

Vote With THEIR Money

DeKalb County Schools seem to be doing an upstanding job of pissing folks off lately and while this is causing a lot of consternation and whining in the blogosphere not much is really getting done. Why? Because, to quote Dr. Phil, the whiners don't understand their "currency". And their currency is simple: money.

Ironically parents in DeKalb actually control that money. Not by way of the local taxes, but by way of the state funding. You must understand that each and every child, sleepy or rested, hungry or full, stoned or sober arrives with significant state funding (figuratively) in their book bag. And parents can take that money away by simply withholding their child from school.

A sick-out is a short-term shout out not likely to make a significant dent in the County budget especially given the return to "creative" accounting so what we need is something better. We need homeschoolers. If everyone who can homeschool, and many more can than you might think, took that simple step they would send forth a powerful, lasting message.

They are just getting cozy with their smoke and mirrors budget so now is the time to act and it only needs to last one semester--though you may find you like it and simply never look back at the hell you've been putting your children thru. And if concentrated pockets of parents take this path they can share the work load across families. And the cost is no more than filing some papers, a few good books and a fast internet connection. This is simply not as daunting as some believe.

Thurmond makes no effort to hide his disdain for Dunwoody and much of the rest of North DeKalb. It is time for those folks to eliminate as much of his funding as they possibly can.

Money talks...Thurmond walks.

Jabberwonky

Whenever a government spews forth missives like:

The accompanying financial statements present the City and its component unit, an entity for which the City is considered to be financially accountable. The discretely presented component unit is reported in a separate column in the government-wide financial statements to emphasize that it is legally separate from the City. 

Discretely Presented Component Units
The Dunwoody Convention and Visitors Bureau has been included as a discretely presented component unit in the accompanying financial statements. The Dunwoody Convention and Visitors Bureau (“Bureau”) is fiscally dependent on the City as it does not have the power to levy taxes, determine its own aggregate budget without the approval of the City of Dunwoody, Georgia, or issue bonded debt and the City is required by contract to provide a majority of the operational revenues for the Bureau. 

Financial information with regard to the Bureau can be obtained from the Bureau’s administrative offices at 41 Perimeter Center East, Dunwoody, GA 30346. Separate financial statements for the Dunwoody Convention and Visitors Bureau are not prepared.

then you know two things:

1. They're doing something they ought not
2. They really don't want you to know about it

We all know that these quasi government bureaus are ripe for malfeasance as they are subjected to almost no budgetary oversight, public review or any form of mandatory transparency--as in "separate financial statements are NOT prepared". Wouldn't want the mere citizens to get a real clear view of what's going down downtown.

Then there is the redundancy of it all. Do not hotels perform their own marketing and wouldn't one expect them to do it well? It is a competitive private enterprise. And what about the the PR money we spend from the general budget on an engineering firm to polish our City image? How many groups have to spend how much money to convince someone that Dunwoody is a cool place? Perhaps the lady doth protest too much.

These CVBs represent little more than a grow the government philosophy of "we CAN tax them so we WILL and then we'll tax them more". Because there is really no public need to be met they piss the money away on friends, family and corporate connections.  Then the greed kicks in...

You Don't Have to Eat the Whole Egg...

...to know it's rotten

That pretty much sums up the KPMG, on-the-net, off-the-net, draft audit report on the financial shenanigans down at DeKalb County Schools.

Many folks are questioning the particulars, often focusing on the 150 central office positions the Board demanded be eliminated to bring the budget under some semblance of control. Didn't happen and folks are upset. As well they should be.

However when one takes a step back and examines the situation a bit more philosophically, one can only conclude that "upset" is woefully inadequate to address this situation.

The School System has established a convoluted network of bank accounts that would do a Mafia money laundering operation proud. No wonder some prosecutors are more than just whispering "RICO". While all the money comes into one account, and goes out through one other account, once in the system money bounces around like a ball in pachinko machine with the Administration explaining it away as "we'll reconcile it later". "Tomorrow is another day" is a great line from a great movie but it really is no way to run a billion dollar business.

The System itself is organized along the lines of a terrorist organization with cells that may know something about their little bit of the puzzle but are kept woefully ignorant of nearby, related operations. In true public education fashion, when quizzed about process and procedure few employees appeared to be singing from the same sheet of music and many had begun exploring the financial equivalent of improvisational jazz.

