Wilder vs. Richmond City Public Schools

In Today's RTD Mayor Wilder took the City school board to task on their fiscal irresponsibility.

Wilder said he did not want "to sit in judgment of the school board," but added "I am not unmindful that it is an election year . . . but I think that it is totally unfair to put the [city] administration at odds with the teachers."

"The school system does not need to pad its coffers," Wilder said, "but should instead be considering ways to operate more efficiently."

"You have these little kids coming down and acting as if they've been robbed," he said. "That's poppycock. No such thing exists."

What was the School Board's response?

But School Board Chairman David L. Ballard bristled at the assertion that the School Board was playing election-year politics with its budget.

"Incensed is probably too light a word," he said.

I'm shocked to learn there is gambling going on in this establishment...

As a former resident of the City who voted for Wilder, I like what I'm hearing from the Mayor's office on this. If the state demanded this kind of accountability, with the refusal to just throw dollars at problems we could have very well had a budget on March 11.