Q-Line answers: Preserving permits

This past week, Q-line asked:

Los Angeles school officials want to dramatically reduce the number of kids who leave their district to attend schools in places like Santa Monica. Local officials are concerned the plan will cost the district money and disrupt students’ education. Should Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District officials fight to keep those students or are they a drain on the budget to begin with?

Here are your responses:

“These students are a drain on our budget and contribute to the over-crowding. These children should be in their own local schools. They are just pawns of the local government and school board worried about any extra dollars they can grab.”

“In my opinion, the Santa Monica-Malibu School District has never been anything more than an annex to the Los Angeles school district including Santa Monica College, the high school and various elementary schools. I believe a very high percentage of Santa Monica school students actually live in Los Angeles. What fries my wallet is that the residents of Santa Monica, whether one rents or owns property, pick up the tax tab for these students, including an enormous parcel tax and now through a form of subterfuge the school district is begging to stack another parcel tax on top of the original parcel tax. Trust me folks, this is bad mojo and costly to the tax payer. The Los Angeles school district now wants these students back. I say, let’s oblige them.”

“Our school administrators are unbelievably overpaid kooks and commies. There are a thousand reasons to vote no on the new proposed school parcel tax. Our worthless school officials think that inflating our student numbers will inflate their status and give justification for being grossly overpaid. As it’s been said already, the money from the state per student doesn’t come close to the cost of educating our youth. So, we local homeowners are paying for these out-of-town students. Not only should we rejoice to send these students back to L.A., but we should double-check all student addresses and throw out all the non-Santa Monica students. I think we will find that we could close a couple schools and fire dozens of teachers and have lots of money left to give the rest of the real Santa Monica kids a great education.”

“If Santa Monica can give money to take these out-of-district children, I don’t see any problem with it, if they have room, that is. It should be up to the parents where their kids go to school, not the L.A. school district. If their schools weren’t so lousy, people would want to send their kids there.”

“There would be no problem if it were not that the schools are socialized education. In other words, public schools. If all the schools were private and parents dropping litters paid for their own kid’s education without tapping everyone else then there would be no problem with school districts and their bloated budgets.”

“I think the Santa Monica school district should keep the students who are on permit because they bring money to the district and we need money with how the state is having so much trouble right now.”

“The biggest drain on Santa Monica taxpayers is Malibu. This joint arrangement stems from a time when Malibu was an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County with no schools and its few children were bused to Santa Monica. Under current California law, this arrangement is illegal. Malibu residents can well afford to pay for their own schools and should be allowed to do so.”

“I have a daughter who’s in ninth grade at Santa Monica High. We used to live in Santa Monica and we’ve been in the Santa Monica school system, including my two older sons, for 20 years. My daughter is thriving in Santa Monica. Her grades have gone up exponentially and she is on the track team and she is having an unbelievable experience. I’m just wondering if you’ve given any thought or concern to the kids and how this might affect them at this age when peer pressure is so prevalent in their lives. It’s such a vulnerable age in the early teens and this could have a real negative impact if they have to change schools, leave their friends, it could cause depression, all things of that nature. I’m wondering if this has been thought out because I think it’s a harsh reality and something that seems to me a little unjust for people already in the system.”

“If it’s possible to have a governing school body dumber than LAUSD, it’s our school board. Here’s a great example: according to your paper, Edison Language Academy, which teaches only at 10 percent English, has 700 students. Roughly a quarter are from outside the city. Our school board wants to spend over $25 million building a new school. These educational myopics got us into this mess and now you want to trust them with anything regarding tax payer funding? We should not be dependent on outside students’ state funding. We need leaders who understand business and the great sacrifice that all taxpayers make. My parents believed in spare the rod, spoil the child. How about a new saying: Spare the ax, spoil the educator.”

“I might actually vote for this parcel tax if we get rid of the permit students, but I’m sick of supporting students from other areas and other cities. I think the board doesn’t have the courage to get rid of the permit students, and I’m glad that LAUSD is doing it for them.”

“Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District should not continue to keep fighting to keep students from out of the area. I do remember though the one year I was permitted to go to Santa Monica schools because my father worked for Rand Corp. But when he no longer worked there, I no longer went to Santa Monica High School.”

“Superintendent Cuneo of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District told your columnist Bill Bauer that 500 permit students could leave the district and save the district a million-and-a-half-dollars and that would be OK.”

“The City Council claims there is not enough money for schools or buses but can offer millions to a billionaire for his pet project. We need to replace these people with council members who have their priorities straight.”

“Our superintendent of schools wants to keep inner-city, gang-banging kids here even though it is costing us taxpayers a fortune. We should bus his $250,000-a-year, worthless butt to L.A. and forget this parcel tax.”