Other things are difficult to explain as anything but deliberate means to achieve a nefarious goal. It isn't just the "bank account du jour" but the fact that System employs a bespoke account coding system that is inconsistent with the State coding requiring error prone manual processing in support of grant applications and reporting. Not that the State does much in the way of an audit. After all they're just passing around Federal funds. Furthermore this coding system is intentionally crippled in that it does not provide a unique code for each employee's position in the system. This makes it nigh on impossible to verify whether or not the School System had actually done what the Board directed.

The public school system is fundamentally broken and while this audit attests to that focusing on the particulars makes it difficult to see the underlying problem or begin to craft a solution.

Inciteful Movie

If you care at all about the sorry state of American Public Education then you've seen Two Million Minutes and perhaps some of the other films available on that site. You may have seen Waiting for Superman which is available on Netflix's streaming service. Or perhaps you've seen The Lottery.

Perhaps not.

This is not an attempt to encourage viewing these films nor is there any intent to discourage viewing them either. This is about another film, a documentary on how schools really operate. The Cartel. You may be pretty burned out with the cheating scandals, the financial incompetence of DeKalb Schools, charter amendment propaganda or the corrupt operations that have become so ingrained in the system and you just may be over it. To help you gauge whether this is worth ninety minutes of your time that you will never get back, The Other Dunwoody offers a very simple test:

Go online and find these three facts, usually available on your local school system's web site:

1. Total annual spending 
2. Total number of students, often called "FTE"
3. Average number of students per class

Using this information calculate the total amount of money, your tax dollars, that are spent operating the average classroom. 

If this doesn't cause you to immediately re-check your calculations only to confirm the answer and ultimately result in a mouth-agape WTF moment, then don't watch The Cartel. You're part of the problem, not the solution. If you're absolutely shocked at the number this simple calculation yields, then you should invest ninety minutes of your time in a personal, in-home, Netflix powered screening.

If you want to have some real fun, invite a public school apologist over to watch with you. You know the kind, someone so full of the Kool Aid their eyeballs are floating. A teacher at any nearby public school would do nicely. If you're up to even more fun, try to secure a principal, administrator, or the holy grail--a school board member. Now as they watch the movie, you watch their face. Whenever they wince, flinch or frown (not to worry, they won't smile or nod in agreement), hit "Pause". Give them a chance to explain. From the deep end of the Kool Aid pool. Listen politely and take note of any and all excuses but one: "That's some other school (system), not ours. Ours is great." Fact is, as bad the things are that are depicted in this movie, DeKalb Schools are worse.

Dunwoody Shutters CVB

The City of Dunwoody has unannounced plans to shut down the Convention and Visitors Bureau--how long DID they think it would be a secret? And this was no Town Pump leak at a gas station, this is mere reading between the budget lines.

The 2013 budget calls for twenty thousand of our hard earned tax dollars to go towards creating and televising a promotional film about Dunwoody and if that isn't something the CVB is supposed to do, what is? The only rational conclusion is that the City Council have rightly ascertained the real value of the CVB, somewhat shy of zero, and are forced to take over the CVB responsibilities. At the next CVB budget review it should be a no-brainer to shut them down. And this is a Smart City, right?

Cynics might offer another explanation: drunken on the HOST windfall our esteemed Council has "gone shopping" and this is just one of the many shiny baubles we can expect them to piss away our money on. But seriously folks, is there anyone in Dunwoody who's that cynical?

Private vs Charter

Suppose there is a public school with one thousand students. Then a private school opens and pulls one hundred students from the public school.

What happens to the incumbent public school funding?

Well, the school system will lose the per-pupil state funding so the State saves some money. They may lose some Federal funding and likewise the Feds save money. But the incumbent public school system does not exempt the parents of the now privately educated children from school taxes so that system keeps all the tax money it collects. Yet there are about three fewer classes to maintain.

Now suppose that instead of a private school it is actually a state-sanctioned charter school that opens. How does this change things?

In terms of the amount of money coming into the incumbent public school system there is no difference whatsoever and the workload still goes down by the same amount. For the parents who pull their children out of the incumbent public schools, they see a significant drop in cash outlay for their child's education. They still pay the incumbent's tax for an education they cannot or will not use, but now they send their children to a state-funded school. Of course this means that the State does not reap the financial benefits when parents privately educate their children.

What the Amendment One brouhaha boils down to is quite simple: the incumbent public schools' position is that they have sole and exclusive access to all monies spent by the State on K-12 education. However, it is the State, not these incumbent school systems that bears the burden of the constitutional mandate to provide an adequate education. Anyone who has been paying attention also knows that the existing Georgia public schools are far below adequate.

