The Three-Bucket Squeeze

The Three-Bucket Squeeze

When school leadership talks about balancing the budget, the narrative is always about safety nets—funds being strategically shifted from side to side to keep operations afloat.

But if you look closely at the actual architecture of the budget, it operates like a shell game that squeezes our bus drivers, crossing guards, mechanics, and custodians from both directions:

• From the Left (The Education Fund Siphon): Up to 15% of the Education Fund is transferred into the Operations Fund  under the guise of stability. But instead of reaching frontline wages, too much of that money is vacuumed up in the middle by administrative bloat (executive package and administrative raises and triple-rate board pay increases).

• From the Right (The GO Bond Bait-and-Switch): The General Obligation bond was supposed to act as a relief valve, taking heavy facility maintenance and system fixes off the plate of the struggling Operations Fund. But instead of saving the middle, leadership pushed those maintenance costs right back down (or deferred them entirely) to cover multi-million-dollar cost overruns for a luxury turf soccer stadium.

• The Middle Squeeze: While funds are siphoned away on the left and maintenance relief is stolen on the right, $1.46 million in active wages was locked away into an idle Rainy Day fund that leadership admits they’ve never touch. Meanwhile, school bus drivers have lost 20% purchasing power to inflation while the Administration tells the, it’s the market rate! (More to come on the Market Rate!  Follow to hear more of that story.)

Left and right, the funds are manipulated, serving elite interests—leaving the workers in the middle (and the taxpayers)  to carry the weight.

Join us this Monday, September 28 at 6:00 PM at the GCS Administration Building (613 E. Purl St.) to show that Goshen is watching.

Disclaimer: This document is compiled independently for public informational and civic

accountability purposes. The research, analysis, and views expressed herein are solely those of

the author and do not represent the official positions, strategies, opinions, or policies of Goshen

Community Schools, its Board of Trustees, or its administration.