We just can't afford them anymore, not with the TRILLION DOLLAR OCCUPATIONS and the BILLIONS to the BANKS and ISRAEL!!!
"Safety nets stretched thin; Report urges fund-strapped charities, social service groups to consolidate" by Robert Weisman, Globe Staff | June 11, 2008
The nonprofit sector employs almost 14 percent of the working population in Massachusetts, about twice the national average. But a growing number of the state's nonprofits, especially charities, and social service groups, face financial strains from a slowing economy, jeopardizing the safety net they provide to many citizens.
Those are among the findings from a study set to be released today by the Boston Foundation, the largest funder of nonprofit organizations in the state. The report is billed as the most comprehensive portrait yet of Massachusetts nonprofits, a sector made up of more than 36,000 organizations employing 447,000 people and ranging from giants like Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital to neighborhood Little League teams and volunteer groups.
As state government and private donors scale back their support, and operating costs escalate, smaller nonprofits should pool their resources, forge alliances, and improve their financial stewardship to make their programs more sustainable, the study recommends....
Translation: FUCK the POOR and DISADVANTAGED!!
Think KBR when you think disadvantaged and poor, readers.
Nonprofits have played a growing role both as economic pillars and providers of services to the poor and disadvantaged as dozens of Boston area companies have been acquired and the state government has transferred many community health and youth services to outside groups.
Uh-oh. That can't be good.
ANOTHER ECONOMIC PILLAR gone?
One that took up SOCIAL SERVICES?
Still got plenty of WAR LOOT though, don't we?
At the same time, with the number of public charities in Massachusetts nearly doubling in recent years while the population of the state has stagnated, the foundation's study concludes there are too many nonprofits with too few resources and too short a focus....
Aaaaah, that old AMERIKAN ECONOMY for ya!!!!
Especially vulnerable to the economic downturn are what the report defines as "safety net" organizations, with $250,000 to $50 million in annual expenses, and "grassroots" organizations, with less than $250,000 in expenses. While also feeling the pinch, larger "economic engine" organizations, mostly hospitals and universities with more than $50 million in expenses, have a stronger financial footing.
Translation: The RICHERS are JUST FINE!!!!
Jeremy Liu, the executive director of the Asian Community Development Corp. in Boston, which serves area immigrants, said potential funding cuts from the group's financial backers threaten its youth leadership and home ownership programs:
"A lot of our support has come from places like banks," Liu said. "And as we know, they're under stress now. So that creates pressure on organizations like ours."
Yeah, that is a problem. They gobbled up that $200 BILLION Bernanke gave them and YOU didn't get any of it, poorer!!!
Similarly, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, which runs nine clubs in disadvantaged neighborhoods in Boston and Chelsea and has transitioned to a more businesslike culture....
Hey, the BRAINWASHING BEGINS YOUNG!!!
I'm all for it!
Teach the kid life is real with disappointments.
But the RICHERS are DOIN' FINE!!!!
"Museum of Science trims 10% of its 400 staffers; Reorganization, budget woes cited" by Geoff Edgers, Globe Staff | June 11, 2008
With attendance down and a budget deficit looming, the Museum of Science yesterday laid off 10 percent of its 400-person staff. The cuts were across the board, ranging from $175,000-a-year vice presidents to lower-paid exhibit designers.
Museum president Ioannis Miaoulis said the layoffs were budget-driven only in part. At a Nov. 28 trustee meeting, the board was told that the museum was facing a potential $3 million deficit. Miaoulis said that he expects the museum to break even this year, thanks to transfers from reserve funds and jobs left unfilled....
Who gives a shit about science? I wanna play video games.
Richard M. Burnes Jr., chairman of the museum's board: "Technology changes," he said. "And in a science museum it's really important to keep current. If we don't do a good job in the area of science education, the United States is going to be working for the Chinese and Indians in 50 years."
We already are!!! Or else the JOBS are GOING THERE! WTF, dude?
Aaaah, fuck schools anyway:
"LA arts school boasts prestige, clout; But critics call $230m price tag wasteful spending" by Jacob Adelman, Associated Press Writer | June 11, 2008Yeah, but we got TRILLIONS for OCCUPATIONS and BILLIONS for BANKS and Billions for... awwwww, you know what I mean!!!
LOS ANGELES - A steel tower wrapped in a spiraling ribbon is one of the most striking features of a new arts high school set to open next year.
Its $230 million price tag is another.
The Los Angeles High School for the Visual and Performing Arts, with space for some 1,600 students, most from surrounding low-income neighborhoods, is the architectural crown jewel of the district's ambitious $20 billion building campaign.
Its spacious studios and 995-seat theater encased in austere concrete are enough to make anybody wish to be a young clarinetist in the district.
Supporters call the 5-acre campus a beacon for a reformed educational system, a magnet for good teachers, and a means of raising dismal student performance in the nation's second-largest school district.
"Do these kids deserve this school? Absolutely," said Monica Garcia, board president of the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Critics, however, see the school as a wasteful extravagance for a district where more than a quarter of the 700,000 students remain in temporary classrooms, and many existing buildings are in dire need of renovation and repair.
"It's ludicrous to be spending that much money on one school," said Diana Chapman, who helps organize after-school programs at her son's middle school in the San Pedro area, about 25 miles from the new campus. "About every school I know needs help."
The price tag of another school, the much-maligned Belmont Learning Center, is approaching $400 million as it prepares to open in September as the renamed Vista Hermosa Learning Center.
Construction was stymied several times over the past 15 years by revelations that officials had approved building the school atop explosive pockets of methane gas and the discovery of an active earthquake fault beneath the site.
Two years ago, the school board was thinking far outside the traditional box-shape design of school buildings when it gave final approval to the seven-structure arts high school.
The sharp, clean lines of the architecture contrast with the mess the district is trying to build its way out of.
Public school funding in the state took a hit in 1978 with a voter-approved measure that limited property tax rate increases. Several districts are hard-pressed to attract and retain quality teachers and maintain academic performance standards.
In the Los Angeles district, less than 70 percent of students graduated in 2006, the last year for which data are available.
In addition, severe overcrowding at many of its 1,190 schools have forced about 200,000 students to attend classes in temporary structures and compelled many campuses to operate on schedules that shave weeks off the school year.
The problems led to an unsuccessful takeover attempt last year by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa that would have given him more control over the district's budget and curriculum.
The district began a school-building push in 2001 using $20.3 billion from four separate bond measures approved by voters. Seventy-two schools have been built so far, with another 60 planned by 2012, district facilities chief Guy Mehula said.
The rising cost of building materials and labor are to blame for the increased cost, he said.
Former school board member David Tokofsky said he voted for the redesign because he thought Broad, a longtime financial supporter of school programs, would contribute more to construction costs. "I'm all for an arts school as part of the cultural spinal cord of downtown, but right now it's a spinal tap on the construction fund because we expected to get outside monies," Tokofsky said."How come everyone in AmeriKa expects someone else to pay for everything?
