California county spends money electrifying a few school buses instead of providing school buses to most/all kids (San Diego: transporting, appliances)

[FrankNSense]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

Red herring topic, OP. There are budget constraints (apparently there's not a big enough tax base?), but the funding for the electric buses comes from outside the county. That's not unusual at all. As soon as I read your OP statement, I thought "must have been a grant".

Or did you think the district should have violated the terms of the grant, and used the money to buy more school buses? Maybe the school district could hold a bunch of bake sales and car washes to buy buses. Or hey, here's an idea: pass a bond issue?

Let us know when you have some real news. You sound like our perennial crank, V8Vega.

We are thankful for the grant from the Carl Moyer Program and look forward to making the transition to the majority of our buses being electric in the next 15 years,”

The Carl Moyer Program is a Grant from the California Air Resources Board(CARB) and local air quality districts. Where do you think they get this money from? The Grant is STILL taxpayer money.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

Allowing girls to wear pants is "coddling"

lol! I couldn't rep you. You (or others) might be surprised at what used to be considered "coddling", or "spoiling" kids: feeding babies on demand (when they cried), vs. expecting them to follow adult mealtime habits. Hugging kids vs. denying them touch, or hiring a nanny to do the hugging and caring. Fun times back in the Victorian Era!

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by njbiodude

Yep. Classic.

Median house value is almost 1.5 million. Even with prop 13 they're getting way over the average property tax amount of the US. And the state with their "surpluses" (ignores liabilities and pensions) could be doing something useful to help instead they spend billions buying votes in an election year.

Attend town hall meetings and you'll find far too much money is frankly going to fat pensions at a rate well beyond the US average in nominal terms and as a % of total budgets. No amount of tax revenue will ever be enough here.

Local money does not fund schools, funding is provided by the state. Wealthy areas may have an easier time passing bond measures but that tranche of money can only be used for physical improvements to the schools. Wealthy districts can set the salary schedule for teachers and they may lure better teachers with higher pay schedules but that's about it.

As far as your whine about pensions which seems to permeate many of your posts, there is no age limit for teachers, or for a number of other jobs, like CalTrans. So if you want a good pension go get a government job where you can have one - no one is keeping you from doing so!

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by FrankNSense

The Carl Moyer Program is a Grant from the California Air Resources Board(CARB) and local air quality districts. Where do you think they get this money from? The Grant is STILL taxpayer money.

so what? The streets you drive on every day are funded by taxpayer money, so are police and fire services.

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by jcp123

Having grown up in the Bay Area myself…school buses have never been a big thing out there to begin with. Most likely, that’s the number of buses they were going to buy anyway, so they decided to buy electric ones.

FWIW now that I’ve moved to NYS, this is the first place I’ve ever lived which seems to use school buses en masse as a nearly universal way to get to school.

I don't know if it's NY or NJ but I recall reading about one of them having to pay to transport kids to Hebrew schools in taxis because their state law requires free transportation to school for k-8, even to private schools

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

lol! I couldn't rep you. You (or others) might be surprised at what used to be considered "coddling", or "spoiling" kids: feeding babies on demand (when they cried), vs. expecting them to follow adult mealtime habits. Hugging kids vs. denying them touch, or hiring a nanny to do the hugging and caring. Fun times back in the Victorian Era!

I swear some days I have to read some of these posts twice before commenting and after I do I still feel like I'm in upside down world

[FrankNSense]

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

so what? The streets you drive on every day are funded by taxpayer money, so are police and fire services.

If you read the post I was referring to you would not be confused. The poster stated it was grant money without actually saying where the grant came from...taxpayers. In the end, the only difference with this "grant" is that instead of the Government just handing over taxpayer money they had to ask for it.

However, your comment proves the OP's point.

Would it be appropriate to build bike lanes for 1/10th of a city, if the money could be used to repair the other 90% of the roads that have huge potholes and cracked pavement?

Would it be appropriate to retrofit a Fire Station with Solar if there is a community that isn't being served appropriately and needs a Fire Station in their neighborhood?

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by FrankNSense

If you read the post I was referring to you would not be confused. The poster stated it was grant money without actually saying where the grant came from...taxpayers. In the end, the only difference with this "grant" is that instead of the Government just handing over taxpayer money they had to ask for it.

However, your comment proves the OP's point.

Would it be appropriate to build bike lanes for 1/10th of a city, if the money could be used to repair the other 90% of the roads that have huge potholes and cracked pavement?

Would it be appropriate to retrofit a Fire Station with Solar if there is a community that isn't being served appropriately and needs a Fire Station in their neighborhood?

Of course it's appropriate to build bike lanes, doing so saves lives & the cost to build a new fire station would be in the millions, while retrofitting with solar would cost a fraction of that. If you think that you deserve to be asked every time the government spends money you are in for a very big disappointment. But in re-reading your post I am puzzled about what point you are even trying to make here.

[columbusboy8]

Originally Posted by njbiodude

In San Mateo county many districts do not have school buses for the majority of children due to alleged budget restraints. School buses in many places are used for special education kids and kids in a few outlying areas. However, San Mateo is now spending millions getting electric school buses for the minority that use them instead of assuring most or all kids have access to school buses.

https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/...ir%20pollution.

The end result of all this nonsense is of course many kids have their parents drop them off sitting in a long line in their cars idling every morning. Even Teslas often have to be charged with non-green energy sources, and any idiot can realize a bus carrying 75 kids is better for the environment than 75 cars sitting in traffic every morning.

Haven't you heard---the majority no longer rules!! Especially in uber-liberal California!! (How 'bout "DEM" gas prices!!) Wink! Wink!!

[FrankNSense]

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

Of course it's appropriate to build bike lanes, doing so saves lives & the cost to build a new fire station would be in the millions, while retrofitting with solar would cost a fraction of that. If you think that you deserve to be asked every time the government spends money you are in for a very big disappointment. But in re-reading your post I am puzzled about what point you are even trying to make here.

So in your mind Bike lanes for a few is more important than road repairs for most.

Making existing Fire Stations Solar is more important than a new Fire House to serve a community.