The Buck Stops

...at the Police Department.

Apparently ALL the bucks stop there.

Since this City's founding our police department has demonstrated a penchant for uncontrolled growth, growing at a rate much faster than the population. And it isn't just head count. The City has announced a budget calling for four percent raises and given that a vast majority of City employees are in the police department this is pretty much a police raise. In these economic times that is quite a salary boost as any of those Dunwoodians who've aged in place could tell you. Their Social Security payment will increase at substantially less than half the police raise--much more in line with inflation.

We're subjected to many excuses for this out of line and out of control cost. First is that we do not have enough officers to respond to 911 calls in a prompt and efficient fashion. Yet, we have more than enough officers to run I-285 Toll Trolls and are never in want when bikers or runners need a police escort. We even roll Dunwoody's finest when it's pear-pickin' time down to the Farmhouse.

Then we're told we need to up the pay to prevent poaching by the nearby newly formed cities. A bit hypocritical since that's how we built this burgeoning police force.

And it isn't like we're getting what we're paying for. The Dunwoody Daycare fuster cluck is not a singularity. We have an outstanding double homicide that has seen no progress, a force noted for making a beeline to the scene of a bank robbery rather than establishing a perimeter, neglecting to check out 911 calls and letting suspects escape because "going around back" just sounds too "Mayberry". And there's the affection for toys for the boys, noted by colleagues who've reported the chief getting all starry eyed over the latest gizmos at conventions. Do we REALLY need an ATV?

What we really need is a council that is more than a bunch of pollyanish besmitten police aficionados that rubberstamp whatever comes out of the department. We need hard questions and solid answers. Assuming community safety is a top priority are speed patrols on I-285 REALLY the best use of our resources? Is it cost effective to used certified LEOs as glorified mall cops or would our tax dollars be better spent hiring a security firm? What other jobs can be de-skilled to control costs? Should all the special interest groups (run, bike, walk, pick fruit) hire their own escorts and traffic cops? Would it not be very cost effective to transparently publish key data (date/time location of citations, speed sign data) and get more eyes, public eyes, on these data? You know, "data driven" and all that. Do we have to unquestioningly accept anything the department says because "they're the professionals"? Isn't that exactly what has brought government schools to the sorry state they are in?

But this is politics and this simply is not going to happen. It is much more likely that we'll see council members doing PR ride-a-longs followed by public sing-a-longs. And we will see the police force grow. And Grow. And GROW.

Perhaps we're left with the obvious alternative: contacting those in charge of forming Brookhaven and offer them a slightly used police chief with startup experience and a track record of growing a force. Quickly.

Oink Oink

Pork: Always Good

The only remaining agribusiness in Dunwoody seems to be harvesting pork.

This has recently surfaced in the Parkway kerfuffle, but it is interesting to note that few voices are raised in opposition to the pork stampede driving this project to completion but rather to the specifics of the project and the million or so bucks it will cost local taxpayers. And it really has gone without saying, in any meaningful forum, that many of these taxpayers are businesses, some of which rely on this little stretch of paved paradise.

However, there has been some indigestion over the general issue of pork--controlling grants that fund bloated excess in what local governments do and how much they [over] pay for having it done. In response, supporters of the gluttonous appetite for this intrusion and bloat offer the tried and true "if we don't do it some one else will." This speaks to the belief of a zero sum game as this is commonly followed by "and they'll get ahead of us." OK. So what? The argument isn't quite as childish as "nanny, nanny boo, boo" but it is pretty darn close.

One valid observation has been made. This version of the pork industry is a structural implementation of the tragedy of the commons. But it has all the moral appeal of starving people only to watch them fight over crumbs. For your own entertainment. Let's just call it a government operated "Survivor" reality show. And local governments, of which Dunwoody aspires to be the best, are fighting to "get on the show" and it is every bit as embarrassing as you might imagine.

A few, a very few, outliers seem to be thinking outside the box that is our city limits, suggesting that at some point people of principle and character must take a stand on a larger stage, even if there is great risk. Normally such talk is allowed in Dunwoody only on the Fourth of July and only in reference to long dead forefathers who risked property and life so we could rape and pillage the future they fought for. After all that is what they fought for. Right?

