Sunday, April 17, 2016

Call the waaah-mbulance for JPS

Jackson Public Schools District officials came crying to the legislature Friday over charter schools.  The Jackson Free Press reported last week:

New charter schools are a money drain on Jackson Public Schools, the district’s chief financial officer, Sharolyn Miller, warned Thursday. Speaking to at a public hearing on education to members of Mississippi’s Legislative Black Caucus and House and Senate Democrats, Miller said the size of JPS in addition to continued underfunding has inhibited the success of the district. Compounding the problem, charter schools billed JPS $565,000 at the beginning of the school year, and the district had to pay with its local contributions....
Oh really? Well perhaps Miller and her peeps shouldn't blow $1.2 million on paying off their friends and lining pockets when refinancing bonds. JJ reported in January  that JPS refinanced $118 million of 2008 bonds lasts year.  The professional service fees (bond lawyers, underwriters, and other bond pimps) were $538,416 in 2008.  However, Dr. Cedric Grey and his pals raised that cost to $1,233,824 last year*.  A difference of nearly $700,000.  $700,000 is more than $565,000 even in Common Core math.  Perhaps JPS should start looking out for the students instead of its good ole boys. 

Then there is the actual budget itself. The 2014 audit states that the revenues were $267,205,302 and expenses were $265,302,900.  The $565,000 expense is only 0.2% of JPS expenses and 0.2% of JPS revenues.  It is a rather challenged administration that can't find a way to save 0.2% of expenses but perhaps JJ is being a bit harsh.   

Keep in mind that JPS has a budget that is $24 million larger than Desoto County Public School District despite having 6,700 fewer students than DCPS.  The 2014 audit also states Desoto spends
$8,059 per student while Jackson spends $10,147 per student- a difference of $2,088 per student.

Perhaps JPS should go look in the mirror before it whines about charter schools.

Note: Oh yeah, how could we forget Dr. Grey's attempt to pay Malachi $500,000 to review the finances and draft a budget or two?

*Jackson Public Schools General Obligation Bonds refinance: $118,070,000
Mississippi Development Bank (Issuer): $42,500
Balch & Bingham (Issuer Counsel): $30,000
Malachi Financial Products (Financial Adviser): $328,500
Trustmark (Trustee): $9,250
Chambers & Gaylor (Bond Counsel): $295,750
S&P (Ratings Agency): $63,000
Arbitrage Group (Verification): $6,000
Hunton & Williams (Special Tax Counsel, ATL): $197,500
Betty Mallet (Co-underwriter counsel): $112,500
Baker Donelson (Co-underwriter counsel): $142,140
Image Master (POS fees): $6,684
TOTAL FEES: $1,233,824

 $114,000 General Obligation Bonds for JPS (2008)
Mississippi Development Bank (Issuer): $70,000
Dorian Turner (Bond Counsel): $243,813
Balch & Bingham (Issuer Counsel): $25,000
Trustmark (Trustee): $3,604
Baker Donelson (Co-underwriter counsel): $75,320
Community Capital (Financial Adviser): $65,800
Image master (POS, printing): $3,448
Moody's (Ratings): $22,230
Spence Flatguard (state bond attorney): $1,000
Jones Financial Services (Financial Adviser): $28,200
TOTAL FEES: $538,416

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a bunch of crybabies - and are unwilling to recognize the fact that JPS gets "x" dollars for every student attending JPS from the state. Once some of the kids move out and go to a charter, they get X minus the dollars for the students they no longer are responsible for their education.

Best solution - replace ALL of JPS schools with charters. Let all the money that currently goes to JPS go to the charters. Send these incompetent administrators home to get a job where their qualification will justify their salaries.

The good JPS teachers will be fine - they can go to work for the charters. The others can stay home and sleep in their rocking chairs, like many are now doing in their classrooms.

Glad the "LBC" had this lesson in math. And in reality - that the gravy train that they created decades ago when they were in power did nothing but let their friends and relatives have jobs while the kids suffer.

Anonymous said...

From reading the thread about teachers getting beat up charter schools sound like an improvement. Maybe if the kids were really studying instead of fighting the teachers there would not be as big a need for charter schools.

