Dan Sullivan, Go to the Back of the Class.
It’s been a little while since we’ve heard from America’s least favorite Mayor. If you’d been speculating, perhaps, that the Mayor was visited over the holidays by the Ghost of the Municipality Yet to Come, and had had a transformational experience which left him filled with human compassion and a love of mankind that would guide the rest of his political career, I’m going to have to disappoint you. He’s taken a little break this week from targeting firefighters, and police officers, and the homeless and he has now turned his malevolent gaze upon… your children.
If ever anyone needed summer school to catch up and become competent in the basics of good governance, it’s Mayor Dan Sullivan. So, it seems fitting in the continued spirit of irony in which our mayor repeatedly dwells, that one of the things on the proposed Anchorage School District budget that faces complete elimination is summer school for all Anchorage elementary school children. If “children are our future” as everyone seems to believe, then Mayor Sullivan is out to make sure the future is bleak for Anchorage.
The draconian piece of slash & burnthat passes for the Anchorage School District’s new budget will not only eliminate summer school for elementary kids, but slash it for Middle School and High School kids, cut safety and maintenance personnel, school secretaries, assistant principals, graduation assistance, the state Safe and Drug Free Schools Supervisor, social workers, information technology resources, music, sports, and a long list of other things our children (and other people’s children) need to get the most out of their education.
“We keep hearing how important the employees are to the district,” said Sharon Baker, a 29-year district employee and President of APEA’s TOTEM local representing educational support staff. “They were hired in the first place because there was a need to support the students. That need isn’t going to go away, the work isn’t going to be eliminated—the people who now do that work and serve those needs are what’s going to disappear.”
OK class, does anyone know when Dan Sullivan has let compassion, common sense, and investment in our future get in the way of being the worst mayor in the history of ever? Raise your hand. (group raises hands en masse) You, over in the corner… what do you think?
(you beam at me with your shiny smiling face and say) “Never, Ms. Devon!”
That’s right, (insert your name here)! Gold star for you.
Now, I know what all you fiscal conservatives are going to say. “But we’ve fallen on hard times! We don’t LIKE taking punitive measures against school children, but what can we do? The money has to come from somewhere. Mayor Sullivan tells us all the time that cuts are hard, but he’s a fiscal watchdog and he’s doing a great job cutting the fat and keeping us solvent for the future.”
Before we go any further with the “tighten our belt” argument there’s a little fact that many in Anchorage don’t know. Yes, we know that our Mayor has spent thousands of our hard-earned tax dollars on things like a “party planner”that the city has never had before. And we’ve got some shiny new Zambonis as well. So, we know that when there are real priorities, the Mayor will pull through for us. But did you know that our city right now has a surplus? Well, it does. And it’s not just a little token surplus. Right now we have a surplus of more than $19.7 million dollars.
$19.7 million dollars.
Saving money and keeping costs down is noble and good, don”t get me wrong, but let’s face it, the mayor is now becoming the municipal equivalent of the guy who stuffs his mattress with hundred dollar bills, and eats cat food. Nothing against mattress-stuffing cat food eaters – it’s a free country. But, I’d rather not have one running my city and making my kids eat the cat food. Just saying.
So, what can you do about this? Tomorrow, February 3 at 5pm in the board room at 5530 East Northern Lights Boulevard there will be a public hearing at a special meeting of the School Board in which you get to come and stand in front of a microphone and speak your mind. Are all these cuts okay with you, while our kids are forced to bear the unnecessary brunt of the red pen? Even if you don’t have children, they will still some day be adults who will be running the show, and deciding what kind of city you’ll be living in. Doesn’t everyone’s child deserve the best shot at living up to their potential.
You can also tune in to the meeting on Channel 14, and send your comments and concerns to the School Board at SchoolBoard@asdk12.org and copy to all Anchorage Assembly members at wwmas@muni.org
Sleep tight kids – with almost $20 million to spare, we may be charging your parents higher sports fees, and laying off school secretaries and social workers, and nuking summer school, but at least the Mayor and his “party planning” needs will be well attended to.
Why is it that the GOP is always in favor of less education? Is it because they can then easily spout lies and half-truths with authority and the sheeple will believe them because the sheeple lack the mental acuity to understand the facts? For examples of this attitude, merely tune your television set to Fox News, where GOP pundits and other lackeys offer their versions of daily events of the nation and the world.