The fact is there has always been a tension between principled ethics and practical ethics (yes, some consider this an oxymoron). The grade school example is "you see a dollar on the ground--should you take it?" While there are bodies of law built around what folks do, what they are allowed to do, and what they should do in cases  like this, the question remains: should you take something you know does not belong to you?

Of course the situation in Dunwoody is completely different because we have a man in a trench coat flashing us really cheap Rolex watches and if we don't take these off his hands someone else will. We may not need another watch or care what time it is and we don't really care where he got them. In fact, it's better we don't know.

HOST Windfall

The City of Dunwoody just got an early birthday present: a HOST windfall slightly in excess of the cost of the Village Parkway re-do.

So, will the taxpayers get a rebate or reduction in property taxes? Not on you life! You see, it was the City, not the Citizens, who got the windfall and this Smart City is going on a spending spree.

Budget Vacancy

What does it REALLY mean to "budget for vacant positions"?

Did you ever wonder why there always seems to be a surplus of "vacant positions" in any government, particularly government school, budget? Did you notice that when UGA announced it would "reduce its budget" by cutting 130 positions that most of these were "vacant positions"?

If so, did you wonder just how this saves any money, since they couldn't be cutting paychecks to a non-existent employee?

Well the answer is that these "vacant positions" constitute a slush fund. That money is allocated and that money is spent. All under the radar. All according to Doyle.

Don't you wish your budget worked like that?

Fussbudget

One of our DeKalb County School Board members seems unusually obsessed with the System's inability to budget for utilities. This issue is being surfaced over and over to the point one must wonder.

Is this a politically correct way of suggesting incompetence, or even stupidity on the part of budget authors? After all, most folks pay their own utilities and have a pretty good handle on what it will cost month-to-month and year-over-year, so why can't they? They keep telling us how smart they are.

Perhaps it is worse than that. You see there is household budgeting and then there is government budgeting. Here's the difference. In both cases one could grossly under budget for a "must have" like power and in both cases those bills are going to get paid. In the household this may mean pain, definitely in discretionary spending and may incur cutbacks in other areas as well. In the government case, it's just an "oops" whitewashed with some lame excuse about cold weather (or hot, whichever sounds good), but no real impact to any other payouts. Like to friends and family.

In the DeKalb School system there has been a constant pattern of under-budgeting these relatively fixed, must-pay line items which is in fact a shift of budgetary funding from needs to wants. Those numbers over those years do not lie. The only real questions are around intent and whether this is systemic and if so is it limited to DeKalb. If this is a standard "educrat" budget gimmick then DeKalb must surely be the poster child for this repulsive practice.

Unfortunately, this is all conjecture because plain talk appears in short supply. Or is it possible that at least one board member doesn't want to call a spade a bloody shovel for fear that would be misinterpreted as "micromanaging"?

Cheryl's Calendar

School has only recently started so you probably still remember all the "Give the Children Supplies" campaigns. With all the ads and the feel-good spots about teachers who spend their own cash on crayons you would think the DeKalb School System is a third world country run by arrogant despots.

Maybe it is.

Or maybe one thing fell off the "necessary supplies" list: a desk calendar for Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson. Her official mouthpiece is quoted in the AJC as saying "she realized `at the last minute' that the month is almost over" and “she wanted to comply with the board’s request” to resolve some pay issues by the end of September. That is her excuse for a last minute addition to the Board's agenda, and she seems to believe it is credible.

Well roll up the pants--it's too late to save the shoes.

Hell, if we can afford to buy her a "spokesman" maybe we should pony up for that calendar. Alternatively we might get a really good admin assistant and a chief of staff to complement the mouthpiece and then we would not need a Superintendent. We do have options, right?

But let's just go with the calendar so long as we make sure it comes with a new desk. At a new job at another school district. And she can take her mouthpiece with her.

