Vote no
Monday, October 29, 2007 at 06:35AM 
We are one of 99 school districts in Minnesota (1 in 3) going to our local taxpayers next week asking for more money for operations. Our legislature gave schools a 1.5% increase in the basic formula for next year; inflation is running at 4-6%. Even an English major can do the math. We can't maintain programs unless we get additional revenue.
What taxpayers don't know is that many of middle level bureaucrats like me are opposed to this levy referendum passing. For some very good reasons:
- If the referendum passes we won't have an excuse for not adequately educating kids. The underfunding card is always an easy one to play when our test scores aren't the best.
- If the increase doesn't pass, it will mean staffing cuts. And it's "last-hired, first-fired" in schools. That means these young, energetic teachers whose radical new ideas about education will be gone, leaving those of us who are tired and jaded to run the show. Just the way we like it.
- Less money means less stuff to order, less equipment to repair, fewer people to train, and less staff to supervise. That all adds up to less work for me. So it means a little more work for teachers and fewer resources. Teachers get all summer off already, for cripes sakes.
- Two words: Whining Rights!
- Non-passage may well mean cuts in library programs which will result in fewer graduates who think for themselves and follow directions without question. We all know the non-thinkers are much easier to manage.
Oh sure, the cry-babies will say that class sizes will go up, all-day kindergarten will probably be dropped, textbooks will need to last more years between replacements, computers will be less reliable, more kids will need to walk to school, and the buildings will be grungier. But so what? MY kids are out of school and MY taxes are high enough. It's not like the attendant who changes my drool bucket in the nursing home will need a PhD for crying out loud.
Make a bureaucrat happy today. VOTE NO!
Reader Comments (1)
I'll definitely be voting NO, if I can be bothered to vote at all.
Seriously, I LOVE this blog. Doug, your posts here give me reason to keep trying to be a better teacher.