Let me say this right up front, "Math is not my strong point". That is probably why I am not an accountant or an engineer. Still you don't have to be a graduate of remedial math class to recognize the inconsistencies in the transportation budget.
LSC member Donna Coppola said that she arrived at a figure pretty similar to city councilman Paul Crowley putting the cost of SPED transportation at a whopping $30K per student. Dave Egan, who is in charge of transportation for our school system, had a much lower figure of around $4000 per year.
Mr. Egan seemed pretty confident in his calculations and his self assurance allowed for the LSC members to breath a collective sigh of relief. Whether his math was right or not, everybody wanted to believe it,
My uneasiness with the numbers might come from my own deep seated fears with math or from an admission to me from an earlier unrelated personal meeting with Dr. Latham, who is an accomplished and distinguished mathematician, where she admitted to me in the prescience of my wife, Dr. Warry, and Thomas Iaribino, that numbers can be shaped any way you want. Immediately after making that admission she assured me that her numbers were honest and legitimate.
Bottom line - what is the total spent last year? What did Revere and Saugus spend on transportation? - is it in line with what other cities our size spend each year?
ReplyDeleteI forget the exact number but I know we are up $600,000 from last year, That's a few librarians.
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