The Tennessee ConserVOLiance

A battle is brewing in Murfreesboro.  The battle will pit the School Board against Taxpayers.  At issue is the idea of fundraisers at county schools and school field trips.

It all started back in the fall at the Central Middle School annual fundraiser, Tiger Prowl.  The fundraiser asks students to bring in $25.  In exchange, the students are then allowed to spend the school day playing on inflatables and other games set up outside the school.  Those students who do not bring in their $25 are required to stay in the building and study.

As a result, one parent complained to the school board that his child didn’t have the money, but that it was unfair that they should be forced to stay indoors, looking out the window at other students playing.  His child is on the Federal Free Lunch program, and the parent insisted that those on that program should have fees waived.  As he contacted the state legislature, he learned that it was a state law that children on free or reduced lunch must have fees for trips and activities that occur during the school day.  The legislature sends funds to schools each year to cover these costs.

As a result of this action, field trips and other activities system wide had to be canceled, as many schools have over 50% of their children on free or reduced lunches.  Parents whose children are not on this program are now in an uproar over the cancellation of these trips.  The comments being leveled against parents whose children are on the program have gotten ugly.  From claiming that they are trying to ride the backs of others to accusing them of being on the program fraudulently, the words are not kind.

Today, the School Board will meet to let parents know that they are planning to follow the state law.  They will listen to parents complain about their children not getting to take trips now.  Most likely, they will talk about having to raise taxes to make up the lost money from not getting to hold these fundraisers, which also include telling children to go out and sell everything from Christmas wrapping paper to oil changes.

The larger issue being missed here is that our county is wasting and mishandling money, tax money.  Over the past year, the amount of controversy this administration has been involved with has been embarrassing.   From the brother of the director of schools getting three months of paid leave from his $60,000 teaching job for drug rehab, to the board deciding to spend several million dollars on football stadium additions while schools remain overcrowded and schools are clamoring for funds, the mismanagement of taxpayer dollars is unbelievable.  Now, with the revelation that the state sends millions of dollars each year to cover these fee waivers, more questions of impropriety exist.

Rutherford County is becoming a display for what is wrong with public education.  Our public schools are spending more per student than most private schools, yet the children are learning less and less, unless you count learning how to go door to door selling overpriced junk no one wants to buy.  This, on the heels of reports that more and more students are unable to maintain grades that allow them to keep their lottery scholarships.  It is becoming time to take back our schools and demand better accountability from them.  Our tax dollars are being wasted, yet they feel no responsibility to the taxpayers for those wasted dollars.

Posted by JayPeriod of jayperiod.blogtownhall.