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Where are education priorities?
Dear editor:
Re: Renewal by voters for authorization of plant facilities levy in the May 17 election.
From the Mountain Home News dated April 13, 2011 "The district will lose approximately 18 teachers over the next two years .... due to DECREASED ENROLLMENT" (my emphasis). Last year's levy "helped save MOST of the sports programs and SOME of the "enrichment" programs" (my emphasis). It is my understanding, according to parents with whom I've spoken, that a lot of that levy money was spent on new uniforms for the sports programs.
From the Mountain Home News dated April 20, 2011: "In addition to building maintenance, the district can also use (this new levy) money to buy NEW TEXTBOOKS" (my emphasis).
OK, we have a moron running the State Department of Education (Hey, we didn't vote for him.); we spent last year's levy primarily on sports; and now we're going to spend the money from the upcoming MAINTENANCE levy to buy TEXTBOOKS.
Is there something that I don't understand about EDUCATIONAL priorities?
By the way, we were among the first in line to sign the referendum petitions in Aguirre Park on April 19. How many of you taxpayers who continually vote to keep our legislature loaded with clowns signed those petitions? If you're tired of being hit with more taxes via district levys, just wait until we have to start buying and maintaining all of those computers.
Sandy Pitts
Editor's note: Sandy parsed some of those sentences in the stories pretty hard. Roughly half the 18 teachers the district will lose are due to decreased enrollment, the rest due to state budget cuts.
The voters were clear they wanted to keep the sports programs when they approved the supplemental levy last year, and the district intends to take that into account when they make this year's mandated cuts. But the district certainly didn't spend "a lot" of the $1.4 million on sports uniforms (or anything close to that).
The district CAN use some of the plant facility levy money for textbooks. That doesn't mean they will, just that it is allowed by the law. Keep in mind, the state hasn't given school districts money for textbooks for two years now (and it doesn't look like they will in the future, either).
The priority for the levy is on roofs, replacement heating units for buildings, etc. They don't want the roofs leaking on those new computers the state is giving them (instead of money for teachers).