Yes, the man is coming around.
No one will be happy with what happens next:
- Teachers will be paid less.
- SSD employees will be laid off.
- Taxes will increase.
- Children will lose the benefit of a neighborhood school.
- Some programs will be eliminated.
Basically, less will be delivered and it will cost more.
Who is to blame? That's surprisingly easy to answer: Registered voters in Scranton.
It was a majority of the 30% or so of registered Scranton voters who routinely voted for grotesquely incompetent candidates for the SSD board. How "grotesquely" you may ask? Well, ponder the fact that, over the past few years, two former SSD board presidents didn't even graduate from high school, That's how grotesque. The SSD board operated like a sailor on leave in Bangkok for decades, and now no one is "clapping".
Scranton taxpayers got the successive SSD boards that they wanted.
This is also a board that twice...not just once, but twice...voted for a no-bid busing contract that just happens to be with a significant campaign contributor and influential local businessman. For the record, I don't blame the businessman; if anything, he's guilty of out-smarting a bunch of amateur politicians (again noting that two recent SSD board presidents didn't even graduate from high school, so how difficult could that have been?).
District teachers don't escape blame here either. The Scranton Federation of Teachers (SFT) routinely endorsed many of these grotesquely incompetent board members, time and time again. Why? Well, like the busing contractor, I suspect that they knew who they could out-smart. They were successful, but like the kid that eats too much candy, the inevitable rotten teeth now must be pulled. Look for the SFT to complain loudly about the actions that "the man" will recommend, while conveniently forgetting their active role in SSD mismanagement. Their excuse/refrain will be that it was the "administration" that is to blame here, and they are right...but again forgetting that they helped elect many of the "administration".
Detecting a pattern here yet?
My heart genuinely goes out to those teachers, maintenance workers and others who will lose their jobs. I've lost a job through no fault of my own, so I know the difficult road they will travel. Many of these people just want to work hard and earn a decent living. But like the bystanders in a drive-by shooting (decades in the making), they had little choice in the matter.
I'd like to tell you that this will all work out in the end and that there will be momentary pain followed by a better tomorrow, but that's a lie. There will be years of pain ahead. Scranton voters will learn the hard way that you reap what you sow by either voting for the incompetent or not voting at all.
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