About those ALLEGED drastic education spending cuts …

 

 

 

Some rather duplicitous candidates and granola-munching activists are bemoaning an alleged lack of funding for education needs in Moore County.  The problem with their harrangue is — hold on to your hats — there’s an EIGHT MILLION DOLLAR leftover balance from the last budget sitting in the Moore County Schools bank account RIGHT NOW.

Yep.  EIGHT MILLION DOLLARS JUST SITTING THERE WAITING TO BE SPENT.  Don’t believe me?  Check out county government financials in Carthage.

The school system didn’t ask for an increase for its latest budget.  Yet, they are hiring.  How are they doing that, if they don’t have some extra money sitting around?

One of my county government moles tells it like this:

“The school board has done a really good job with managing their dollars.  They’ve been really smart.”

This mole tells me to expect to see a lot more of a warm and fuzzy relationship between the public schools and the county’s board of commissioners:

“The real consensus over here at the county offices is that Dr. Spence is like a breath of fresh air.  Susan Purser was a great communicator.  She would come in, and demand the whole pie for the schools.  If you told her that was too much, she would go out into the public — to the newspaper, too — and tell them that the commissioners were being mean, cold and heartless.

Dr. Spence appears to appreciate the financial constraints we have and only asks for a piece or two of the pie —  and only if he and the system are honestly hungry.  The commissioners appear to really like him and want to have a team effort with him. Dr. Spence has already pitched a number of new ideas to the commissioners, and some of  them appear to be very interested in what he’s saying.”

There WERE some spending cuts in the county schools budget.  But my mole points out:

“Dr. Spence, and anyone else in the know about the budget, knows that 98% of those were vacant positions.  No  actual bodies were laid off from those jobs.”