According to the Wasington Post, the drop in ESOL students isn’t truly saving the schools the $6 million that Corey repeatedly suggests. If we remove the $2 million of additional state funding then the ‘savings’ start to look more like $4 million. At this point we start to reach numbers that according to Corey himself are insignificant in an $850+ million dollar budget. Of course, if the trend continues it could have an affect on school construction etc… This year’s double digit losses in real estate assessments combined with a staggering forecloser rate and an over abundance of homes on the market that now appear to be selling at dirt cheap prices leads me to believe next year’s assessments will again suffer debilitating losses. How does this translate into next year’s budget since schools are mainly funded through real estate assessment taxes, only time will tell.
State education aid is distributed to school systems according to poverty and enrollment data and provides nearly half of Prince William’s annual school funding. When students leave a school system, so does state funding. David S. Cline, director of financial services for Prince William schools, estimated that the reduction in state funding this school year because of the ESOL student exodus totaled $2 million. But the school system was unable to reduce spending accordingly because students left from many schools. Officials could not reduce teaching staff, for example, or send back textbooks.
People who serve as outside board of directors have nothing to do with the daily operations of a company. One of the other dudes was retired decorated military. Should we disparage the military?
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As I sit back and read, I see some of you black velvets really saying what is on your mind rather than spewing out mean spirited sound bites.
Correct me if I am wrong. I don’t think you really care about status or skin color. I think what you care about is trashy behavior and you feel helpless to control it.
If we were discussing anglos in the neighborhood we could all jump up and down and holler and yell about the poor white trash living next door. (been there, done that) Somehow it is more ok to holler and yell about your own race’s trashy habits than it is some race not your own. But, when the neighbors in question aren’t white, the complaining gets a bit dicier.
I see the problem as socio-economic. Usually neighborhoods group us. (the eco part forces the socio in most cases) However, when a huge bunch of people move into my neighborhood because they have pooled their resources, move in next door to me, and don’t have middle class standards, then I am going to get pretty pissed off. I might even say things that might make you all think I am the dreaded R word…..in my frustration.
For the record, I don’t live in a gated community. Not even close. I am really glad to see some folks like Mando and Rick actually talking. I hope I have read you correctly.
Moon-howler: Agree with your post. Some people on here are trying to make those of us complaining sound like racists. I suppose if we were complaining about white people there wouldn’t this discussion. In fact, no one in this thread said anything like “1) maintaining traditional racial majorities and minorities, 2) enforcing language proficiency of one’s neighbors, 3) language proficiency at McDonald’s or Burger King” but they were all listed as reasons we have for making these posts, somehow. I personally highly resent being lumped into that category. Living in the city of Manassas, the one way they enacted to control overcrowding was immediately brought by lawsuits by people who again didn’t have to contend with the problem, and now they are so scared off they won’t even do anything about these townhouses with 9 or more people living in them. I could care less what language my neighbors speak, as long as they don’t blast music in the wee hours of the night, toss beer bottles and other litter without any regard for the neighborhood, and in general ignore other social norms. And yes, break the law, as I’ve pointed out above. I suppose I should say I’d have just as much of a problem with American music being played loudly at 2 AM in the morning, loud conversations outside at all hours of the night as people are coming and going, American labeled beer bottles both intact and broken on a daily basis up and down the street, and break-ins by at least one member (and I think in reality more than that) of a large group of white people living next door to me. If I was living with all of that, I’d be moving out of my neighborhood too, as I’m now planning to do. The break-in to my house by someone (or more probably someones as I suspect) by people living right next door to me, is the straw that broke the camels back for me. When a direct neighbor shows that much disrepect, it just shows the trend in the neighborhood is to lawlessness and anarchy. Too bad, it was considered a nice neighborhood when I bought the townhouse new in 1985. In the past few years it is showing its descent into a slum.
Moon-Howler,
You are mostly correct I believe, the problem comes when one injects/assumes that people are “illegal” based on their skin color and language they speak. Attached to their label is a much deeper issue, one that allows people to call someone a criminal while working towards a resolution that clearly will target one sect of people. If you don’t like your “trashy” neighbors you either figure out a way to help improve your neighborhood or you move, you don’t use a police force to do it. I still am reading stories that many people’s neighborhoods have not improved even with the resolution. Seems like neighnorhood services and other tactics would have been better means to help resolve some of these issues, and many of us agree on that , but others still see it differently because they can claim “illegal” to all the problems they see. I am glad that people from BVBL are finding their way here, it creates a real dialogue, at least when we can “hear” each other.
