Wednesday, 11 February 2004 - 11:22 AM EST

Yesterday's zen post was almost called "Won't someone please think of the children!" I think it's funny how people clamor for accountability in government, until the government wants to hold them accountable.

Wednesday, 11 February 2004 - 11:47 AM EST

Hey, I almost forgot: Bonnie Copeland (city schools CEO) will be on Steiner at noon. 88.5 FM for those in the greater Charm City area.

Wednesday, 11 February 2004 - 12:20 PM EST

In fairness, teachers don't TRUST the city to actually pay them back. And they're probably right. The money will likely just get "lost" by the administration again.

Wednesday, 11 February 2004 - 12:43 PM EST

That's a fair point. But if teachers don't trust the city with education money, how can voters?

Wednesday, 11 February 2004 - 1:54 PM EST

Well, I'm retarded. Steiner is on 88.1 WYPR. 88.5 is the DC NPR station.

Anyway, the show was an exercise in SGAism, especially by the school board chair, Patricia Welch. At last night's school board meeting, one of the board members proposed a criminal investigation into the disappearance of $65 million - his measure was, of course, voted down. Welch defended the school board's rejection of an independent investigation saying it would only be an "expression of anger". She did however, say that the board is "accepting responsibility".

Interestingly, the guy who called for a criminal investigation, Brian Morris, is a successful businessman. Patricia Welch is Dean of the School of Education and Urban Studies at Morgan State.

CEO Bonnie Copeland defended the many layers of city school bureaucracy, saying they improved quality of instruction. She also explained the need for an "executive security officer" who makes over $100,000 to drive Copeland around.

Meanwhile, the usual suspects made the usual calls for pouring more money into a broken system. City Councilman Ken Harris called for a tax on lottery tickets (!) to generate more funding for city schools, and some nut from ACORN said the city schools need "much more than Thornton" levels of funding, and proposed commuter taxes and increased hotel taxes.

Wednesday, 11 February 2004 - 2:48 PM EST

Good work. I was going to listen to the broadcast but then I realized that there's no radio in the library. Anyway, thanks for listening and reporting. There are fixins a doing in this city school system, believe you me. The disappearance of $65 million is not to be taken lightly, although most media accounts don't mention it or at the very least deemphasize it. An investigation is both warranted and neccessary. You know, it's one thing to ask people to pay higher taxes for education funding. In fact, when you put it that way most people would. But a broken system is a broken system and it really goes to show how far out of touch these types are that they would demand tax payers fork over money that yields lower and lower returns. (I mean, Social Security is one thing, but...)

I see that the same people who grumble at the notion of financing education through slot machine revenue don't have a problem with taxing lottery tickets. This whole thing stinks from top to bottom.

P.S. I love the idea of commuter and hotel taxes -- punish all those people knocking down the door to come and visit Baltimore. Brilliant!

Wednesday, 11 February 2004 - 2:58 PM EST

The following is a list of tax proposals that I have sponsored in order to deal with the current education funding crisis:

a one dollar tax on every pet (two dollars on exotic pets)
a $1.50 tax on every pizza delivered by a major pizza delivery chain.
a 1% tax on all books bought in the city
a $2.50 surcharge for reading books on public buses
lastly, a 3% tax on all pretzeled bread.

I hope my fellow councilpeople will support these measures in order to give our schoolchildren the quality education they deserve. Further, I remind the council to approve my measure creating an Education Funding Enhancement Task Force, to be headed by my lazy brother-in-law.

Wednesday, 11 February 2004 - 4:33 PM EST

Now that's comedy.

Thursday, 12 February 2004 - 2:12 PM EST

I think Councilman Les Wynan ought to do more thinkin' and less whinin'.