USVI EDUCATION CRISIS: OVER 80 TEACHERS RESIGN DURING 2016-17 SCHOOL YEAR; 151 TEACHING VACANCIES AVAILABLE

Looks like the same headline from this time last year,

and the year before,

and the year before...

from 2015: http://viconsortium.com/business/education-crisis-over-70-teachers-have-resigned-or-retired-since-june/

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I'm sure it's not only the paybut unruly kids and parents. My friend is a teacher here and she too many (not all) of the kids and parents are unruly and the parents blame the teachers for their kids bad grades. She still enjoys her job no the less.

Didn't Mapp take money from the Education Department budget to subsidize the pie in the sky sports stadium in STX which will be millions of dollars overrun, take forever (bridge to Nowhere) to complete and not really enhance the tourism in STX?

I'd much rather see some new public schools built with all that money that that will flow into Mapp's and his cronies' pockets from that endeavor.

Schools are falling apart, we are broke and he gon build a $10 MILLION plus sports center. WTF! We obviously realize that education comes last and Mapp's wasteful spending supersedes everything.

He didnt take money because no new budget has been passed yet. His new budget does have $10M less for education. I'm no Mapp guy but when you have a $100M structural deficit and you have no access to bond markets, cuts have to be made before draconian ones come. The rich white stateside vultures are licking their chops in anticipation of gobbling up all the land on the cheap and finishing the gentrification process.

Yeah it's the rich white vultures fault. The school stuff is the same ol same ol. Was that way 20+ years ago and it's the same today.

Shocking when you can't buy books and pay teachers when your spending per pupil is among if no the highest in the US and nobody demands any accountability

Never said it was "their fault". Stating who IS waiting in the wings for when it does collapse.

Still a lot of risk with buying the land - Zoning/taxes/etc.

Not stopping them in PR

They're buying private property (afaik) vs gov owned. One rich hedge fund selling to another rates a meh...

Private land that was owned by locals who fled as well.

My POINT was that $10 MILLION plus was going to a "sports stadium" instead of education children in OUR community.

Sadly that money was appropriated in previous legislatures.

Private land that was owned by locals who fled as well.

So what other option is there, have the land forfeited to the Gov? LOL

You just don't get it.

Seriously? I get it just fine. You don't get how govt works. The money has been appropriated already. Yes it sucks the children (mine included) suffer. Just like the main st project, the bridge to nowhere, etc. This money was appropriated by prior senators. Is it farcical that they have more ceremonial shovels than teachers on STX yes of course. Should the government have seen writing on wall decades ago, of course. Does money for stadium impact today's budget. No.

Again, I didn't say land should be forfeited to government, Mr U. I am simply stating facts. If you don't think this fits a pattern of getting gentrification.. well...

I didn't post my response to you sparty
I posted it because I believe that children's education should come before any "pie in the sky, waste of money" when our economy is faltering, on the brink of collapse and instead of focusing on the importance of good schooling, education and updated facilities, the focus is elsewhere.
In our governor's pockets.

So.. to y'all who live in STX. What do you think?
Do you believe that the proposed stadium will entice tourism, enhance your lives, be an overall attraction for STX?

Mr U would be my dad

I'm glad you are concerned about John Paulson raping Blackstone for properties in PR.

Unfortunately you are to economics as Alana is to science

More money isn't going to help education. That has already been proven.

Making PROPER USE of the money will help, however.

This is very sad news, and even worse that it's not 'new news' and has been happening for years. For the last year I've been trying to figure out some way to help the public school here on St. John. It's been challenging. I wanted to just start out asking the teachers for wish lists and then trying to find donors to get the items for them. The only way to know for sure that the school benefits directly is to give them physical goods and services directly. Throwing cash at them doesn't work. Cash donations go into the general fund and then who knows what really happens with it from that point on. I've finally made a bit of headway in the past month or so. I got together with one of the teachers at JESS and asked her for a wish list, asked her to reach out to the other teachers and ask them to give me wish lists. I've been requesting these lists from the principal for a year, and got nowhere. Finally, I found a teacher that was willing to listen AND to help spread the word.

I had a master list, compiled from 10 teachers wants/needs and was ready to start trying to get some of the list knocked out. About 200 items, totaling more than $5,000. I spoke to one business owner/friend on STJ and told them what I was trying to do. They jumped on board and expressed to me that they want to be involved, want this to grow, want it to out last the both of us and keep it going on. They knocked off half the list immediately. Then I reached out to people on Facebook. I had 7 other people give me cash donations and I used sales, coupons, gift certificates and purchased all but 10 items on the lists. It was only two weeks from the time I asked the first person to donate until the time I had gotten enough donations to make it happen. I couldn't be more pleased.

When I first saw the wish lists, I was pretty heartbroken. These teachers were asking for a lot of very basic items: electric pencil sharpener, pencils, dry erase markets, one teacher even asked for FOUR reams of paper. Not a case of paper, only 4 reams 🙁 The other things that seemed to be on all their lists were things to decorate their rooms. Bulletin board kits, posters, etc.

I'm just starting out with all of this, still figuring things out, and hope to grow it to something much bigger. I think part of the reason why I had such a hard time getting wish lists in the first place is because I think they have been asked for them dozens of times in the past without much result. It's work to put it together. And disheartening when you put in the time and effort and don't see any return.

I now have some big technology requests on my hands. That has been a bit of a challenge as well. There are minimum tech requirements the school has for what is used in school....just found that out! So now I have to get straight answers from the tech department before I can try and get those items donated.

We are not going to fix our government any time soon. School starts is little more than a week. If you guys want to do something small to show support, go out and buy a bunch of tissues, hand sanitizer, dry erase markers, pencils, and take them to the school closest to your house and drop them off. Even a little thing like that shows that you DO care and will support in any little way you can.

Yeah those 'gentrification' folks could just spare a few $100 bills for the schools along the way to gobbling up property.!!!

Of course those who accept and condone the white supremacist model of America are also ok with continued gentrification of its colonized territories. Go white people!!!!

There is a national teacher shortage. There has been a 42% decline in college of education enrollment since 2010.

It's about the resignations, sure - but also about the lack of certified teachers nationally. The VI actually has pretty high standards as to who can teach in its public school classrooms.

From my understanding, there has been teacher high turnover in the VI schools for many years. Now there are fewer qualified people who would choose to move to a remote school system - particularly one under threat of government reorganization with an unstable pension system.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/college/at-usf-and-elsewhere-education-schools-reboot-as-enrollment-declines-and/2327610

Of course those who accept and condone the white supremacist model of America are also ok with continued gentrification of its colonized territories. Go white people!!!!

really? some people are better off 'picking up the boy and heading to the beach"

Unfortunately the boy had a 102 fever most of day so it gave me time.