[speedgibson] Speed Gibson: When They Say it's Not About the Money ...

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Posted by Speed Gibson:
When They Say it's Not About the Money ...
http://speedgibson.powerblogs.com/posts/1207877816.shtml


   ... it's about the money.
   I've been attending a number of the public meetings held by my school
   district, 281 aka Robbinsdale, ever since the November 2007 referendum
   failed. It seems like a good time to make an overall observation to
   underscore a point I've made before.
   This is a district looking for answers, even before last November.
   They're not afraid to ask for help, as the current "visioning" effort
   makes clear. If you're a resident, there are still [1]many sessions
   coming up where you can contribute as well.
   There is considerable time being spent by many groups of people trying
   to improve the district in various ways. Many if not most of the
   participants are staff, retirees, or people otherwise connected with
   the district. But if that's a problem, that's our fault as outsiders
   for not showing up.
   And while we we often think we're talking about academic this or
   activity that, what we're often really talking about is money. We
   don't have the money to do something we used to do. We're wondering if
   moving money from A to B makes sense. We're wondering where else the
   money for C might come from. We're wondering what the Legislature will
   do. We're wondering what the referendum voters will do next time, and
   what stimuli they might respond to.
   And we're spending money doing all that wondering. We're spending
   money lobbying the Legislature, both directly and indirectly. The next
   referendum will cost the district about $30,000 to conduct. The
   consequences of some decisions, even those ostensibly to save money,
   cost money to execute. This is not an accusation. It is the reality of
   the current system of financing public school districts.
   This all brings me back to my position that we shouldn't be holding
   referendums at all. They waste money. And the way I see it, they
   really don't raise our property taxes because the money the schools
   would otherwise spend gets soaked up by the other taxing authorities
   who do not have to hold referendums. What Stan Mack doesn't spend,
   Mike Opat will.
   Sorry Jason Lewis, sorry David Strom, but here the fiscally prudent
   choice is to let the school boards set property taxes as they see fit.
   We can vote out the Board if they go too far. Meantime, I'd rather
   have the Board working on education matters that do matter than
   financial matters that ultimately don't.

References

   1. http://www.rdale.k12.mn.us/dist/news/story.aspx?ID=2363