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Old 11-11-2018, 08:53 PM   #71
secondcurve
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Major View Post
The culture has changed. The size of government is the problem. Prior to the influx of outsiders (of course they are not all from Massachusetts), we did not look to government to solve our problems. Government leaders were tasked with the responsibility to reduce the size of government, not grow it.

You want an example, here's one.

When I was in 7th grade at Memorial Middle School in Laconia, we had the following as overhead (administration):

Principal - Mr. Harding
Vice Principal - Mr. St. Lawrence
Guidance Counselor - Mr. Jacques
Guidance Counselor - Mr. Wittum
Phys. Ed. - Mr. Fitzgerald
Music Teacher
Spanish Teacher (part time)
French Teacher (part time)
Librarian
Nurse
Secretary

That's it. Each class had two teams, so there were an additional total of 6 Math Teachers, 6 English Teachers, 6 History Teachers and 6 Science Teachers that serviced Grades 6, 7 and 8. The total amount of adults running Memorial Middle School was 35. This was to service 600 students.

Now look at Laconia Middle School. http://lmslaconia.weebly.com/staff-directory.html. 61 staff members (didn't include custodian or kitchen staff), of which there are only 21 teach Math, English, History and Science. 40 overhead positions! All to teach approximately 350 students. Proportionally, there should only be 16 Math, English, History and Science teachers.

We could eliminate half of the positions at Laconia Middle School and not miss a beat. Perhaps "services" may suffer, but I don't think the results would be any different.

All of government is like this. I could go through the same exercise with city hall, police, fire, etc. They have all expanded over the past 30 years, all for a population that has remained essentially the same - 16,000.

Hope this helps.
You forgot to mention that you walked 5 miles each way to and from school in the rain, snow and heat. No bus back in the day. Now the increased local government expenses and resultant tax increases are my fault because I have a house in NH and I spend much of my disposable income in the lakes region supporting the local economy.
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