If you want to see what it means to have one of the lowest ranked school systems in the nation in your state, you can see the products of just such a school system in our Arizona government. Gov Jan Brewer is one example. After the Jan 8th shootings here in Tucson and the subsequent revelations about the shooter’s known-to-be-questionable mental health, there was open compassion for the young man whom, had a mental health intervention occurred, likely could have gone on to live a productive life. Enter Arizona’s gov at the memorial service to shine the dimmest light of the night – reducing it all to good v evil, and declaring that good will win. Presumably by execution. Never mentioned were the problems in getting people into mental health care who quite obviously needed it, or the $64 Million she (along w/ other high-school-only Republicans) have cut from mental health care. She then returned to Phoenix and announced plans to cut 280,000 people from Medicaid rolls – w/out mentioning that tens of thousands of them are mental health patients. Legislative Republicans responded by introducing legislation to allow guns on college campuses. But perhaps the best examples yet that poor schools produce teabagging Republicans has been this weeks’ bills to: 1) deny U.S. Citizenship to children born in the U.S. if their parents are here illegally – in direct contravention of the Fourteenth Amendment, and 2) to form a panel within the AZ Senate to review U.S. Supreme Court decisions and decide whether they will be followed or discarded here in AZ. Yes, Elizabeth, education is important, and the Tea Bag Republicans are determined to prove it.
I think Dan Sullivan is doing a great job… Sorry to disagree with most posters here, but I have to stand up and call it like I see it…
You might have to give some examples of why you think so, BB. This crowd doesn’t seem too keen on taking someone’s word for something…um, let me make that *any one’s* and *anything*! This crowd pretty much are nosey, curious, pesky, and want details about ideas and issues before they’ll come up with (or change) their opinions. Have anything in particular you could point to for why you think Dan is doing a great job, Bob? Thanks, beth.
I am hearing a lot of whining about Dan Sullivan from those folks who think the cure for everything is government spending and throwing more and more money at endless pits like ASD as if we just give them that little bit more, then it will result in a miracle cure. I don’t believe throwing money at problems is always the solution. Therefore when I see Dan Sullivan putting the brakes on the out of control spending, I commend him for it…. Regards and thanks for asking…
BB, while I completely agree that “throwing money at a problem doesn’t solve it” Your logic eludes me. Please to enlighten:
Cite how a property tax based school district budget is “equal”.
Please, let’s have the conversation.
ASD spending is 60% higher than the national average at over $17,000 per student, Anchorage school district has become one of the most expensive MEDIOCRE school districts on the west coast. Our students test scores continuing to decline while other districts are on the rise. Despite per student spending increases of over 100% since 2000/2001 and an increase of over 1,000 staff positions while the student population declined by hundreds, our class sizes have become larger, not smaller. Meanwhile to justify the outrageous spending, while at the same time continually holding their hand out for even more money, the ASD threatens to cut programs that will cause the most outrage among community members. It’s a scam. These people have no clue how to live within their means. The whole school board should be tossed out on their behunkus. Comeau should be fired. Just an opinion.
Well, as an Alaskan I can say wholeheartedly the sports travel budgets are truly out of control. Maybe we ought to reconsider flying our kids all over the state for competition. As a parent it was utter hell to find money in our district for such things as Mock Court or travel for music competition — let alone get our kids excused from class for such things!
Other than that, Mayor Sullivan is way off course in his efforts to balance the budget.
That guy is Anchorage’s very own Hosni Mubarak.
Judging by the comments left on the ADN board on the article regarding this subject, most those commentors need to go to the back of the class as well. Heck, they probably don’t even need to be in the class, they need remedial work before being let into the upper classroom.
And I thought MY mayor was a little sh-t. Sullivan’s party planner could probably do a better job. Anchorage voters, get rid of this turd at the next election. He’s a loser, and wants all your kids to be losers, too.
Hey people, don’t forget…Danny needed to get that money for his daddy’s insurance settlement from SOMEwhere didn’t he???
And those little kids can’t vote, right?
So what if you’re ruining the city’s future…let those kids go out and get jobs if they want to do something productive. Who cares if they’re only six…must be something they can do. Maybe Mayor Sullivan knows of a nice sweatshop where they can work and pay some taxes ’cause Daddy’s got a party planner to pay!
Holy Cra- ! and the Assembly goes for this sort of stuff ?? Sounds like a re-write of the city goverment rules might be in order… of course, those in power and abusing it would not allow such a thing… is there no recourse by the general populatioon short of voting the fool out ?
ps- I agree with Slip… always nice to see the Party Planner.. 🙂
Ben, you have excellent taste,
There you go again
I’m just very agreeable today.
Thank you AKM for bringing this to our attention.
The Municipal Assembly determines the amount of local dollars that go to the district and sets the upper limit for spending of all funds. the district still gets to decide how the money is spent within that budget (no messing around with line items). So since the Muni has a surplus, the Assembly could decide to increase school funding. But will they? Depends on what they hear from constituents and campaign contributors.
