Just a reminder the civic council is made up of mostly rich white men, some of whom don't even live in Jacksonville and who prefer charter schools to public schools. Also they don't really weigh in about other issues. Also the only reason they are fighting the referendum is to increase the slice of the pie that charter schools, many of which are for profit, get. This is all about money and they want more of it.
In today's Times Union, they doubled down on their attacks,
In today's Times Union, they doubled down on their attacks,
The Jacksonville Civic Council’s letter says it “strongly supports putting in place appropriate funding mechanisms for Duval County’s education infrastructure” and that should be done to “the highest standards of financial stewardship.”
The school district should examine how it can construct schools based on less costly state building code requirements and then adjust the overall price tag accordingly for the master plan, says the letter signed by Civic Council member Gary Chartrand, who is chairman of its education task force, and Civic Council President and CEO Jeanne Miller.
The letter says the school district should reexamine its projections for enrollment trends, which the Civic Council says would show the district will not need as many buildings as it put in the master plan.
The Civic Council wants the creation of a citizen advisory group that would include representatives from charter schools and the business community. The Civic Council says the master plan should establish a method for putting a share of sales tax proceeds into charter schools.
So the CC want the district to use below code standards, have them in charge of what happens with the money and they think they know better than the district. Filled with recklessness, greed and hubris, should be the civic council's motto
The news wasn't all bad as the Northeast Florida Association of realtors came out in favor of the referendum, also from the Times Union,
The Northeast Florida Association of Realtors says its members are on the front-lines of home-buyers searching for where they will live, and schools are a big part of that choice.
Many families relocating to this area select neighboring counties “rather than send their kids to schools that are unsafe, outdated or in need of major repairs,” association President Jeanne Denton Scheck wrote to council members.
She said in addition to losing relocating families, Duval County also suffers a loss of community value because sub-par schools have the same impact that a neglected home can have in driving down the value of surrounding homes.
“With so many Duval County schools in need of repair and/or replacement, we are driving down the value of our neighborhoods and our community as a whole,” Scheck wrote. “Realtors don’t just sell houses; we sell communities. Just like the house in disrepair, we can’t sell a community with subpar schools. Our ‘house’ has been neglected for too long.”
She said the association agrees a half-cent sales tax is the best way to raise the money because “it’s shared by everyone, not just property owners.”
The bottom line is regular folks who would benefit from the referendum are for it, charter fans who would want to profit off of it are against it.
No comments:
Post a Comment