Addional Revenue Will Do Nothing for Suburban Schools

Recently, the financial consultants contracted by RUSD found a way, through some rather controversial accounting changes, to levy additional taxes. In today’s Journal Times, there is a story where this “revenue enhancement” may be used to fund the district’s Lighted Schoolhouse program.

The Lighted Schoolhouse program currently serves 685 students at schools in the city limits; the additional revenue may be used to expand the program to yet another school within the city limits. I am not questioning the need for the Lighted Schoolhouse program, an after school program which has grown from a “free daycare” program to a program that actually aligns itself with the curriculum taught and reinforces the concepts taught during the regular classroom day.

What I am questioning is that this additional revenue is going to fund a program that currently only serves .03% of the student population. Let’s try to look at this another way, if additional revenue was going to be used to serve the gifted student population OR to fund programs only served by the suburban schools, don’t you think that there would be a public outcry?

As with the Paullin Group plan, the needs of the suburban areas and families with gifted children have been ignored. Clearly, the only thing that the residents of Mt. Pleasant and Caledonia are good for is their money. The suburban residents are being underserved by RUSD; perhaps it is time to break away from the district. It is apparent that RUSD has too many diverse needs, and not enough resources to go around.