Since the real “Sputnik Moment” was largely about better education and technical training and investment therein. Let’s just start calling the Republican’s love of destroying education and the dumbing down of America their “Spudnut Moments.”
Their wealthy cronies get the doughnuts and the children get the holes.
Wow, what a pill! I had no idea. Is the Anchorage district actually an arm of the municipal government? I’ve never heard of that before now, and it certainly smacks of truly old school politics. Time to make the district autonomous of any local guvmint, like the states I know about (WA, OR, and AZ). That is simply too much power in the hands of one man, in this case, the ‘man’ being far less than the sum total of his supposed education and intelligence.
Someone check to see if he really graduated from any school, let alone college or university. Or was DS home schooled?
BeeJay – exactly. I have never heard of this. District budgets have always been set by the Superintendent, members of the school board budget committee, the District Accountant, and help from legal. Then, the proposed budget is presented to the BoE for review and possible change, and then presented to the public and unions. I have never heard of a mayor setting the budget.
Anchorage is not an independent school district. No school district in Alaska is.
For some strange reason, I don’t like this man.
I was in Anchorage last week for some business and got the opportunity to attend the AEDC (Anchorage Economic Development Corp.) luncheon. It was a sell out and had over 1400 professionals from both Anchorage and across the state.
It was a Annual Forecast event with the title of “Alaska Business and the Next Generation”.
This was a time when others were talking about how well Anchorage and the state was doing in the face of overall economy.
We had a outstanding guest speaker, Peter Sheahan, a internationally recognized author and presenter.
When it came to Mr Mayor……he whined for his five minutes about federal regulations and possible oversights. No positive news, just overall whining.
The response from the audience was not very enthusiastic. I hope all those who can vote in the Anchorage elections will remember that whining speech and send the guy packing!
Every time I see this guy in action, he just gives me the creeps. I so hope he doesn’t hold this office the next go around…know I’ll not vote for him.
I think we got bad info, ripley
Did begich vote for repeal of Hcb ?
That’s what I “heard”. What the heck?
No, Democrats were united in rejecting repeal.
“As expected, no Democrats voted against a procedural motion that effectively defeated a GOP amendment — sponsored by Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and tacked on to an unrelated aviation bill — to repeal the health legislation. “
Leesa voted for repeal. How’s that for kinder, gentler.
Howdy Doody McConnell needs to go on Fox and tell the American people about his gov’t provided health insurance as a preamble to why he thinks the rest of America shouldn’t have it.
I would like to see the assembly develop a long range fiscal plan for the city that projects ten years into the future, with goals that include education funding, quality of life issues such as park maintenance and safety and health issues with goals for responsible first responder funding and disaster planning. We need to incorporate responsible economic development into our plan with an eye toward energy security by developing alternative energy sources here. Once that is done, every mayor’s budget would be scrutinized against that plan to make sure it is in line with our long-range goals.
I do not create my personal financial plan one year at a time. I have long range goals that include retirement, major purchases, education, and travel. If I ran my life the way we run our government, I would be on a strictly cash basis, with no ability to manage my own financial security.
What he is doing is madness. Refusing to generate sufficient income to meet the city’s financial needs is like refusing to go to work in order to keep household spending in line. Less income, less spending. Starve the beast. We do not get just less government, we get a starving beast in the corner that will require us to eventually feed it. Those kids that are not getting their needs met in school today will end up in the juvenile justice system in the future.
Amazing. So, the expense of the party planner is more important than quality education – or even basic education? Instead of cutting everything, have they thought of some other way to raise the funds for school? When I was in school, we all paid a book rental fee. It was refundable at the end of the year when you turned in your books. I know I was amazed in Washington state that the parents didn’t have to pay for any of those supplies. There always was a reduced fee for those who couldn’t afford it, btw.
When my girls were in high school, they had to pay their way in choir. Ugly as they were, we still had to pay for the choir dresses. When the choir went on tour, they had to do fund raisers or pay their way. As a chaperone for one of the trips, I paid my own way to help with the expenses of the choir.
I know those in sports have to pay something, but it never seemed to be as much as the choir fees. Maybe it was. However, both of those are non-essential for an education. The arts and sports are not something I think should be eliminated, but maybe school districts that are facing shortfalls should look there first, rather than cutting staff. A school secretary who is good can be the best interface between the school and parents.
Sullivan may be one of the worst, but I doubt that he’s the only one advocating this kind of disregard for the education of our children.
Oh, and btw, cutting teachers and librarians is the worst way to balance a school budget. Busing? We used to all walk to school or find our own way if we lived in the city limits. Garden City was about 10,000 people at the time. Only kids living in the country road the bus – hence there wasn’t much need for a large number of buses.
