After reading this year’s story on inter-district transfers,
which seems to be published about this time every year, I am
totally confused. The Hollister School District complains that when
students leave their school district they receive less money.
Editor,
After reading this year’s story on inter-district transfers, which seems to be published about this time every year, I am totally confused. The Hollister School District complains that when students leave their school district they receive less money. Obviously if they have less students they need less money. If this isn’t the case then parents should be upset about the money that isn’t making it to their children’s education. Where is it going?
It seems pretty obvious to me that the school district should plan a budget based on spending per child otherwise fluctuations in the number of students in the school will throw havoc into the school budget every year.
To suggest that the problem lies in the growth cap makes absolutely no sense at all. If more students were coming into the Hollister School District, the same people would be citing overcrowding in the schools as the cause of poor test scores and student flight.
I think that the Hollister School District should take the lopsided transfer of students out of the district as a signal that they are not doing something right. Instead of trying to make and enforce rules that prevent the transfer of students out of the district, they should concentrate on making their school district more desirable to those who wish to transfer. If the schools have too many students per class as suggested in this story, then don’t you think that letting the students transfer would create less crowded classrooms for the students who remain?
Michael Forbush, Hollister
