The Sky is Falling - Just Ask the Mayor

Oh the sky is falling. The famous words from Chicken Little were repeated by the mayor of New Albany this week. Only he substituted "budget" for "sky." The mayor has already predicted laying off six city police officers and closing a firehouse. The projected cut is about $500,000 so naturally he looks to the public safety sector for cuts first. Seems like I wrote about his loose cannon checkbook recently. Here's the deal - get used to the budget being a half million lighter. Get used tightening the belts in the bustling city of ole New Albany. Do not cut safety and blame it on reduced revenue. Do not call for a hike in income taxes. New Albany voters are already paying a stupid tax for putting you back in office. Look at it this way mayor, in eight years you can probably run for your third term.

BREAKING NEWS

This just in to the front desk : Tonight's meeting of the East Main Indoor Gardening Club has been postponed indefinitely. No reason was given other than to say it is not weather related. Stay tuned for more details.

Senator Sipes and the Shell Game

It seems that state Senator Connie Sipes of the 46th district would like enact a law that would change the way graduation rates are calculated. I do not know the exact equation, but I bet the outcome is more federal money. Now we all know that the more money a school receives is directly proportional to the IQ of the students - right? I would like to take the focus off of what we must do to get more money and back onto teaching kids to be leaders and problem solvers. Elementary school kids waste a month each year studying for and taking the ISTEP exams (two months in the 08-09 year). Passing this exam is the most important thing to the teacher's union. Second most important is making sure teachers never have to be tested themselves. I'm not against testing our kids. I am against teaching our kids to memorize and learn testing formats for the sake of passing a test instead of teaching them common sense and problem solving skills. What good is a graduation without the simple skills that are needed to navigate through life? 12% of Hoosiers have not completed high school. Senator Sipes would like to lower it instantly. The brain drain, however, will remain high.