Anonymous said...

the best part of a charter school is that if a kid acts like a thug, they're OUT. right now about half of JPS students graduate--how much better for careers or college will they be if they can concentrate on their studies instead of just staying afloat in the toilet. i really do feel bad for those kids who are born into that and really, really want to do something productive with their lives. charter schools are their beacon of hope!

we still need JPS to provide some sort of state mandated daycare. i'd hate for charters to be forced to keep thugs around--it will look just like jps if that happens.

Anonymous said...

The entire Canton Public School District should be folded into about three charters.

Anonymous said...

Well let's congratulate the legislature. they've worked so hard for three months on important cutting edge issues like letting us carry a gun into church. Now, in a matter of one secretive weekend, they are trying to develop an entire state budget. So much for open meetings. Conference committees are meeting secretly and no one cares. Tate may preach transparency, but apparently considers his fat ass exempt. As for Feelip Gun, secrecy is more the norm than the exception. Hell, he doesn't even hide the fact that he sneaks around behind the scenes to screw legislators and tax paying citizens.

Deacon B. Carrion said...

It took all of two days to deal with the deacon-gun issue, Goober. There have been a few more people killed in churches than in JPS physical plants for scholars.

Sorry that your democrat ass got tossed on the shit heap two years ago, but, that's life. Y'all had charge for damned near a century and a half.

Anonymous said...

The other night I was leaving my office late and I passed two of the custodial staff having a conversation. One asked the other when he graduated from Jim Hill and she said she had graduated a few years later than he had. Then she asked if he knew so-and-so.

Just an everyday conversation, but I found it both telling and sad that two JPS graduates are mopping floors and emptying trash for a living. It would be quite interesting to see how well prepared for life the 50% of JPS students that graduate are.

How many go on to higher education?
How many go on to real careers?
How many go on to the military?
How many go on to unskilled jobs?
How many go on to incarceration?

I have a feeling that the "cash-strapped" Jackson Public School system wouldn't want the public to see the last two figures.

A friend of mine's wife taught for the better part of 30 years at a JPS middle school. According to her, not one of the kids she taught went on to college, and she was in the gifted students program. Something is rotten in the city of Jackson.

Anonymous said...

8:50. I teach at Mississippi College and can assure you that I have had JPS graduates in my classes. Many of them have gone on to graduate schools out-of-state.

I have a few this semester.

I"m not saying that every JPS graduate could pass my class, nor am I saying that JPS does a good job with every student. But can we get past the premise that EVERY student at JPS is a bottom-feeding thug?

Charter schools will help those who want to help themselves.

Anonymous said...

Always impressed by those with insufficient vocabulary to disagree with another post without resorting to 7th grade name calling.

Anonymous said...

And let's not get started on ethics. Frierson has been named head of the tax commission and is setting his own budget as chair of appropriations. Good deal if you can get it I guess.

Anonymous said...

One thing that Desoto County Schools has that JPS doesn't is a literal army of parents and educators who nitpick every dollar spent in the school system (of course, if you even TRY to compare the two to someone from JPS, they will immediately scream racism). Follow Desoto County Reform on facebook and watch them tear apart the budget. These people get things done. In JPS, however, there is a literal army of administrators with bloated salaries hiring pawpaw to paint latex over oil for thousands of dollars a year who will turn a blind eye to anything as long as they are getting their $70,000 + salaries +kickbacks. It has nothing to do with demographics or race, it is all about administrators lining their pockets at the expense of their teachers and students. I taught there for several years and the students were the best I ever had. I was forced to leave because my administrators couldn't bear the thought of a white person in a non-teaching position- I have a nice letter from the EEOC to prove it too. JPS made me a believer in charter schools.

Anonymous said...

9:50 sez, "I"m not saying that every JPS graduate could pass my class, nor am I saying that JPS does a good job with every student."

Shouldn't the thought of any and every teacher be "What can I teach them?" instead of "Who can pass my class"?

Your post makes me wonder if it's not all about you. And your class. And your methods. And your pass-fail rate. And the legacy you convince yourself that you left. It shouldn't be any of those.

Anonymous said...

7:18 If you ever got into college you would soon understand the difference between what 9:50 does at a good college vs what is expected for every high school student in the country.

Anonymous said...

As a graduate of JPS, I confess that I had a few good teachers (actually very few). Yet I succeeded despite my JPS education, not because of it. I support JPS with my tax dollars but they don't get another dime from me. This is pragmatism, not racism.



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