RPS proposes closing Armstrong to cut operational costs

What time is this meeting?

Increased funding for the city’s schools will leave no safe space for its most important demographic: its taxpayers.
Emotional rhetoric is being directed at Richmond residents as people lobby for increased funding for city schools, including a recent push from the city’s school superintendent, a man whose salary at $225,000.00 a year is the highest salary ever paid for a Richmond superintendent.

Meanwhile
America’s national debt is at an all time high with a 2012 cost per person of $48,700.00 (Politifact Virginia, 2012).
Both the national and per-person debt are now higher and trackable ‘real time’ by way of the debt clock at http://www.usdebtclock.org/
Richmond recently announced a $9,000,000 shortfall because of funds given to the city’s schools last year. Now the superintendent is requesting an additional $18,000,000.00 that the city doesn’t have – any current local media source
63% of Americans don’t have enough savings to cover a $500.00 emergency bill – Forbes, January 2016
Homeownership nationwide has fallen to a twenty-year low – Wall Street Journal, January 2015
During 2015, foreclosures in Richmond spiked 51% from 2014 figures – Richmond Times Dispatch, January 2016
Since 2013 there has been a record number of U.S. citizens ‘not in labor force’ – U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Statistics, March 2016
Tens of millions of seniors will see no annual cost-of-living increase in their social security checks in 2016 for only the third time in 40 years (all of these times during the current administration) Washington Post, October 2015
Only part-way through the tax season, H&R Block reported that uninsured filers are paying more than twice as much as they did last year in penalties – Washington Times, March 2016

Services in the city have been in decline for years (not just snow removal and leaf collection, which are on Dr. Bedden’s list of things he implies we can do without in Richmond) including that of first responders, a shortage of cops and firefighters that puts all of us at risk.
And the list goes on….
Recent talk even includes a specious challenge to city taxpayers: decide which is more important – services or children.
I grew up in Ricmond and was educated in its public schools and I’ve watched Richmond’s resurgence over the past few years…a resurgence that’s occurred primarily because of taxpayers and often in spite of the city’s machinations.
But now some members of council may be poised to not only kill the geese that lay the golden eggs but all the geese – by adding to the financial burden already carried by Richmond’s residents and businesses while chanting that the city schools need more money because ‘our children are our future’ and ‘our children are our most precious resource.’
Such claims about students and children are emotional and subjective, certainly not based on verifiable facts or evidence; and certainly not worth putting another group of citizens at risk.
How can our city’s leaders increase the tax burden on us, the taxpayers?

Taxpayers are the foundation on which both Richmond and America rests. Taxpayers are our future and our most precious resource.

@9 As a taxpayer, I would like to see well funded schools, so I don’t feel like I have to take my tax dollars to the county when I have kids in order to shield them from falling ceiling tiles.

Richmond School System’s is already well funded – Virginia Department of Education figures for FY 2009 show the three highest cost School Divisions in the state: Virginia Beach with a 2014 population of 437,994 at $767,587,617; Chesapeake with a 2013 population of 230,571 at $431,661,635; and Richmond at $295,067,248. Of these three school divisions (and topping all of Virginia school divisions) Richmond’s cost per pupil expenditure is $13,601. Again, the figures from the Virginia DOE site are from the 2008 annual report. I wasn’t able to locate more current figures.

Figures in #13 from “Final Table 15, School Divisions” (not Richmond county on the Northern Neck) Virginia Department of Education annual report FY 2009: http://www.doe.virginia.gov/statistics_reports/supts_annual_report/2008_09/table15.pdf

I have brought my children up in the RPS system, and I can tell you there is a funding problem. These schools have no money and the teachers are poorly compensated. You can tell me it well-funded and try to blind me with figures, but I can plainly see the schools are lacking the funds for basic repairs and to hire decent staff.

BTW, your link is from 2008 – it is 2016.

I do not see how the city can pay for a multi-million dollar project on Main street before it funds the schools. I believe the “facts” about the school costs should be seen in context with other items the city is spending money on. I bet the schools are on the bottom the list.

# 17
I myself was brought up in the RPS system, enduring twelve years that began in Ginter Park and ended at John Marshall.

I’m certainly not trying to blind anyone with figures, but perhaps Virginia’s Department of Education is.

The link I included was sort of for 2008 but also sort of for 2009: the link was for the fiscal year. And this is indeed 2016 as you point out but for some reason the DOE doesn’t post that particular table, Table 15, until about tax time each April so anything more recent than 2014 won’t be available until next week sometime.

And here’s a link to FY 2014 which shows that although RPS is now fallen to second place in the state among school division spending per pupil, the RPS budget has increased from FY 2009 by about $5million dollars: http://www.doe.virginia.gov/administrators/superintendents_memos/2015/097-15a.pdf