We never see spending recommendation justification details in the paper or on the website. Recently, the Lake County, Florida School Board forwarded a "study" by a consultant to justify the raising of impact fee taxes on new homes to help fund schools. This study was not published on the website or easily available unless you filed a public records request. So why does the District think they can get spending support from voters when information is not "transparent" for easy review by voters.
And, my senior level contact at the County Board said the consultant's study had a major math error in it, and the School District staff had not "vetted" or confirmed the accuracy of the study's calculations.
As for the writer below, he says voters in his Missouri area School District voted down a school bond issue because inadequate details were supplied to justify the bonds. We all know math is not the strong suit of many teachers and students, but it may be a problem for the administrators as well, both in Missouri and in Florida. They need to not only have accurate, understandable quantified justification, but it needs to be "trasnparent" and published on the website for voters and the press to examine and comment on.
Here is a good quote that illustrates the issue of lack of proper, quantified justification:
I believe in an informed public. If the people of St. Charles County want Highway 364 to take another 30-50 years to complete, that's all right. I just want our representatives to tell it like it is. Some honest statesman should just say, "At the current fuel tax rate it will take 40 years to complete Highway 364; but for every penny you raise the fuel tax, it will take X number of years less to complete." Then the voters could make an informed decision.
Instead of viable choices, what the public is given are straw dog excuses. Excuses such as our road and bridge problems are because of MoDOT's incompetence, or schools are failing because of the National Education Association's intransigence, or welfare cuts are just reducing fraud and abuse. The buck never stops on the desk of inadequate funding.
vj
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from the St. Charles, Missouri Journal:
http://stcharlesjournal.stltoday.com/opinions/sj2tn20070922-0923stc_opsh_1.ii1.txt
Last modified: Saturday, September 22, 2007 5:03 PM CDT
OPINION SHAPER: The public gets what it pays for
By Carl Peterson
I can see Veterans Memorial Bridge from my deck. So this spring I was excited when, after a four-year hiatus, the Missouri Department of Transportation announced resumption of work on the Page Avenue extension.
Unfortunately, that excitement turned to discontent when I found out the new expansion would only go 5,000 feet farther and wouldn't be completed until 2009.
I had hoped to live long enough to see the Page extension (Highway 364) finally join Highway 40. At the current rate of one mile every five or six years, I would be celebrating my 120th birthday just before it's completed.
I am an industrial engineer and tend to be a fiscal conservative, but I get very nervous about the slogan, "Vote for me, no new taxes." There has to be an "and" in conjunction with "no new taxes." Like, "No new taxes, and you wouldn't live to see Highway 364 completed," or "No new taxes, and we're going to lay off 10 police officers and 15 teachers." There is no free lunch.
Missouri is a low-tax state, with per capita tax expenditures 30 percent less than national average. Our fuel tax, which funds our highways, ranks in the bottom 10 among the states. That is not necessarily good or bad; it's just the facts.
I believe in an informed public. If the people of St. Charles County want Highway 364 to take another 30-50 years to complete, that's all right. I just want our representatives to tell it like it is. Some honest statesman should just say, "At the current fuel tax rate it will take 40 years to complete Highway 364; but for every penny you raise the fuel tax, it will take X number of years less to complete." Then the voters could make an informed decision.
Instead of viable choices, what the public is given are straw dog excuses. Excuses such as our road and bridge problems are because of MoDOT's incompetence, or schools are failing because of the National Education Association's intransigence, or welfare cuts are just reducing fraud and abuse. The buck never stops on the desk of inadequate funding.
There is no greater example of rhetoric over reason than what the voters are told about public schools.
This summer my wife was in the hospital and her roommate was a kindergarten teacher from Wentzville. She told us she had 25 kindergartners in the morning and 25 more in the afternoon. My wife had been a kindergarten teacher, and we all agreed how important kindergarten was in early diagnosis of learning and behavioral problems. My wife and I sympathized with her plight of trying to properly evaluate 50 children.
Most school districts in the metro area have full-day kindergartens, but one of the reasons Wentzville doesn't is lack of classroom space. Earlier this year, Wentzville School District voters turned down a bond issue for more classrooms.
It's hard to blame the people for not supporting the real needs of their children when all they hear is it's the teacher's fault, it's the bloated administration's fault, it's the parents' fault. Or especially when they hear over and over again, "It's not from lack of money," despite the fact it would take $1.2 billion more per year just to bring Missouri up to the national average for spending on education.
The fact that smaller class sizes and more special needs teachers are vital to increasing reading scores is lost in a din of blame and unworkable solutions.
I am not necessarily advocating higher taxes, because I just don't have enough information. I'd like to see Highway 364 completed in my lifetime, but if it's going to cost me an extra $500 a year, I'll take a pass. Maybe after hearing all the facts, the good people of the Wentzville School District might still think 50 kindergartners aren't too many for one teacher to have. I am just advocating that our leaders be up front and honest with us.
Before voters succumb to seduction of the low-tax slogan, heed the advice my mother gave me: "You get what you pay for."
Carl Peterson of unincorporated St. Charles County is a manufacturers' representative and former president of the Ferguson-Florissant School Board. He is one of 20 Opinion Shaper columnists for the Suburban Journals of St. Charles County. Opinion Shapers are chosen annually to write five columns on topics of interest to them.
