Holy Hell, is the city making ANY plans at all? Part 2: NO after school activity

[stephendare]

So what does anyone suppose is going to be the outcome of tens of thousands of hormonally pumped up 16-18 year old boys with nothing to do and no way to expend their energy and agression except hang out after school after a long hot july day?


http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2009-03-15/story/will_our_kids_pay_the_price

In Duval County, the possibility of coaches and after-school advisers losing stipends has made big news, but other positions that could go include art and music teachers, academic coaches, guidance counselors, assistant principals and speech and language specialists, said Terrie Brady, president of Duval Teachers United, the local union.

"Quality instruction in schools as we know it is going to change," Brady said.

Education leaders in the 16 states that are members of the Southern Regional Education Board, including Florida and Georgia, are working on various ways to deal with the economic challenges - but it's not easy.

"These are unprecedented times," said Gale Gaines, the board's vice president for state services. "I don't think anybody [in the current leadership] has had to deal with a situation this severe across the South and across the nation."

[stjr]

Gov's Crist and Bush along with co-conspirators Rubio and the legislature laid the groundwork for this fiscal fiasco by insisting on cutting property taxes to assuage the elderly beach-living retirees in South Florida.  These people don't care about education or the State going bankrupt to pay for their hurricane losses.  They can always move back to where they came from if things in Florida go to hell.  It's all about holding on to their savings to make sure they don't have to reduce their life styles while having enough dough to live to the end of their lives as they desire.  Meanwhile, us true Floridians are forced to swallow the bitter pills.

If Florida had, in lieu of cutting property taxes, maintained them and invested any excesses (a questionable premise in a state that ranks 50th in education funding already, not to mention all the social ills it carries) in a "savings account" for a rainy day, maybe we would be in far better shape presently.  There is a real lack of leadership by our politicians in grasping that an investment in our society is as rock solid, or more so, than investing in the stock market or real estate (this point should be easy to make now!).

The real insanity is that Crist remains in la-la land advocating for further tax cuts while promising the impossibility to fund the State's "first class" education system and all the other State's needs appropriately.  This is the same approach he used in giving State Farm the boot while insisting homeowners would always be able to buy quality and affordable insurance.  Even his former legislative co-conspirators think he may be going overboard and that takes a lot based on prior experience!  Where does Crist enter the real world?!

[kellypope]

Great time to live in these parts, eh?

[JeffreyS]

Gov Bush had made some educational improvements and had the schools had some money but Jeb invested it in the subprime market.

[Johnny]

So what does anyone suppose is going to be the outcome of tens of thousands of hormonally pumped up 16-18 year old boys with nothing to do and no way to expend their energy and agression except hang out after school after a long hot july day?

After school in July? How longs it been since you went to school Stephen?