The New York Times has a long front-page story about Denver's' schools and their financial crisis due to Wall Street investment schemes gone as bad as a jumbo mortgage with a variable interest rate sold to a burger-flipper making $7.25 an hour.
Before you say "What were those Denver school officials thinking." remember that five Wisconsin school districts also threw $165 million into failed exotic investments cooked up by big banking houses.
The Wisconsin school districts are Whitefish Bay, Kimberly, Kenosha, Waukesha and West Allis-West Milwaukee.
Some school funds have been seized, and credit ratings have been cut, thus forcing higher interest rates for future borrowings, but since the Repo Man can't haul off a Junior High School, the districts that chased dreamy payouts with other people's money are probably looking at a combination of higher taxes, payroll cuts and service reductions.
Maybe school board members and financial staff have to take Sure Thing 101 before their first day on the job?
I don't know anything about Whitefish Bay, Denver, West Allis, etc., school districts, but in the SD of Waukesha, the risky investment strategy was pushed by a then 13-year veteran of the School Board, then Finance Chair, Dan Warren, who SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER! Of course, Dan Warren is also development director of Pabst Farms and we know what a stellar success PF is. Dan is also president of the Waukesha Water Utility Commission (22 years on the board), leading the charge to obtain Lake Michigan water for the City of Waukesha.
ReplyDeleteHe's either a benign bungler of incredible scope, or evil incarnate because of the financial boondoggles he's foisted on the citizens of the City and County of Waukesha.