A few things to keep an eye on...

As we move through the rest of the budget (the last hearing is next Tuesday; should that all be approved, the City Council will vote on the entire budget on June 10), there's a few things that we should keep an eye on:

1. That $250,000. It looks as though the votes are there to put it into education, but it isn't in the education budget yet. As it's been sent to finance committee, it will probably come up at some point next week, 'though that could be during the City Council meeting (they can adjourn to finance) or during the hearing, I suppose. The conversation around this could well be telling.
2. Where that money goes. The lack of clarity in explaining the arrangement of class sizes, for example, was a bit much. We all know things change, averages are averages, and so forth. A number is helpful. How far will this get us? On the road to where? (in Who-cester's humble opinion, this would involve having Brian Allen handle more questions)
3. Rhetoric that's only rhetoric. As nice as it is to hear someone finally admit that this isn't enough for the Worcester Public Schools, unless they go on to say, "So we need to give them more funds!" (perhaps even make the radical connection with the tax levy), it doesn't get us any further. Beware of letting the rhetoric sweep the connection with reality away.
   
4. Where any future money goes. There was an exchange between Councilor Rushton and Deputy Superintendent Mills that really seemed to be taking us down the primrose path in terms of where any extra money that turns up goes. Programs with UMass and WPI are all well and good, but let's focus, shall we? We have crumbling buildings. We have traveling nurses at the elementary level. We have no full-time librarians in elementary schools. We are putting our middle school librarians on half time. We are years behind in buying books. Let's get the basics underway before we get fancy.