DJUSD Budget Crisis: A Call to Arms

Lions, Leaders, and a Line in the Sand, Oh, My!

Over the weeks as we’ve been watching the impending budget tragedy engulf our schools, an aphorism of my dear old Dad keeps rising through my subconscious: “Better a lion leading a flock of sheep than a sheep leading a pride of lions”.

I keep hoping and praying the school board will show some gumption, and step outside the game that the Governor is playing. Instead, we seem to be condemned to witness what happens when misplaced conformance is nothing less than thoughtless political cooperativeness.

Why lay off any teachers, counselors, and/or librarians ? We really don’t have to: there’s no law that says we “must”. Sure, pink slips have been handed out – a tactical error, in my opinion, on the part  of the DJUSD Board. But the plan I’m going to propose could still work.

I advocate not laying off anyone. Period. Take the money  we have, add to it the money the Davis School Foundation is raising now (and will keep on raising across the course of the coming school year), and use it to pay for ALL the teachers salaries.

If the money runs out  before the end of school next spring, call the Governor’s bluff: would he actually want to make a national story of our school district shutting down?  NPR has already taken interest in our pIight.  I doubt he’ll call our bluff – that would be political seppuku. Trust  me on this – he’d find the money in his emergency stogie tent fund if necessary.

And no, Virginia, the  Teachers Union isn’t going to take DJUSD to court for doing what it takes to keep all the teachers employed – 90% of a loaf is better than making your colleague go hungry so you can have a whole  one.

Let’s draw a line in  the sand, a circle that encloses all of our teachers, our children, our entire community. Then, holding both an olive branch of peace and the lightning bolts of justice in our hand, ask the Governor what he wants to be: the Terminated, or a kindly kindergarten cop. I say: bring it on – no guts, no glory!