We got a flier from a local school district imploring us to vote for an up-coming millage that will raise our property taxes.
We were informed that ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act which was signed by then-President Obama) created an additional $10M in mandates of which $2M is not funded.
The vague wording of the act hides the fact that the act is intended to help "disadvantaged students".
This is where my cynicism kicks in. I have a sinking feeling that "disadvantaged students" is intentionally obscure and includes "feral kids who should be in jails and prisons, not in schools with naive children".
Throw in the need for individual bathrooms and locker rooms for "transitioning" kids and staffing for "security, resource rooms and counselors" to guide children through the transitioning process and you can easily tot-up millions of dollars even in small school districts.
The flier's wording would lead you to believe that the school district can no longer afford stuffed animals to sooth the Downs Syndrome students but I suspect that the lion's share of the unfunded mandates is driven by Woke/mainstreaming bullshit.
True, time to disconnect the heart strings from the purse strings for the evil just uses it to do evil. Bob in B.R.
ReplyDeleteThe constant pandering for more money irks me. Make due/do with what you have like everyone else. Find a solution that doesn't require money always being thrown at it. I could say, "well, in my day..." but it's freaking true.
ReplyDeleteOut here we have learned to " Just say no" to debilitating things like drugs and taxes that are inherently self destructive.
ReplyDeleteA little east of Paris ...
"We got a flier from a local school district imploring us to vote for an up-coming millage that will raise our property taxes."
ReplyDeleteSorry, just going to have to stop you right there.........................
The school district needs to make choices with what they have.
I agree. Public funds should have full disclosure on where they are being spent. Without it, $$$ to be going anywhere, including their own pockets.
ReplyDeleteyer cynical 'cause your are smart, read, and can remember history.
ReplyDeleteJust say no is best.
Ah, the joy of unfunded mandates that everyone clear knows cannot be paid but are pushed through anyway, because "It is important and we will have the money someday".
ReplyDeleteThe bond issues here are almost always for more money for schools - and when we say "schools", it is inevitably for top-rate facilities. - and our fire district, who every X amount of years is suddenly underfunded even though the current tax base is not the one increasing the population. I cannot think of the last time I voted "yes" on a bond issue.
Nor, with one or two small exceptions, can I remember any of these organizations dropping their tax rates.
In my last job it seemed to me that every dollar in .gov funding seemed to generate $0.50 in overhead costs. There is a point where it would be better to say, No Thanks, than to accept the funding.
ReplyDeleteUh huh. Let's see now. The school district uses public funds to send a flyer around begging you to give more funding for unknown and probably unnecessary expenditures to probably get a less usable product.
ReplyDeleteI vote no on every bond issue, especially for schools. I tell, in detail, to everyone I meet why they too should vote NO.
ReplyDeleteI am deeply dismayed when yet another bond is passed by the voters.
Where I am in unincorporated county, the effective tax rate for only county and state is 15.4%. State sales tax is 5.5%. There are five, yes five, unmatured school bonds. Two more are on the horizon.
The school board unilaterally decided to sell for mere pennies on the dollar the top of the line material and equipement it bought for a small aquatic center. The district built a warehouse to store that material. Now the county fire marshal threatens lengthy response times for 911 if a fire bond is not passed.
In my former county, I watched two bonds, the culmative dollar amount being $2.54 million (for <7k K-12 students) disappear as they were used to close two schools, partially renovate one, and build a very opulant suite of admin offices. (Examples; $17k for one office chair and desk, $145k for solid cherry wood paneling in one office, $90k for bathroom tile for that same office.)
The promised gymnasium and pool were not built, nor were the promised permanent classrooms (to replace the aged modular buildings used as 'temporary' classrooms), nor a library for two schools to share.
I missed a digit. The correct dollar amount is $12.54
DeleteWe had the same in our area. They didn't keep up the buildings so they needed a HUGE bond issue to replace 12 school buildings. BUT IT'S only $250 a year per house hold. And... lots of dark money appeared to advertise FOR the bond issue. It passed, pissed me off, the idiots where I live are taxing themselves stupid. The root of the evil in FL, is builders and developers who ALWAYS {period} get what they want.
ReplyDeleteAnd it will pass. I laughed back in August when my former hometown Tulsa passed four bonds extending previous sales tax, increases with most being 3 to 1 in the votes while their streets are still shitty. I guess they didn’t want to give themselves a raise.
ReplyDeleteThis means illegals
ReplyDelete