Whether or not the voters give the school bond a passing grade, the school board and Commissioner Endresen have failed their test. The concern expressed by the State's Democratic delegation was these cuts will hurt important programs such as Project Impact which are designed to help communities prepare for disasters such as earthquakes. FEMA was originally set up to become the center of a disaster communication network with state and local emergency service agencies designed to facilitate rapid response to natural disasters. To imply that it is appropriate for FEMA to administer and fund social entitlement programs is ridiculous. In fact with the entire democratic response devoid of any substantive facts to support their claims this is obviously nothing more than political grandstanding.
Government is too big, too bloated and too much involved in our everyday lives.
Even the director of FEMA, Joe Allbaugh, admitted that Project Impact is only a small part of federal disaster preparedness. Government will be there when disaster strikes but it is time to make the cuts in everyday government spending and give the money back to the people. We can decide locally how and what programs to spend our tax dollars on. The flexibility of the maintenance crew and bus drivers, the calm reassurance and quick response time of the administrators, the excellent guidance of the principals, teachers and staff and the best bunch of students you could ask for. Quality buildings and proper training all stood the test and we should remind them that we all appreciate a job well done.