Cutting Wasteful Spending
Our school system wastes millions of our taxpayer dollars on unnecessary and frivolous expenditures every year. At the same time, needed funding for necessary improvements to teacher/staff pay and facilities remain unfulfilled. This article will highlight some of the most egregious examples and outline what Mr. Perry will do it about it once he is elected to the New Hanover County Board of Education.
Here are some of the main topics I would like to cover:
The Myth of Free Money
The vast majority of the school district’s operating budget is derived from a combination of state and county funding. The state funding comes from state income and sales taxes, while the county funding comes from local property and sales taxes. In order to not upset “We the People” with higher taxes there is only a limited supply of these funds. Instead of doing the best we can with the funds we have been entrusted with, our school district supplements this funding with a wide array of federal and state grants that they secure. They try to sell the public on the myth that this is “free money.” that won’t increase their taxes whatsoever.
However, all these state and federal grant programs are funded by our taxes. The funds for these grants are still the property of “We the People.” They have just been cleverly lumped into separate budgetary buckets by our state and federal legislators, for the purpose of obscuring them from the scrutiny of the public. Money does not grow on trees!
Some will argue that our school district should nonetheless take advantage of all the state and federal grant programs it can. They would argue that the taxpayer dollars have already been allocated, and that if our school district doesn’t take advantage of these grants then others will. I recognize that our school district still has to operate within the skewed funding schemes of our state and federal governments. If there are state and federal grants that are truly going to make a positive impact on the education of our students, then we should take advantage of those grants. However, I believe we need to stray away from applying for grants for unnecessary initiatives, that often have a lot of strings attached to them, and will force our school district to wrongfully change school policy just to keep the grant money rolling in.
Finally, by rejecting frivolous grant programs, we can collectively send a message to our state and federal legislatures. Our rejection of these funds will send the clear message that these funds should be reallocated to truly needed programs, or perhaps just refunded to the taxpayers. Once I am elected to the New Hanover County Board of Education, I vow to set policy that gives the school board much more oversight and authority over the types of grant programs that our school district participates in.
Money to Burn
Due to a lack of transparency, it is hard as a current outsider to get a full picture on the amount of wasteful spending our school district participates in every year. However, I thought I would outline a few examples of known wasteful spending by our school district, in order to give you a glimpse of what is happening. It seems that new examples of our school district’s wasteful spending are revealed every month. As they become revealed, I will let you know about them. Please bookmark the Video Blog page on a regular basis for updates. You can also sign up for the Campaign Newsletter to receive campaign updates, that will include links to new posts about wasteful spending.
- $20,000 for a Light Show? – At the October 3, 2023 school board meeting it was revealed that Dr. Foust had spent $20,000 of our taxpayer dollars on a light show for a teacher appreciation event. Our teachers are the lifeblood of our education system and should be honored and appreciated. However, our teachers didn’t get into teaching for the money or the glitz. They primarily care about students, and this was $20,000 wasted that could have been better spent.
- $2 Million for AI Surveillance of our Students? – Back in the spring of 2023, it was revealed that the school district had spent over $200,000 for a pilot of Lightspeed AI. This system will vioate our students’ privacy rights by monitoring their onlines activities 24x7x365. At the October 3, 2023 school board meeting it was revealed by Dr. Foust that the school district had received a $2 million dollar state grant to make this unconstitutional surveillance program permanent.
- Who Knows how much for DEI Initiatives? – We already know that Dr. Foust spent over $30,000 for a DEI Scorecard compiled by Sophic Solutions. He is also paying Malcolm Johnson a six-figure salary to be Chief EDI Officer for the school district. Its impossible to know how many mliions are spent each year by our school district on a program that divides our students on the basis of the color of their skin.
- $31 Million for a Newcomers School? – It was recently revealed (December, 2023) that the school district has received a $31 million dollar grant to open a school to cater to the unique needs of the children of families who have recently immigrated to the United States (Legal, illegal, or both? Who knows?). Liberal school board member Stephanie Kraybill noted that this proposed school has “equity, doversity, and inclusion written all over it.” Poppycock! How does confining the cultural backgrounds of these new students to a separate school promote diversity? How does segregating these students from all our other students promote inclusion?
The Dangers of Corporate Special Interest Funding
For-profit businesses are in the business of making money. They don’t give away money unless they expect something in return for their investment. To think otherwise is foolish. That is not to say that individual business owners and leaders can’t be generous. They can. However, when they are truly being benevolent, they will give money out of their own personal accounts to the recipients of their genuine generosity.
Business donations to our schools is nothing new. When I was a kid, it would not be unusual for the local hardware or other type of store, to donate money towards a new athletic scoreboard. In return the school would allow the business to put up some free advertisement signs around the athletic venue. A local business might also sponsor a school drama or musical performance. In return the school would thank them by listing them in the event’s program as a “Gold Donor” or something to that effect.
However, this type of “old school” business funding is “small potatoes” compared to what is happening today. Large for-profit corporations are investing large amounts of money in school districts to further their own interests. For instance, SparkNC is a private non-profit organization that is funded by large tech companies like Cisco, Apple, and IBM, as well as by your state tax dollars. Their goal is not just to expose students to a possible career in Tech, but to replace the traditional teacher-led classroom with Artificial Intelligence and online computer learning. The corporations behind these private grants stand to make billions of dollars when our teachers are replaced with technology purchased from them with our tax dollars.
Finally, other corporations are trying to use our public schools as mechanisms for workforce development. Did you know that New Hanover County Schools now has a specialized academic track for stem cell research? Instead of receiving a well-rounded and traditional liberal arts education, students can now forgo most of that by enrolling in the Stem Cell Academy. This was all brought to you by a conglomerate of biotech companies who pooled their money together into a non-profit shell corporation that started handing out grants to school districts like ours.
Well, I’m sorry! Our school district, and the proper education of its students, are not for sale!! Once I am elected to the New Hanover County Board of Education, you can count on me to put strict limits on the amount and the scope of funds that we accept from private grants. There is a place in our school district for exposing our students to the various vocational career paths they may decide to eventually take. But this has gone WAY too far!
My Rationale
While I don’t completely believe in the libertarian maxim of “taxation is theft,” I do believe that our tax and educational funding schemes amount to “theft” in reality. Proper taxation can simply be seen as the proper renumeration for our shared responsibilities. And under our state Constitution, a publicly funded education is one of them.
Our elected school board and school administrators need to stop thinking that their budgets are their own. They are not free to waste our tax dollars on anything they please. Instead, they need to see themselves as faithful stewards of “We the People” and our money. I sincerely believe in this concept and will wear as an “attitude” once I am elected to the New Hanover County Board of Education.
Got Questions?
Perhaps you know of some other types of wasteful spending that our school district is engaged in. Or, maybe you just want to discuss the topics I did address in more detail. Either way, I would love to hear from you. Please Contact Us, and I will get back to you soon. I will always take time to listen to voters!