But we live in different times. Walking to school now is not as safe as it was in a small town in the 50s and 60s. And the schools often aren’t as close to home. I had a half-mile walk to my elementary school and a mile to my junior high – didn’t do that one as often. But my kids were over two miles from their elementary until they built the new one. That was a little over a half-mile, but they would have to cross a four lane street to get there. The junior high is a mile away with several four land streets to cross and no sidewalks on a long stretch. Their assigned high school is 5 miles from our house.
So before they start cutting bus services, the mayor needs to take a look at safety and the options that students have for getting to school. Some parents have work schedules that would not allow them to get their kids to school in any reasonable fashion.
He really is an idiot. How soon can you vote him out of office?
Sorry – that would be four lane not four land streets. Ooops 😉
Walking to school in Anchorage is tricky. There are usually no sidewalks. Where there are sidewalks, the plows fill them with snow berms. So kids walk in the icy streets with limited to no streetlights. Buses are safer. but if they are within 1.5 miles of school, they still have to walk.
Well, and that really is the point. Where walking is safe and not too far, I guess it’s OK for cities to look at cutting bus routes. But where it’s not safe – as in walking when it’s extremely cold, icy and dark – it makes no sense at all. Plus, when I was walking, it was pretty safe. But there was no way we let our daughters walk to school or much more than a block away. Too many weird people out there now. In fact, before the bus stop was in front of my house, most parents, including me, walked the kids to the bus stop and waited till they were picked up.
And that doesn’t even count the Moose!
Brian is friendly, of course, but some of his cousins can be a little rude.
The reason politicians can get away with this kind of stuff is that the citizens either don’t pay attention or believe anything they are told without applying their own smell test. Keep putting on the pressure, shining the light, exposing the hypocrisy. I hope lots of Anchorage citizens join you so he can feel you all breathing down his neck. You are an example to us all.
Also, too, sometimes we just get too busy to catch it all. I’m very grateful to AKM and others that keep matters of importance in the light. Whether I agree with the stated position or not, at least I get a chance to know what’s going on.
Kansas has its share of callous, shallow and vengeful politicians, but I am not aware of any as bad as your Mayor Sullivan. What a disgrace.
Can he be recalled?
When is he up for election?
I think he is almost 2 years into a 3 year term; we have Municipal elections in April. We need to find a good candidate to run against him in April 2012 or he will just get re-elected and we will be stuck with him for another 3 years. We had several good candidates running against him last election, but the vote was all split and all the conservative people voted together for Dan Sullivan and he won. WE CAN’T LET THAT HAPPEN AGAIN!!!
I soooooo agree with you…and I’m afraid we may be facing the same problem.
Always nice to see the Party Planner!
AHEM
Hi fawnskin! Always nice to see you too also!
Missed ya!
Glad to see you are yourself today, Slipstream. I hope you are having a good one.
What a pathetic excuse for a human being.
How much does that party planner cost the city? Wouldn’t that photograph of the two of them with their champagne glasses look terrific on a poster–particularly with the amount of money she’s been paid emblazoned across it in red?
Just a thought. Glassbowl.
Yet, I have no doubt that when re-election time comes around, none of these issues will make a hill of beans worth of difference to the big business and corporate interests that made sure he was elected in the first place.
If Meg Whitman’s MILLION$ couldn’t buy her the governorship in California, why can’t you people vote out Sullivan? After all, even the CEO of Exxon is supposed to only get one vote.
However, unless you get rid of the Diebold machines you could get screwed, and it would be YOUR OWN FAULT.
Obviously, Danny boy had a lousy childhood, was punished by music.teachers, social workers and assistant principals. I am sure he is getting his revenge instead of therapy.
Send your e-mails to the school board, and send a copy to all asssembly members at wwmas@muni.org
The assembly approves the total upper limit of school district spending and is free to INCREASE the total amount, not just decrease it. Although they are more likely to decrease it if they do anything, which will require more cuts.
Judging by the typos (which I never see on your site), I’m guessing you’re really hot under the collar. I’m right there with you, girl. When will bureaucrats realize that the worst place to make cuts is education. But hey, when they all do poorly on state testing and drop-out rates increase, let’s blame the teachers and the teachers’ union.
“When will bureauocrats realize that the worst place to make cuts is education?” Answer: When all citizens are registered to vote, and when all registered voters show up to vote. I am convinced the majority of citizens in Anchorage strongly support good schools in Anchorage. But the majority cannot exercise its will if it does not show up to vote.
Absolutely true, but it isn’t just liberals who don’t show up to vote. I’m not sure the percentages would change.
You all need a professional party planner to get people to register and vote. One that lets you touch her T&A. And Travel & Entertainment, also, too. Maybe there’s a firm called Hooker$ and Handjob$. Might be able ask the half gov/shaddow gov pair.