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Stough: Voters need more information

Posted

I read your article in the Peoria Independent with much interest (“Overriding the misinformation,” Sept. 25), and for the last two weeks or so have been doing tons of homework on both sides of this subject.

It’s a very heavy subject with lots of information on both sides but not really a completed picture.

Even the website and the Peoria Unified School District information pamphlet fall short of saying what’s really happened with all the prior money spent on the overrides; so to discuss the new increased override funding leaves most people wondering what’s really happening.

So I started by getting down in the trenches and talking to recently retired teachers and getting the other perspective. Which for one says that lots of teachers do not make $50,000 a year, and that in itself is a crime; especially if we want kids to learn something thats useful for them when they graduate. And for the most part they are short changed for a variety of reasons.

I did a veterans talk at one of the schools and afterwards talked to two of the vice principals and asked why civics hasn’t been taught in schools in over 30 years, and they said school principals have very little control over what is taught. The reason I asked that is one of the students I talked to knew surprisingly little of what I talked about and asked me where to get more information. This shocked me to say the least.

Under today’s set-up, teachers and students are getting short changed and all the system seems to be doing is adding more social workers and resource officers. When I tried talking to school board members all I seemed to get was the run-around that was short on facts.

I question very strongly if we have the cart before the horse on this subject. But whatever it, is the tax payers need much more real information.

Clarke Stough