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General Category => Off the Record => Topic started by: jimmy olsen on October 14, 2015, 08:10:03 PM

Title: A County in Tennessee Is So Broke It Shut Down School, blames Obamacare
Post by: jimmy olsen on October 14, 2015, 08:10:03 PM
What a crock of shit.  :mad:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/10/14/a-county-in-tennessee-is-so-broke-it-shut-down-school.html

Quote
A County in Tennessee Is So Broke It Shut Down School

In Clay County, Tennessee budget woes are so severe that school has been closed until a resolution can be met. And the Director of Schools is blaming Obamacare.

The economy is so bad in Clay County, Tennessee that school is canceled indefinitely.

The decision to ebb budget concerns by shutting academic doors came down on Thursday when Clay County Director of Schools Jerry Strong quite literally decided to lock the doors of the county's schools. He was particularly concerned with partially unfunded government mandates and what he believed to be the effects of Obamacare making it impossible to keep funds in the green.

"Clay County's inability to generate the revenue to offset the mandates is what's caused this to come to a head," Strong said Thursday. "The straw that broke the camel's back was really the Affordable Care Act for us and it has made it very difficult for us to have our employees properly covered and meet the mandates of the law. That was going to require new revenue and the commission felt like they couldn't do that through a tax increase."

Clay County is, thankfully, a small district in northern Tennessee with three schools including kindergarten through eighth grade and high school. In total. some 1,150 students are affected by the school closure, which Strong hopes to fix by November.

According to the State Education Department, students are required to attend class for 180 days a year so any time missed to fix the budget crisis may have to be made up once school is supposed to end.

Strong's cavalier actions are not supported by everyone in the county.

County Commissioner Parrish Wright alleges that the district has enough money to make it through to the end of the school year, which would be a much more logical time to address the budget.

"Either way it goes, Clay County has lost," Wright said. "Nobody's won."

For Strong, who hasn't responded for a request for comment from The Daily Beast, the issue simply cannot wait.

"The choice was to either close schools and deal with this now, or keep schools open and spend ourselves until we have nothing in our fund balance at all," he told the Greenfield Reporter.

But the schools can't remain locked for long. The state could come in and urge Clay County to raise the property tax before the end of the year or simply have them use the remaining budget in their coffers to keep school open for students to take the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program tests.

Strong is just biding his time until school administrators and county officials can figure out a plan to stop treading water before it's too late.
Title: Re: A County in Tennessee Is So Broke It Shut Down School, blames Obamacare
Post by: Caliga on October 14, 2015, 08:21:47 PM
 :hmm: I think I've actually been to Clay County.  Nothing there.
Title: Re: A County in Tennessee Is So Broke It Shut Down School, blames Obamacare
Post by: Razgovory on October 14, 2015, 09:33:35 PM
Well, maybe they can "free market" their way out of it.
Title: Re: A County in Tennessee Is So Broke It Shut Down School, blames Obamacare
Post by: mongers on October 14, 2015, 09:41:31 PM
What a tool, maybe they should throw him in the county look-up for each day of schooling the 1150 children miss due to his politicking.   :rolleyes:
Title: Re: A County in Tennessee Is So Broke It Shut Down School, blames Obamacare
Post by: MadImmortalMan on October 14, 2015, 10:01:13 PM
The kids would hold a bake sale to pay his bail.  :lol:
Title: Re: A County in Tennessee Is So Broke It Shut Down School, blames Obamacare
Post by: Malthus on October 15, 2015, 09:03:06 AM
It's Tennessee. Do people there really need an education?  :hmm:

:P
Title: Re: A County in Tennessee Is So Broke It Shut Down School, blames Obamacare
Post by: alfred russel on October 15, 2015, 09:13:07 AM
1,500 students, missing out on a month's worth of classes on intelligent design.  :(
Title: Re: A County in Tennessee Is So Broke It Shut Down School, blames Obamacare
Post by: Valmy on October 15, 2015, 09:17:12 AM
Quote from: alfred russel on October 15, 2015, 09:13:07 AM
1,500 students, missing out on a month's worth of classes on intelligent design.  :(

'Science cannot explain stuff. So proof that God did it. Class dismissed.'
Title: Re: A County in Tennessee Is So Broke It Shut Down School, blames Obamacare
Post by: grumbler on October 15, 2015, 10:28:55 AM
It's an interesting argument from the guy in charge of spending the education fund that an unacceptable choice is to spend the educational fund on education by deciding to "keep schools open and spend ourselves until we have nothing in our fund balance."  Which is more in keeping with his job:  educated kids but no money, or money but no educated kids.

Wasn't the moron bureaucrat clerk who wouldn't do her government job unless she was allowed to force her religious views on everyone in her county also just next door in Kentucky?  Maybe there are moron bugs in the water around there. 
Title: Re: A County in Tennessee Is So Broke It Shut Down School, blames Obamacare
Post by: Caliga on October 15, 2015, 12:08:33 PM
Quote from: grumbler on October 15, 2015, 10:28:55 AM
Wasn't the moron bureaucrat clerk who wouldn't do her government job unless she was allowed to force her religious views on everyone in her county also just next door in Kentucky?  Maybe there are moron bugs in the water around there.
I wouldn't say "just next door"... about 200 miles away. :sleep:  However, there are more county clerks than just her resisting, and one of them is in Simpson County, KY IIRC, which is literally just north of Clay County across the state line.
Title: Re: A County in Tennessee Is So Broke It Shut Down School, blames Obamacare
Post by: Valmy on October 15, 2015, 12:15:28 PM
Quote from: Caliga on October 15, 2015, 12:08:33 PM
Quote from: grumbler on October 15, 2015, 10:28:55 AM
Wasn't the moron bureaucrat clerk who wouldn't do her government job unless she was allowed to force her religious views on everyone in her county also just next door in Kentucky?  Maybe there are moron bugs in the water around there.
I wouldn't say "just next door"... about 200 miles away. :sleep:  However, there are more county clerks than just her resisting, and one of them is in Simpson County, KY IIRC, which is literally just north of Clay County across the state line.

Hoping for their book deal and fame.
Title: Re: A County in Tennessee Is So Broke It Shut Down School, blames Obamacare
Post by: Malthus on October 15, 2015, 12:18:23 PM
Quote from: Valmy on October 15, 2015, 12:15:28 PM
Quote from: Caliga on October 15, 2015, 12:08:33 PM
Quote from: grumbler on October 15, 2015, 10:28:55 AM
Wasn't the moron bureaucrat clerk who wouldn't do her government job unless she was allowed to force her religious views on everyone in her county also just next door in Kentucky?  Maybe there are moron bugs in the water around there.
I wouldn't say "just next door"... about 200 miles away. :sleep:  However, there are more county clerks than just her resisting, and one of them is in Simpson County, KY IIRC, which is literally just north of Clay County across the state line.

Hoping for their book deal and fame.

Too bad for the book deal that in the future no-one in Tennessee will be literate!  :P
Title: Re: A County in Tennessee Is So Broke It Shut Down School, blames Obamacare
Post by: crazy canuck on October 15, 2015, 12:23:38 PM
future?  :hmm:
Title: Re: A County in Tennessee Is So Broke It Shut Down School, blames Obamacare
Post by: The Brain on October 15, 2015, 12:34:47 PM
Another argument for home-schooling.
Title: Re: A County in Tennessee Is So Broke It Shut Down School, blames Obamacare
Post by: Razgovory on October 15, 2015, 04:08:09 PM
Quote from: The Brain on October 15, 2015, 12:34:47 PM
Another argument for home-schooling.

They can't read there either.