School board candidate Rita Rakestraw is touting her endorsements and her support for an impact fee in her latest campaign mailers.
In this new mailer sent this week, the catch phrase is "it's time growth helps pay for itself." Rakestraw says she'll put the focus back on the classroom by easing the taxpayer pressure to keep pace with growth.
Rakestraw says one solution "would be impact fees on new growth that help defray costs of school construction allowing existing dollars to go towards inside the classroom."
Even if Rakestraw wins in District 1, she wouldn't as a school board member be able to impose an impact fee. But she could lobby the county commissioners and municipalities on the issue.
In this mailer sent out last week, Rakestraw has quotes from several local politicos who've endorsed her, including County Commissioner Betty Lou Ward, former Commissioner and former state Rep. Linda Coleman, Knightdale Mayor Russell Killen and former school board member Kathryn Quigg.
"Over 30 years ago, previous leaders like the late Sen. Vernon Malone made a real difference for Wake County economically and academically when they stood up, merged and desegregated our schools," Coleman said in the mailer. "Rita is a leader in that tradition."
Comments
I'm not Rita, but I can speak to a few of your issues.
Fri, 10/02/2009 - 12:42 — RevHiDMy creative plan to deal with the achievement gap is to generally stay with the current diversity model, but allow schools some more flexibility by not running them all at 100 percent capacity. Year Round Schools did this, even though parents complain they aren't filled (that was part of the point.. room for flexibility and growth!) and even though I'd rather have more traditional calendar schools. Wake County taxpayers disagreed with me.
Staying with the current model, where we do a similar if not better job, we can improve on it by using more resources. Instead of bribing teachers to work in failing high-poverty schools, I'd use that money to really make a difference with smaller class sizes and more instructional support. (BTW... instructional support is often listed as part of the "administrative waste" by republicans. This support includes special education teachers and support services- the people who come to schools and support teachers dealing with educational challenges.)
Going back 30 years and throwing money at failing schools is NOT a creative solution. It was tried, and has failed. It's failing again in Charlotte.
Growth paying for growth is important. If people in the far edges of the county get their schools and get them right now without the county generating revenue, our limited resources will be siphoned off from established areas, leaving them with crumbling schools. The opponents of the last bond argued that our old schools shouldn't be renovated when there were new schools to build. They've never been in my child's classroom, where a failing archaic HVAC system is wasting energy and leaving some classes freezing, while others melt in the heat. All this will do is raise property values in the same areas that didn't pay for their growth (and are unaffordable to many hardworking professionals in the county,) and lower the property values of long term taxpayers- whose backs bore the burden of growth.
"Your creative plan?" Are
Fri, 10/02/2009 - 13:07 — woodstock"Your creative plan?" Are you running for a school board seat somewhere? What does your "plan" have to do with anything and why do you think it matters?
A lot of data was provided to you and you seemed to have ignored every single bit of it. Does emotion drive your every decision? "Your plan" makes a series of false assumptions and ridiculous conclusions based on pure fantasy. Please let me know when you do get up the courage to run for office so I will be certain to tune is as you try to explain your "plan" to a voting public.
As to your reference to Charlotte and Republicans, wtf? What does either of those things have to do with anything being discussed about improving education is Wake County? Your posts seem to be half-baked reiterations of conversations you overheard. Thoughtful consideration of the issues and thinking for one's self can be a wonderful thing. You ought to try it sometime.
Woodstock, With nothing
Sat, 10/03/2009 - 00:26 — WhalerCaneWoodstock,
With nothing but anonymous posts, I don't think you qualify to speak about 'Courage'.
And you think your
Sat, 10/03/2009 - 15:00 — woodstockAnd you think your opinions matters to me how?
You sure are a disrespectful and insulting little man.
How About Assigning Kids to A School And Letting Him Stay
Fri, 10/02/2009 - 13:03 — MamaLynnI agree with some of your points, but I believe you still miss the main point. When these kids are constantly shuffled around they are losing the consistency of people that know them and have been working with them. I started tutoring some kids that only stayed in our school 2 years. I honestly don't know if they are still people tutoring them or if they are lost in the system somewhere. When they are moved they lose the people that have invested the time in them to help them make progress. The people that know their names, habits, issues, etc. I also think it's a bad idea to have kids ride a bus for over 90 minutes (one way). It does happen and I know some of these kids. They are exhausted first thing in the morning and that isn't good for learning. Why can't these kids go to a diverse school closer to where they live so they don't have to ride the bus that far. If people are given the choice to ride 90 minutes and then agree then I'm all for it. I live two miles from my high school, yet I can't go there. There are people that are shipped in that have the same economic diversity as myself that come from 10 miles away. What is that all about? They live closer to the high school I'm assigned to. This is the crazy stuff that happens.
