As mentioned below, Jack Foley pointed out the significant cuts made in the schools over the past six years in answering the City Council's charges from Tuesday. Clive McFarlane lays out the numbers in print this morning. They aren't pretty.
Let's, PLEASE, get away from this insane, ridiculous attitude that somehow the "city" and the "schools" are separate entities. It's all the City of Worcester. The money is entirely allocated by the City Council; the specifics of the schools allocation happens to run through School Committee. To talk as if the schools are...well, Clive put it quite well:
Parents and teachers listening to Tuesday’s City Council meeting must have been stunned to hear some city councilors speak of the public schools with the covetousness and belligerence with which the leaders of a nation with a strong military and a sliding economy would probably speak of a neighboring country with a weak military and vast natural resources.
When was the last time the City Council had to ration its paper use? Meet in a room with a leaking roof? Depend on badly outdated materials for information? Use a bathroom without a working lock? Do you really want to have this conversation, Councilors?
It's entirely normal for Boards of Selectmen and City Councils to be at odds with School Committees. It's because School Committees have autonomy that town and city councils don't like. They want all town departments to fall nder their authority and they view them as threats to that authority. Oh the fun that brings.
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