PREPARING FOR THE DEEP SQUEEZE

When I saw this was on the agenda last week I didn't really know what to think. I know I had hoped against hope that there would be some discussion on just how to spend the proposed settlement of the monies the city had proposed to retire the debt from the past NET SCHOOL SPENDING shortfalls.Well that never happened. I guess that is NO real surprise since so far only BRIAN has come forward publicly that some sort of deal actually happened.

No, no, this was just JARED being JARED - smart that is.

There has long been whining by the MAYOR how unfair the foundation budget is on calculating net school spending in regards to what actually counts to make up the foundation budget. There is some common ground here between me and the MAYOR. I even go so far as to get sympathy pains or at least I think that's what they are. I mean, I did have that meal at CHIPOTLE.

Well it wasn't even about any changes about how we calculate that. What was about was how the CHAP. 70 money was doled out once the calculations were made.  Basically the GOVERNOR imposed class warfare on the poor. What I mean is that he put the poor into two classes, symbolically the DESPERATE POOR and the PROUD POOR.

The DESPERATE POOR are those who receive some sort of state government assistance other than FREE or REDUCED lunches. The PROUD POOR may receive the lunch but try and stay off the poverty radar by not getting EBT or similar such assistance. A lot of them live with relatives or just too honest to actually qualify.

Well don't look now but those PROUD POOR no longer count toward the number that drives LPS's CHAP. 70 reimbursement schedule. LPS has about 3000 PROUD POOR which translates into roughly an $11 million cut in state aid. Which means the CITY is going to have to come up with addition funds to meet the NSS requirements. Here we go, again!

CHAOS IS COMING!

LSC member JOHN FORD who lives a dual life as an AIDE down at the state legislature says there is a lot of buzz in Boston about the amount of impact these changes will have on the GATEWAY cities, which LYNN is one of. So there is some scrambling bean town to make some more changes to make allowances for them.

So JARED proposed a non-binding resolution which passed unanimously to support the efforts of our state representatives to fight for those allowances.