Third in a series
Re “En Route to Second Term, Paspalis on What She Has Learned”
[img]1805|right|Ms. Paspalis||no_popup[/img]Serving as President of the School Board can sharpen one’s wit.
In the early stages of her campaign for a second term, Kathy Paspalis was asked for her succinct counsel regarding a first-time candidate who has no idea what he or she is in for?
“Run,” she said dryly.
Run the other way?
“No,” she said.
“Run. Run. If you want to participate in this democracy, we need good people to participate in what this exercise is, providing free public education to all of our children.
“You don’t perpetuate a democracy without an educated populace,” Ms. Paspalis said, starting to sound like the attorney she is.
Pivoting toward exasperations she has discovered in her first four years, “the most frustration I have felt is how hampered we are by the Education Code.
“Byzantine at best,” she said. “It’s a mess. I had hoped one of the things Gov. Brown was going to do was clean it up a little.”
Not so.
This led into a discussion of Mr. Brown’s general education philosophy, whereby he has made elaborate financing promises and then pulled back.
The mother of twins, Ms. Paspalis acknowledged that “it costs more to educate a child who has disparate socio-economic needs, language needs, and/or special education need. It is just a fact.
“Special education is an underfunded, and in some cases an unfunded, mandate that comes out of our budget to the tune of close to $2 million a year. We are not getting reimbursed, but we are supposed to because these are things we are mandated to do (by the state). That is the rub.
“Imagine what we could do with that two million.
“Two million dollars is more than (the) Measure EE (parcel tax) was.”
Although it has not been formally announced, the School Board has agreed not to seek a renewal of the parcel tax “this year.”
(To be continued)
