Jackson Councilman Steve Chisolm on Tuesday night ruffled some feathers after telling the Jackson School District that it should spend money recently received from the state government on teaching Jackson students better math skills.
Chisolm was referring back to an announcement made by Council President Jennifer Kuhn at the previous meeting, in which she announced that efforts by Mayor Mike Reina, councilmembers, and the Board of Ed to recoup some of the $18 million of state school funding cuts that the local school district has been subjected to, were successful, in the sum of $2 million.
Chisolm applauded the new funding, but went on to seemingly criticize the school district for not providing an adequate math education to its students.
“Our students are totally deficient. It’s sad,” Chisolm said. “I just paid an extra dollar at Popeye’s because the dude couldn’t give me exact change – after I gave him exact change. And I just said ‘it’s not worth the dollar, you can keep it.'”
While the details of Chisolm’s experience are hazy based on his comments, he continued: “I’ve had that happen three times where I’ve had to correct kids on just counting money. Please use that two million dollars to teach our children basic math, for the love of God.”