Readers says , note to the BOE. The endless increases there need to stop
Look at their presentation under “initiatives” – they want to add even more courses – none are core requirements, and most of which are honors courses. How much does each one cost? How many kids will each one benefit and by how much?
Instead of telling you, they offer an apples to oranges comparison showing average school taxes have increased 5%/yr over a long period. But fear not– average home values have increased 8% over the same period, they say.
Oh joy. How do you monetize that? No one issues you an “appreciation certificate” you can take to the tax collector as partial payment of your now even larger bill.
And even if you could refinance every year at super low rates, there’s a cost to that, which of course their presentation fails to show.
They also don’t show the substantial cost we as taxpayers pay for BOE debt service.
Sure I’m for good schools, and I went to the schools here myself, K-12, when most classes had 30 (to one teacher) and many had more. Funny thing though… the schools were rated higher than they are now– despite a lot more kids in the system.
RHS when I went there was a 3 year school — yet had over 300 more kids attending than it does today— as a 4 year school.
Some of the way-too-many extras need to go and save the cost. I have relatives who for 2 generations have taught at an exclusive private prep school in New England, rated near the top nationally. Yet they offer LESS “extra” courses than our taxpayer funded schools do…. and those who want ‘em have to pay extra for ‘em, too. Gosh, what a concept.
Also note that the Council received “word” from 2 BOE members (it was said in last meeting) that BOE has zero interest in having any kind of Financial Oversight group studying them. Gee… wonder why? Same type of thing they did to sandbag Morgan’s initiative of “hey, can’t we start with zero?”
They put it off and then at last minute came up with draconian cuts that nearly no one would want. He questioned it, they pretty much rebuked him and said “no, that’s that”. Amazing. In a budget that huge, there have got to be others…. like the stuff in their own presentation trying to justify the latest increase.
Voting NO on the school budget and hope others will do that too.
