City Uses Tax Money to Fund Student Vacations

Outdoor Lab has got a lot of attention lately from a lot of people. I remember when my own children attended the outdoor lab program through Jefferson County Schools, and stories about some tame fox that lived up at the Mt. Evans facility. Quite frankly, my children were not impressed and neither am I. There is little value in this program that everyone is making such a big fuss about. Everyone seems to think this is such an important program and that it is essential because it has been around forever. Whoopee, lets face it; slavery existed for thousands of years but we don't have that anymore because it was simply put a bad idea. The outdoor lab program is basically a $1.4 million dollar paid vacation for both teachers and students. Quite frankly as a taxpayer, I am extremely disappointed that we are spending money so our kids can go to the mountains for a week, which in and of itself wouldn't be bad but we had to go and call it educational. By that standard I can make my kids watch Judge Judy all day and call that educational.
Not that going to the mountains is a bad thing, and certainly there is great potential for learning. The problem is that now the taxpayers are covering the $1.4 million dollar bill for a week long vacation. I just don't see the benefit. If we are going to pay for education lets educate.

The title of this piece is about Arvada however, current city council has plans on spending $115,000 dollars on outdoor lab. That is tax money you worked hard for which your elected officials plan on spending on kids from Lakewood, Golden, Evergreen, Wheat Ridge, etc. I guarantee you will never see those tax dollars used for your benefit. We pay taxes to maintain infrastructure and facilities and basic services. These are things we expect. What we don't expect is that when Arvada has a $4.6 million dollar budget surplus as they do this year because they over taxed us, that they give our money away to other government agencies to spend outside of our city. This is outrageous. Let us not forget the million dollar K-8 park the city is planning on building. The information packet regarding the proposal can be found here: http://www.arvadarecords.org/councilpacket/current_week/City%20of%20Arvada,%20City%20Council%20Packet,%20May%2031,%202011.pdf


Apparently, Council member Zenzinger is under the belief that if she gives enough tax money to the schools (which she is a former union member of) then they won't close her kid's school. Time for a reality check Rachel, throwing money at them even in the form of RSO's (police officers in schools which Arvada pays for).