"R-7 voters failed to approve a levy issue on Feb. 8 by a 63 percent majority, according to unofficial results released by the Jackson County Election Board on Tuesday evening.""Failed to approve."
That's the good doctor's somewhat tepid assessment of the citizens' decision to vote NO on increasing their property taxes for the third year in a row.
Also note that the good doctor failed to approve the use of the word "taxes" in his article.
As I've stated before, simply demanding more and more tax dollars is not an equitable solution.
No one begrudges paying top dollar for top administrators. Lord knows they're hard to find, and even harder to keep (witness the wretched, decades long stupidity in the KCMO school district).
The same can be said of excellent teachers and staff, but there must be a greater shared burden between employees (teachers, staff & administrators) and the employers (tax paying citizens) when a budget crisis threatens.
And the district has been loudly beating the drum that this is a crisis.
My previously stated solution of a voluntary 5% cut in teacher, staff and administrator salaries and benefits will almost close the estimated 2012 $6 million dollar budget short fall of state funds for our district.
Maybe once that "skin is in the game," then the tax payers would be more agreeable to another slight increase in their property taxes.
Why is this monetary cooperation not even mentioned during a crisis?
Of course, once the notion of small voluntary reduction in salaries and benefits is breached, two straw men named "Falsehood" and "Cynical" appear.
"Falsehood" says that if tax payers do not pay more to support schools, then those tax payers only care about money, and our excellent teachers and administrators will be lured away by those districts with more resources. This totally discounts the fact that many districts all over the nation are already crying "poor," as their own cities and states face their own crisis of budget.
"Cynical" says that if tax payers do not pay more to support schools, then those tax payers only care about money, and do not care about children or schools. This implies only govt. entities can educate children, and totally discounts the excellent results from home schools, private schools, and voucher funded charter schools.
Yet, once that cynical door is open, it seems to me it would swing both ways, i.e.: if teachers and administrators do not volunteer to a small cut in salary and benefits to ease this budget crisis, then those teachers and administrators only care about money, and do not care about children or schools, and are willing to be lured away by those with deeper pockets.
But, I'll leave it to small-minded individuals to open that door.