I HAVE A FEW QUESTIONS FOR
Fri, 10/02/2009 - 10:00 — TrailerParkGirlI have a few questions for Rita...
In YOUR own words (not Stan's or Vernone Malone's or Perry's):
1) explain the achievement gap, why test scores for ED students in Wake County used to be above state average, but are now below; why classes within diverse schools are segregated; and why this all seems to be acceptable as long as the school looks good on paper to attract business?
2) How do you reconcile those facts with your statement that children from all walks of life have been nutured by our schools?
3) If the gap is not acceptable to you (although it appears it is), what is your new vision for addressing the achievement gap? Remember to exclude any solutions that encourage parental and community involvement as you oppose community schools.
3) In one corner of your mailer you state schools have helped economic success (leading to growth) and another part complains about the cost of growth. I'm having a hard time reconciling those positions. How do you reconcile them? Why has your proposed solution not been instituted in the past and why do you believe you will be successful in having it instituted if you are elected to the BOE, which does not have authority to assess impact fees?
4) Please explain how taxing, funding and budgeting for education work and the difference between revenues and expenditures.
Second question
Fri, 10/02/2009 - 09:46 — KnightdaleParentExplain in your own words how you would deal with the magnet situation (i.e.; that high school students will face a harder "lottery" to balance the F&R %) in Eastern Wake County. http://www.easternwakenews.com/front/story/4850.html
....
Fri, 10/02/2009 - 12:33 — SideburnsFrom the article...
This hostage approach of educating our children should frighten everyone in Wake County. Instead of addressing the actual educational needs of these schools, once again, the Board has decided to further remove choice in education from parents.
Ironically, even Mayor Killen believes this approach will damage the community. He should reconsider the donation he made to Rakestraw's campaign. She's a firm believer that school populations should be managed for appearances.
I have one question for
Fri, 10/02/2009 - 09:18 — shearertwI have one question for Rita....
In your own words, explain what an impact fee is and how it works.
Also, what authority do
Fri, 10/02/2009 - 09:48 — woodstockAlso, what authority do school members have to establish impact fees? (Did she think was running for County Commisioner?)
I am sure she will discuss the matter with her puppet master and ger right back to us.
Impact fees are Stan
Fri, 10/02/2009 - 12:31 — CaryCurmudgeonImpact fees are Stan Norwalk's baby, always have been. Kinda funny that while Cathy Truitt (in her continuing effort to say whatever it takes to get elected) continues to accuse John Tedesco of being a pawn.
The real puppet-master from day one has been Stan Norwalk. He went silent a few months ago, probably on the good advice from campaign people that every time he went on a rant he was hurting the cause.
The [incorrect] $10K figure that Lois Nixon keeps using to say Wake classrooms are under-funded comes from Stan.
APFO's and impact fees come from Stan.
Stan's favorite saying about our school system is that we can't kill the goose that laid the golden egg, sound familiar?
I hope people remember how hard Stan lobbied for the $1B bond. Since the bond was passed, the school board has at their own whim redirected those monies toward other projects which were not approved.
Elect the Stanbots and you can expect continued mega-bonds and continued deterioration of academic performance.
Joe, Impact fees were
Fri, 10/02/2009 - 15:30 — WhalerCaneJoe,
Impact fees were part of your play book two years ago when you help Harold Weinbrect. They make even more sense to pay for school construction so more of our tax dollars can stay in the classroom.
Shall we call the WSCA candidates Joebots. :-)
No problem with impact fees....
Fri, 10/02/2009 - 17:44 — fiestamomI think impact fees are great, and make sense. BUT why should a homeowner buying a home and having to pay a $5K impact fee per home that goes to a school his kid is never going to attend?
Speaking of playbooks....
That's why I think this whole lie about the bussing for growth is a complete joke. There are a lot of metro areas (Las Vegas, Phoenix, Albuquerque) who don't have to bus their kids 1 hour each way, but their growth dwarfs Raleigh's.
I'm not sure I could sit
Fri, 10/02/2009 - 09:45 — SouthEastWakeMomI'm not sure I could sit through the answer. I still haven't made it through her News 14 Carolina interview. It's just too painful