Silly Buss

Dunwoody Government 101

1. Overview and Objectives
   The student will explore the motivations behind operating a City including gaining access to other people's money, the fungibility of ethics, manipulating contracts for power and profit, creating a para-military force, and getting all up in other people's business. This session will lay the foundation for deeper exploration of the intricacies of city politics, politicians and bureaucrats.
2. Finance
   We'll explain the difference between taxes and mandated fees and explore successful methods used to convince citizens they are much different than they really are. How we soak businesses for every possible penny. Learn about grant applications and how to sell anything as a good thing if "free money" is involved. Find out how a loan is not really a loan if you say it isn't. 
3. Operations
   Learn how ancillary organizations (e.g., Convention and Visitor's Bureau) are used to funnel money to Friends and Family. Gain insight into using "Penny Shy" contracts to grow and centralize your power while avoiding approval and oversight. See how branding can help you make new friends and write new contracts. Advanced topics include "consummating deals before the public knows about it", "the power gained by public involvement in real estate". 
4. Zoning, Codes and Enforcement
   We'll explain why codes applied to citizens vary in rigor relative to those applied to politicians. Learn how enforce-on-complaint empowers bureaucrats to do what they want, when they want. Real world examples include using the "boil a frog" method to slowly but continually re-write ordinances eliminating individual and property rights and how avoiding writing ethics procedures keeps politicians in office. 
5. Police
   Covering the basics we'll look at how a force is established and operated without a training academy. Next we look at growth opportunities on both sides of the ledger but with emphasis on revenue generation. Students will study the importance of expensive toys and junkets, and how these are justified. Recent events will be analyzed to demonstrate how significant failings are spun as justification for more money. We finish with a hands-on exercise to create "The Most Bodacious Uniform" to be the highlight of a mini-parade in the department ATV. 
6. Public-Private Partnerships
   Explore the subtle differences between PPP and cronyism as well as how this is portrayed in a favorable light. Gain the skills required to be an insider and eligible for PPP participation. Learn how a bureaucrat leverages PPP engagements for personal gain. Hands-on exercises to ensure students understand you don't inhale when smoking a big fat cigar and tips on finding the best single-malt scotch. Additional fees will apply.
7. Citizen Involvement
   Using citizen involvement to co-opt and silence critics. Understand how to restrict citizen involvement to PR activities and learn how to prevent erosion of contracting opportunities for Friends and Family. Critical coverage on the topic of limiting Citizen Involvement to reports and advisement without any real authority.
8. Becoming a Politician
   Explore the malleability of truth and the avoidance of consequences. Dispel the myths surrounding "transparency" and "accountability". Understanding that "service" is what all prostitutes provide. Unravel the paradox of "one hand washing the other" all the while "the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing". Special topics include "Adhering to the Letter While Skirting the Intent" as it applies to laws and ethics requirements and "How to Always Be Right, Especially When You're Wrong".

See you there!

DCSS: BOE Intellectual Deficit

DCSS had been grappling with a looming budget deficit which was expected to be handled by operating cost reductions due to retirements and layoffs. This balancing act was predicated on the estimate that "X" number of employees would abandon their paychecks. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, significantly less than "X" found freedom from their daily grind.

For argument's sake, let say the actual number was "one half X". That means from a budget point of view, an approved budget, there would be a surplus of "one half X" employees. In the real world this is viewed as a very real opportunity. The first "one half X" chose, on their own, to leave. The system had no say and no influence on whether those leaving were "desired departures" or eligible for a retention program. They just left. Here's the opportunity: the other "one half X" can be selected for surplussing based on their contribution, based on their merits, based on their value. Outside the cloistered environment of government this is known as "cleaning out the deadwood".

Yet this opportunity was soundly rejected by the Board. Why? The Board was already aligned with the political and operational consequences of a system with "X" fewer employees and had approved a budget based on that level of staffing. They cannot now rise up in opposition. Or can they?

It isn't clear who the Board is pandering to, but even teacher organizations have rightly come out in favor of the cuts based on the logic that now is better than later as it allows surplussed employees time to find another job. Furthermore it is clear to even the teachers that the current level of staffing is unsustainable. Clearly the Board is not pandering to common sense and logic, so the only alternative is they pander to exactly the opposite: outspoken parents.

Perhaps the Board should remember they have fiduciary responsibilities to DeKalb taxpayers and not just a few whiny parents whose child "really enjoyed the field trip to Fernbank". Or perhaps we just need a new Board.

Grant Grubbing

Grants are available for nearly any activity a government and even some business might consider. Unfortunately there are even more available for things governments might not otherwise consider. Recent examples include the Dunwoody Parkway project, the Civil Rights facility downtown, the Streetcar Project, and our police junket to Israel.

What these have in common is that without the opportunity to pick other people's pockets, these projects could not be justified on their own merits. Clearly we are not operating in an environment where needs are identified and justified and then, and only then, do we discuss funding--either in house, grants or a combination.

That's where Grant Grubbing comes in. It is no more than cart before horse--find a grant, then create the list of "needs". No other justification than "other people's money" needed. Doesn't even have to cover the full cost. Over time, and a very short period of time it is, we simply redefine our "needs" as "anything we can get someone else to pay for in whole or in part".

