Wasting School Money?

I have a question and it goes like this:  We get $400,000 extra per year of Forest money--money that not every county gets--bonus money.  

The state pays to educate our students with annual funding based on the per pupil cost of that education.  That money is intended to pay operating costs such as personnel,  transportation, and maintenance. 

That amount of money is based on the number of students we have to educate.  All counties are supposed to get an amount necessary to educate each child in school.  

For several years, the Pocahontas County has been getting a special payment because of its sparse population density.  The county gets a guaranteed amount of money for 1400 students.  We get this despite the fact that the actual number of students is considerably less than 1400.  (perhaps 1170)

This, then, is in excess of the amount of money it actually takes an average school to educate its children.  55 districts across the state have to provide an education based on X amount of money.  There are a few exceptions such as Pocahontas which gets an excess amount from the Legislature.

We pay board members $160 per meeting--the maximum allowed by law.  The board has had nine meetings in a row.  

The board has just hired a contract lawyer to do the job of the prosecuting attorney who is the statutory attorney for the board.  The elected prosecutor cannot charge for his services.  Yet, the board hires another lawyer and gives him $36,000 per year to represent them.

By their own admission the schools are falling apart.  This has been based on "lack of funding."  But that can't be true!  There is no "lack of funding."  There may be a "lack of budgeting,"  but if that were true, it is a "lack" not because of $$$$ but merely of a matter of priority. 

There's an old saying:  You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.  Your board of education is knee deep in $$$$, they just don't know how to spend the $$$$ they have on the right things. (like maintenance)

Apparently,  our system doesn't value our buildings enough to put the necessary $$$$ into them to keep them up.  So if we don't take care of what we already have, can will w be do the same thing to the new buildings and let them fall down!  Even a car has to have an oil change once in a while.  

There's a statement I like:  You can't run a Cadillac  on a Model T budget!  But the difference is that Pocahontas has had a Cadillac budget for years but was too stingy to put its money into maintenance.

Just because we don't have an excess levy doesn't mean that we are bad people.  It means merely that we don't have the extra $$$$ to afford some things--like extra taxes.

The Legislature and the Federal government both recognize that Pocahontas County has expenses that deserve extra compensation and they provide it abundantly.   The matter then is not more $$$$ but a better use of the dollars we have.

Questions:  What are we doing with the money that we have in hand?  

How would we make it if we lost the Forest money and/or the bonus state money? 

We need to start living within our means!!!