Things! About my life!
Oct. 1st, 2009 08:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
holly_evolving1) boyfriend. Still with Jay. It's awesome.
2) family. Sometimes their political views confuse me, but they are an awesome family and we have lots of fun and I love them, so it evens out.
3) friends. I've been hermit-ish lately. I need to work on that.
4) kitty. Registering him with the town. His health seems good, although he's down a pound to 11 since we moved. Will be asking the vet for advice when I pick up his special food this Saturday.
5) apartment. The landlord has been having trouble getting the contractors to do the work on the new apartment up to standard, so we haven't moved into it yet. It's supposed to happen at the end of this month now. Frustrating, since I can't unpack my stuff. Also, what is wrong with contractors? This has been since June.
6) job. Working for the SSAT Board - www.ssat.org - as someone who is not a fan at all of the way the current private school system functions, it's a weird job for me. But I get to treat private school parents like they're not special, so that's nice.* A couple of my coworkers have some religious and philosophical views that I find...well, frankly insane, but they're all really nice and we still have plenty of good conversations when we're not busy on the phones.
7) health. I'm doing research on private health insurance. I'm pretty sure that I can afford it while I'm on this temp assignment, but it's what happens after this job ends in February that has me worried. It takes 3-6 weeks on average to find me a new job, and unemployment pays less than half of what I earned. I'll have to see what kind of savings I can build up.
8) money. I have no bad debt, and $1200 left on my student loan. So this insurance thing is possible.
9) politics. On www.politicalcompass.org, I graph as -7.8, -3.5. I'm pro public funding (within reason), pro choice, AND pro death penalty. Hi, I'm weird.
10) WoW (that's World of Warcraft, relatives!). My night elf druid hit level 60, and I made a death knight. I love this game.
*My issue is multi-faceted. Why do private schools that receive tuition from parents also receive any government funding? This takes funding away from public and special-needs schools. Also, and this is one problem that I can't fathom a way out of, private schools existing contributes to the deterioration of public schools. Think about it: if parents counldn't remove their kids from the public system, they'd be more willing to approve tax increases that go to the funding of public schools. There are flaws there, but the argument is basically sound. Problem is, some public schools have gotten so bad from lack of funding that parents would riot if they had to send their kids there now. What do you do?
***Kevin makes a really good point about this in the comments. Read before you reply!***
2) family. Sometimes their political views confuse me, but they are an awesome family and we have lots of fun and I love them, so it evens out.
3) friends. I've been hermit-ish lately. I need to work on that.
4) kitty. Registering him with the town. His health seems good, although he's down a pound to 11 since we moved. Will be asking the vet for advice when I pick up his special food this Saturday.
5) apartment. The landlord has been having trouble getting the contractors to do the work on the new apartment up to standard, so we haven't moved into it yet. It's supposed to happen at the end of this month now. Frustrating, since I can't unpack my stuff. Also, what is wrong with contractors? This has been since June.
6) job. Working for the SSAT Board - www.ssat.org - as someone who is not a fan at all of the way the current private school system functions, it's a weird job for me. But I get to treat private school parents like they're not special, so that's nice.* A couple of my coworkers have some religious and philosophical views that I find...well, frankly insane, but they're all really nice and we still have plenty of good conversations when we're not busy on the phones.
7) health. I'm doing research on private health insurance. I'm pretty sure that I can afford it while I'm on this temp assignment, but it's what happens after this job ends in February that has me worried. It takes 3-6 weeks on average to find me a new job, and unemployment pays less than half of what I earned. I'll have to see what kind of savings I can build up.
8) money. I have no bad debt, and $1200 left on my student loan. So this insurance thing is possible.
9) politics. On www.politicalcompass.org, I graph as -7.8, -3.5. I'm pro public funding (within reason), pro choice, AND pro death penalty. Hi, I'm weird.
10) WoW (that's World of Warcraft, relatives!). My night elf druid hit level 60, and I made a death knight. I love this game.
*My issue is multi-faceted. Why do private schools that receive tuition from parents also receive any government funding? This takes funding away from public and special-needs schools. Also, and this is one problem that I can't fathom a way out of, private schools existing contributes to the deterioration of public schools. Think about it: if parents counldn't remove their kids from the public system, they'd be more willing to approve tax increases that go to the funding of public schools. There are flaws there, but the argument is basically sound. Problem is, some public schools have gotten so bad from lack of funding that parents would riot if they had to send their kids there now. What do you do?
***Kevin makes a really good point about this in the comments. Read before you reply!***
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no subject
Date: 2009-10-01 02:28 pm (UTC)Check The Cartel when it gets to DVD. (It's still in the movie festival stage, before even a theater release… if it gets one.)
New Jersey gives its public schools more per student than almost any other state in the country. We're neck and neck with New York and Washington, DC… who's ahead by a nose changes from year to year, but we're always up there. Check the US Census Bureau's Public Education Finances Report for 2006–2007 (PDF), Figure 4, page xiii. What kind of private schooling could you buy for $15,691 per year?
In the last couple budgets, Governor Corzine has still managed to increase school funding despite cutting almost everything else. If lack of money were the problem, New Jersey should have solved it by now.
The system that spends the money is inefficient and outright corrupt. Rewarding that with an even greater cash flow will buy more inflated construction bids and patronage jobs before it makes any improvements the students might notice. If you want to spend more on public education, hire auditors.