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From: As I see it
Category: General Discussion
Date: 01 Feb 2003
Time: 10:53:18 -0500
Remote Name: 64.12.107.157
Mac, Thank you for the information. I agree with your take on two things. First, your sensitivities to the Hispanic community are, in my opinion, dead on. I worked in Puebla Mexico for a short time and I can assure anyone that ten people living in a housed in the US that is designed for six or eight people is still a significant move up. I have a great appreciation for Hispanic people and agree, in total, with your comments. Having said that, we still have a problem that we are going to have to address.
As the density of an area increases, it does not bring in any additional property taxes but does increase the costs to the district. [list][*]This creates a problem in that such students often cause a disproportinate cost to the district, as it takes a lot more revenue to bring these children up to reasonable parity with the other students. [*]Some, but not all, of these children are transient and cannot or will not build on those education efforts. They may spend one or two years in the school system and suddenly be gone. [*]This increase in transient students brings down the effectiveness of the complete education system because and can cause the district to rate lower (on average) on state standard tests. [/*][/list] Understand, I am not questioning the intelligence of these folks. They are placed in a system that is alien to them and it takes a while for them to gain any level of parity with the other children.
Your second point that I agree with is that the cost of housing is passing the median income to a point that most citizens should start to worry. When we consider who the largest employer is in the area and what the yearly income is for so many of the support employees for the University (I think somewhere in the mid $20s), the income of employees who work for the warehouses (around $10 an hour which also is around $20,000 a year), and the income of the store clerks who work in the commercial strip on Sycamore Rd., it seems we are still on the dirt road while everyone around us speaks of a commercial highway. We have to bring better paying jobs to this area, and we have to bring affordable housing to the area. Both of these situations need to be working toward each other. Under the current situation, I am not sure that the average person working for the university support staff, for one of the warehouse companies, or working for any of the many new stores on Sycamore Road can even afford the houses in the $120 to $140 range.
I will ask the questions you have suggested as well as what the district intends to do with the lower income, more densily populated areas. (I tried some code on this post. I have no idea as to whether it will work.)