WOW! ~ just ... WOW!!! ~ sounds silly to say these Chester Upland children are lucky given what's happening ~ but they are very lucky to be in school with these amazingly dedicated teachers ~  ~ I hope the Feds step in and tear Corbett a new one ~ Sooz 

Teachers Decide To Work For Free After Budget Cuts Leave Pennsylvania School District Without Funds For Salaries

By Tanya Somanader posted from ThinkProgress Education on Jan 6, 2012 at 4:35 pm

Damn teachers' unions.

Another Republican success story, eh, gopqed?

Sometimes it seems like communities are just starting to come together without the help of their governments.  Like old time villages.

In angola, after the independence revolution, the governments were so corrupt that public servants weren't paid for years and years.  They would get pay stubbs saying that the money was owed to them and might be paid at some later time....people started just using barter systems to get things done.  Naysayers called it bribery--but in some cases it was just the community coming together to support each other.  Teachers would be paid in foodstuffs and other barter items--whatever parents of children could give them to keep them afloat.  Barbra kingsolver's novel The poisonwood bible talks about that period and place.

the idea that places in the industrialized world maybe headed that way is at the same time both heartening and depressing.  Heartening because of the good that comes from people in times of stress, but...

Odd isn't it that gopqed has no comments on this bit of Republican principle and policy?

I've  noticed Gop seldom supports any specific Republican actions.  He's Republican through and through.  He just doesn't like what they do.

Why is it, though, that this school district is the only one to run out of money?  The other school districts also had cuts and have survived. 

I did a little reading.  There are other districts that could wind-up with the same problem in years down the road but, right now Chester Upland is the only one where the pit and shan have met.  As usual, with these things there is a lot more to the story.  Chester Upland has been in trouble since the nineties and has been alternately under state control or, for a number of years, was farmed out to a private education enterprise.  Nothing seemed to help. The elected school board only came back into being in 2010.  Just to make matters more interesting, one of their Charter Schools began suing them for $20 million in back payments at the end of December. 

Following is an article that partly lays out the current debate between the government and the district.  Both sides seem to have some legitimate points.  It seems to me the only real fix would be to jack up the school doorknobs and drive a whole new district under it - maybe spread it over two or three nearby districts or just entirely start all over again with funding that meets it's needs and a business model and administration that ensures that model can be met.  It seems to me that the charter schools may be a part of the problem.  The schools district's budget is 92 million.  The charter school is suing for 20 million, claiming 10 monthly payments have been missed.  Over a full year that would equate to about $25 million meaning that a single charter school is sucking up nearly a third of the district's entire budget. 

http://www.delcotimes.com/articles/2011/12/23/news/doc4ef3f26df0966719961030.txt?viewmode=default

Google: school board,bankrupt

Some scary stuff.