Problem is, this takes no account of negative consequences.

Perhaps we do need anti-terrorist training for our police. We are confronted every day with terrorism and we're not talking speeding commuters. That Israeli Immersion program dramatically improved our ability to root out the terrorists setting up the shoe bomb factory in the back of DSW and it was just what Dunwoody needed. It was certainly worth removing an officer from normal duties. Wasn't it?

Fact is, grant grubbing is a slippery slope and we have at least one foot on it. The other foot is firmly planted on top--of a banana peel. And when we slide down we have left Integrity Station and are barreling down the rail on the Train to Lovejoy. With a one way ticket.

Student Athlete

Remember those? You may have to fire up the Way Back machine but it is worth it. Once you get your bearings you'll realize that one key difference between Student Athletes and today's Jocks is that the Student Athlete had to compete, successfully, in the classroom in order to play on the field.

Now how can that be any fun? Well, it isn't so we got rid of them.

First by using selective grade inflation to ensure that every boy good at juggling three balls was "qualified" to play. Perhaps this was the beginning of ends justified means that has brought rampant cheating to a school in your neighborhood. Maybe not. Maybe they'd have become cheaters without Friday night lights. Then there was the irony of hold-backs--kids that needed an extra year, not for academics as they are all Four-OH students, but an extra year to beef-up that lineman, sharpen that line backer or catch the growth spurt for the star forward. Then the under-the-table transfers. This was all a slippery slope greased with the sweat of jocks chasing championships.

Given today's sad state of public school academic achievement and unbalanced budgets that give voodoo economics a run for the money it is time to revitalize the concept of Student Athlete, but on a grand scale.

This incarnation must be much more than the individual "A fer Play" of the past. It must apply system wide and sustainable, objectively measured academic success is a prerequisite to begin and maintain any non-curricular program. Including athletics.

How will this work?

First, shut down all extra-curricular programs throughout the district. Sell off the equipment and other assets, using the money to support core education.

Next is the hard part: educate our children and prove it. But in this case "prove it" doesn't mean an endless stream of platitudes, it means:

• 95% minimum graduation rate for each of the trailing three years using the national graduation accounting methodology
• 70% minimum participation on the SAT with 95% of participating students scoring over 500 on the each of the Mathematics and Critical reading sections
• All other students must take Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery and 80% of those students must score 10% above the highest minimum score required by any branch of Service.

Until these conditions are met, no extracurriculars throughout the entire school system. If in any one year these fail to be met, all existing extracurriculars are shut down until the district re-qualifies by meeting these requirements. 

No IFs. No ANDs. No BUTs. Not at "your" school. Not at any other school just because it "passed" in a failed district.

The financial benefits are immediate and enduring with the reduction in personnel costs and re-purposing of expensive facilities and equipment. It is also produces demand for extracurricular activities delivered by churches, social centers, clubs and private enterprise, a model that works well today with art, music, competitive swimming and tennis, and league softball. We may find that as our schools focus on education, the other activities will have been taken care of.

DCSS: Not in Crisis

Yet.

Though Greek bankers could learn some innovative shell game strategies from DCSS, our school system has not yet reached a Grecian Crisis Point. They still have too much wiggle room. Witness the recent decision to retain janitors with gold plated benefits rather than put daily cleanup in the hands of commercial competitive bidders. Normal people would have found this and closing the Fernbank operation simple, no-brain decisions, but normal folks have a brain and cannot truly relate to the decision makers running DCSS, who are unencumbered by logic, reasoning or in many cases, principles. As vessels of intellect and integrity these people are leaky buckets at best and on an average day, perhaps a colander is more likely to hold water than they are to make an informed, logical decision.

It is clear that we must drive the system into crisis in order to harden the resolve of the community to establish priorities and demand these be upheld. To do this we must do what many consider unthinkable: raise taxes. To the maximum allowed by law.

Though it is counter-intuitive the only way to back the political panderers into a corner is to eliminate all potential for future revenue expansion. They must be allowed to piss away every penny (including the ill-advised eSPLOST) we can send them, every dollar from every bond they can possibly issue, and every fee they can pile on.

We must gorge them on cashflow until they drive the system to bankruptcy. Only then can we clear the delusional fog that hobbles parents' thinking. Only then will the lies masked by the bumper sticker mentality of "it's about educating our children" be exposed. Only after the current system is burned to the ground can we wipe off the ashes of this failed experiment and rebuild.