The “DaytonOS” has launched- OS standing for either “Official Statement” or “Operating System” take your pick.
Its first post is one that makes me think- so I’ve included most of it- (to try to get you to head over and look- and add its feed to your list).
DPS Subsidy = Dangerous Precedent at DaytonOS.com [1]
The DDN reported today the Dayton Public Schools, Greater Dayton RTA, City of Dayton and Montgomery County reached a deal to continue providing RTA bus service for Dayton public and charter school high school students.The deal includes a subsidy from both the City of Dayton and Montgomery County of $350,000 per year.
Taxpayers should wonder about this arrangement. Providing direct subsidies to DPS from other taxpayer funds establishes a potentially dangerous precedent.
What criteria will Montgomery County and GDRTA use to consider other requests for subsidies from other communities?
They go on to provide a possible solution that wasn’t discussed- interesting reading.
The idea of City and County tax dollars supporting public schools- hmmmmm…. what next, the City taking over the schools? Talk about explaining your accounting.
What do you think?
Just what we need: more privatization of public services. Worked great for those PRIVATIZED school buses (something the right-wing talk show deceivers always neglect to mention) in New Orleans.
What’s amazing about these fools behind privatization (or really slick crooks, depending on how you want to refer to them), is that they are completely ignoring the real problem with the cost of school transportation locally: charter schools.
Yes, imagine for a second that there were 47 different charter schools that any kid in any geographic sector of the city could choose to go to, meaning that you were now responsible for getting kids in every section of the city to their choice of 47 new schools. If you think this ridiculous scenario creates a ridiculously complex labyrinth of bus routes: you are correct.
No, you are not imagining wrong. It would be MUCH MUCH more simple without charter schools, and a return to neighborhood schools – good ones. There is plenty of money now to do that.
Laidlaw is another front for the fascist right-wing takeover of America. And just like the rest of the takeover, they are using the boogeyman of unionized work forces to do their public thievery.
God forbid that there are any jobs in the City of Dayton left that pay above minimum wage.
Of course, I am very biased on the issue. But my bias comes from a profound sense of revulsion towards the fascists who are using the guise of “privatization” to take over the institutions with the big money: the public sector.
http://www.afscme.org/publications/1257.cfm
Privatization of School Transportation in Ohio’s Public School Districts, a study
authored by Mark Cassell
The Hurricane Katrina comment is a throwaway one at that, and references to Katrina are reaching the level of Godwin’s Law. Ray Nagin cowered in a hotel room crying like a little girl instead of ordering the buses be used to rescue people from New Orleans. Privatization of the buses is irrelevant to that particular issue. Now then, back to your screed about privatization.
And you know, it’s shocking that a worker’s union would find privatization to be a bad thing in any instance. Like when the MEA (Michigan Education Association) opposed privatization of cafeterias and busing even though they were using private contractors to take care of their garbage and clean up their headquarters office. Costs in school districts across Michigan saw a huge savings wherever they were able to kick the unions out.
But if you believe as a matter of absolute truth that unions are simply good in any situation regardless of the context, then you have a problem.
I have a problem with privatization for different reasons – as long as any entity is guaranteed a certain yearly budget, there will be problems whether a government agency or a private firm is running a publicly-funded program – the incentive structure requires extra supervision and reinforcement. Of course, when the government agency is running it, there is almost no opportunity for firing people or reforming the system and the incentive structure is almost absent, and in lieu of strong oversight the results can be disastrous.
Of course, for you, the solution for government fuckups is probably just more government.
What do I think?
First off, what’s the Dayton Syndicate?
As for this DPS bussing bailout, from what I’ve seen on it, two things:
A)  Mechanics of bussing: Yeah, why doesn’t DPS use yellow busses instead of RTA? Competitively bid the service? Sure, that makes sense to me.Â
B)  The Deal: I’ve seen comments having heartburn over this. From my POV this is an excellent example of someone taking the bull by the horns and working something out, even if it is a stopgap measure.  That someone is Debbie Lieberman, who is on the Montgomery County Commission. According to the DDN op-ed she honcho-ed this effort, she was the convener, gathering the relevant players so they could work the deal. Which is a good example of big-picture thinking that extends beyond the barriers of city/suburban/local government parochialism (and the city can be just as petty as the suburbs in this).
People are finding fault with this deal. I think it’s great. Something we need more of.
Maybe we should look more to the County Commission for initiatives and solutions that are more regional and community-wide in scope, rather than the usual localist parochialism.
re Deborah Lieberman, just so you know im not shilling for her or one of her operatives or something:
I don’t follow local politics here (or didn’t till recently) and I should say Lieberman is one of the very few politicians where I put a face to name. That’s because I attended a campaign fundraiser for her at Canal Street Tavern. I’m GOP, but I was curious as to the band lineup, and never heard of a political benefit at CST so I went. It turns Lieberman’s brother was the lead in one of the bands (a rock cover band from Indy) and was GOP, too! But he played the benefit for his sis. I didn’t know Lieberman was married to the local Dem chief, and thought she was just some party operative who they put up as a sacrificial lamb candidate just to have someone on the ballot. But she was having a good time at that benefit, and I liked that; a politician who can party. I was pretty surprised when she was elected.  Â
“Dayton syndicate” – phrase coined by Bill Pote at Dayton Most Metro- for a collection of activist bloggers- or maybe coined by Philip Ranley- needless to say- it’s a bit of an inside joke.
sorry for the confusion.