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Pressure Is On IBM To Forgive Millions In IT Debt
coondoggie writes to tell us that several California state legislators are pressuring IBM to release the Costa school district from some $5 million of long-standing debt as a charitable donation. "The back story on this tale is that the school district owes IBM for computers ordered in the late 1980s and early 1990s. For one reason or another the computers were never used and no one now seems to be able to locate either the paperwork or the hardware. The school district experienced hard financial times and ultimately never paid Big Blue for the computers. In 1993 the district and IBM negotiated a long-term settlement that said the school district would pay the first of four $1.25 million installments beginning in 2008. Payments were deferred until then because 2008 was the year the district was scheduled to finish making state loan repayments under its previous loan plan, according to the Contra Costa story."
if IBM were smart, they would try to cut a deal with the CA state to buy more goods from them in exchange for forgiveness.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
This is exactly what I am thinking. I am a shareholder of IBM. I'm certainly not rich; I'm just a working stiff just like most other people. Why should I have to take the hit because of the idiots in that school district? (Yes, yes, I know that that $5 million has a negligible impact on my dividends due to IBM's size.) I am a reasonably charitable person, but I like to control who I donate money to. Mismanaged school districts do not seem like a worthy cause to me.
This school district has been able to defer this debt for over 15 years. Where is my 15 year, interest free $5 million loan? I want a piece of that action.
If we want to talk about bail outs, why not have the state of California bail out the school district? Why not have the citizens of that school district pass the collection hat round and round till they come up with the money?
I'm sure there are going to be lots of "think of the poor children" arguments about this. It is real easy to have sympathy when it isn't your $5 million at stake.
I'm a former student of the Richmond Unified School District, which after a misappropriation scandal and a consequent bankruptcy, became the West Contra Costa Unified School District. The district, while newly named, continues to be plagued by financial misdeeds committed over 15 years ago. The suggestion in this thread to call for the teacher's union to concede pay cuts was actually mandated by the state in 1991, in order for the district to receive a $29MM loan. Teachers have not received cost of living increases commensurate with their colleagues in other unions since. Bear in mind, the RUSD, and subsequently, the WCCUSD, contain schools in some of the most violent and impoverished cities in California. Richmond is consistently in the top 20 most violent cities per capita in the US. It's hard enough to attract teaching talent to some of these schools, regardless of the fact that they're relatively underpaid.
When it comes down to the asshattery of the administration of the time..there's a lot to go around. The superintendent, Walter Marks, took whatever funds he could to further a pet project called open schooling, which may have been one of the forebearers of the proposed voucher schemes. The different campuses were given specific lines of study, and students were given the choice to go to the school that interested them the most. For example, Pinole Valley HS was given the Dramatic Arts line, while at the same time, all musical and arts classes were cut dramatically at other schools across the district. El Cerrito HS, if I remember right, was given Math & Sciences, while those same courses were underfunded at other schools. Parents could simply not afford to send their children to schools that weren't local, helping to foment serious student disenfranchisement and furthering dropout rates.
The asshattery continued in the state assembly, where Sup. Marks was given high praise by the Secretary of Education, William Bennett. Secretary Bennett felt that this disjointed and disenfranchising method of splitting the district was a model for urban school reform. Sup. Marks was given high praise nationwide for bankrupting the district. Marks was able to find a higher paying job in Kansas City after being fired at the height of the scandal.
All that being said, I still think that the district should pay the debt. The question is, where will the money come from? Can't get them from the teachers, or you won't have any teachers. Can't get an appropriate amount from property taxes, due to proposition 103. There's simply not enough cirriculum to cut back. I wish there was an easy answer that didn't affect students adversely, but I simply don't believe there is.