“Correct me if I am wrong. I don’t think you really care about status or skin color. I think what you care about is trashy behavior and you feel helpless to control it. ”
BINGO! I live in a very diverse working class neighborhood in Richmond — Black, White, Hispanic, Indian, young families and retirees. I assume that we all live here because that’s where we can afford to live. Neighborhoods like mine are always going to be on the leading edge of cultural change because they are more affordable. The few problems that I have with my neighbors is because of specific behavior — not race or national origin. Some of those things I can take action against — allowing dogs to roam the neighborhood is against county ordinance. Others (loud outdoor cursing, unlicensed business in the home) may be actionable, but are much more difficult to enforce. What I’ve found useful is to talk to my neighbors in a non-confrontational way about what they are doing and how it affects me. It may help (though not in the case of my trashy neighbors), but at least I’m on record as talking to them first. Then you pick your battles — dangerous dogs running loose has more of an impact on my life and safety than cursing or running a home day-care.
Part of the severity of the issues faced in PWC and Manassas seems to me to be because of the extreme shortage of affordable housing in the DC area. People will live somewhere and if your only option for shelter is roommates (or a flophouse), people will do what they have to do.
So the bottom line seems to me to be to take action against behavior that is actionable and adjust to the rest. Bringing race into the issue and dehumanizing those I disagree with brings my own motives into question and lessens the effectiveness of my own arguments.
“Since you will no longer have an issue once the undocumented workers are required to become citizens in order to keep their jobs, why don’t you give it a rest for the next year instead of wasting all this time fighting with people who agree with you?”
This is where me and you diverge for several reasons. 1st being that aliens that take advantage of US citizens and US law should not be rewarded with amnesty. 2nd, you assume illegals want to become legal. 3rd, the majority of illegal aliens are employed because of their illegal status and the demand for black market labor. Amnesty will not rectify that and will only compound the problem.
What will rectify the problem is to take away what draws illegal labor. Jobs. Allow companies that require low skill labor in plants to move to Mexico to take advantage of their labor supply rather then it coming here illegally. Stop subsidizing agro-business and funnel some of that money into local construction to give tax breaks to small construction businesses/contractors that utilize a low skill labor force to make US citizens a viable option to black market labor. Also, eliminate minimum wage laws.
None of that will never happen so us citizens are reliant on our local officials to crack down on the result rather then the cause.
Well said, Mando. Well said.
Eliminating the minimum wage will only have an impact in economically distressed areas of the state where it would drive wages down for the few existing jobs. It won’t have any impact in low unemployment areas like Northern Virginia where I bet you can’t fill minimum wage jobs as it is. It’s a supply and demand thing — part of the reason for the influx of immigrants into the DC area is that the labor market is so tight.
Thank you Mando/Bubba for explaining your vision of the future. A contracting economy, closing minds, retreat into the 20th century, sending jobs out of the country rather than learning to live in a multi-ethnic society, and a series of laughable assumptions to justify it.
Thanks to you, we can fully enjoy the long-term options presented by the extremist fringe of the Republican party, which you admit will never be implemented, and thankfully so. Meanwhile, you suggest local governments like Prince William County punch themselves in the eye, one after another after another after another, indefinitely… until… when?
This article by Joshua Holland thoroughly dispatches with both the long-term and short-term folly of your reactionary and illogical argument, if you think it amounts to one:
http://www.alternet.org/immigration/85022/
LOL… 99.99% of economists agree with me… google it.
Mando.
Please.
Guess, these 500 economists are part of the .01
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/news_detail.asp?newsID=74
This means you need to show me a letter with 5 million economists signatures that support your position. Can’t seem to find that no matter how many google searches I do.
Where did I say legal immagration was a bad thing?
I’m talking about outsourcing, subsidizing, and minimum wage laws.
Find me letters with 10 economists (no hacks please) against outsourcing and for subsidizing agro-business and minimum wage laws.
While your at it, look up economic theory for the demand of black market goods (including labor).
Mando,
I just want you to know, you don’t have anything to fear from us peace loving people over here on antibvbl. The worst we will do is “talk” to you til we “enlighten” you 😉 No talk of pitchforks and such from us, not talk of violence, ever, from our end. We do empathize with your neighborhood situation, we just don’t believe a resolution was the appropriate way to address issues like yours.
WHWN:
I explained my vision of the future? Excuse me?
From someone who thinks we need to import labor into this country to compete with China and India, and from someone who also thinks we have lost “some” manufacturing jobs overseas…
I’m going to give your ridiculous statement all the attention, merit and consideration it deserves….
“This article by Joshua Holland thoroughly dispatches with both the long-term and short-term folly of your reactionary and illogical argument, if you think it amounts to one:”
And since when is an editorialist an expert on anything???? What are his qualifications? You may as well cite people here who agree with you as “experts” as well….
Not Me Bubba,
The reality is that Arizona is now struggling to fill jobs, you don’t have to be an expert to understand that dynamic.
Bubba, please refer to my earlier post. I predicted your response, as sad as it is to say. Remember, even when you plunge your head in the sand, the rest of us can see you quite well. You’ve blinded yourself and no one else.