Supporters Beat the Drum for School Parcel-Tax Measures

» Sy Prey on 10.10.12 @ 08:06 PM

Anyone check them for their union cards? I thought I was seeing a purple teeshirt SEIU convention let loose on the streets. Folks, this is a union supported parcel tax. Don’t be fooled. They want a permanent place on your property tax bills for more perks, benefits and paid days off.

» Overtaxed Taxpayer on 10.10.12 @ 10:13 PM

The government union and illegal alien tax, dubbed the idiot tax.

It’s a spending problem.

» Sy Prey on 10.11.12 @ 07:53 PM

Can’t believe this event and the recent slick mailer that came in the mail today were actually passed off as “information” events by SB schools. Not even a mention of the cost per parcel on that slick campaign mailer, which belies its neutral information content intent to slip under the prohibition using school tax dollars for political purposes.  This whole A and B campaign is smelling fishier and fishier.

» Sy Prey on 10.11.12 @ 10:15 PM

How can any school district come before the voters with a straight face and claim science classes and technology classes can’t be funded unless property tax owners pay for more parcel taxes?

Rightfully, voters have to ask where are these schools priorities that basics are now relegated to extras that are only offered if you pay up to get them? Where is that $11,000 the state says it is already paying per student actually going.

Why exactly is there no money in the schools budget for academic basics? Now that the state economy has recovered to pre-2008 meltdown levels? Claiming there are still ongoing budget cuts does not square with the facts on the Governor’s own websites showing the amount of money subject to Prop 98 guarantees for schools.

Yet, Santa Barbara schools as the NewsPress editorial stated is using scare tactics to get votes to pass these measures. That level of union-driven cynicism should be beneath them. Shame on this current school board for sinking so low and managing their budgets so badly..

» Sy Prey on 10.12.12 @ 07:40 AM

Disturbing to see both Santa Barbara High School and San Marcos High School failed to meet their API goals. This explains why so many students (up to 70%)  need of remedial courses once they move on to college.

Consequently, taxpayers are paying twice to get what should have been accomplished once in the high schools - leaving high school proficient in english and math. 

Dumbing down the curriculum in high schools dumbs down the entire higher education process. Too much of our education dollar is now getting wasted providing college-ready remediation ....... twice.

Yet Santa Barbara schools are telling us they can’t provide educational basics unless we provide them extra parcel tax money. Something is wrong with this picture and the current school board’s priorities.

Taxpayers and students are getting short-changed in this state that already funnels 50% of its general operating funds directly into education through the Prop 98 guarantee.

If 50% of all state general funds are not enough to get our students out the door proficient in english and math, how much more of the state budget or our own local property taxes do these teachers want?

Please can we have school boards that are not over-loaded with unaccountable teacher union candidates who refuse to address these very basic questions and whose only solution to every problem is to ask for more money?

The answer is not more money. How much more of our state general funds besides the current 50% do they want before schools finally become accountable for results? It is time for increased expectations; not just more money.

There is no incentive for schools to reform if we keep pouring more money on the problem and refusing to ask for accountability and higher expectations in return.  That starts at the top with more motivated and independent school boards who put students first, and not just teacher-union demands.

No on A & B is a good place to start sending the message to our local schools. We reward results; we don’t reward promises to do better.

» H. Edward Heron on 10.12.12 @ 03:41 PM

Lou. In making the decision on the amount of the Measure B Parcel Tax for elementary schools the School Board allocated about 61% for Music-6 music teachers and instruments. The other 40% is allocated for Math and Science Materials and Technology Mentors and Equipment. It was not 90% to music. Ed Heron, Member-Santa Barbara Board of Education.

» lou segal on 10.12.12 @ 05:31 PM

Ed, with all due respect, you are engaging in scare tactics to needlessly frighten people in order to fix a problem that doesn’t exist. I will bet you any amount of money that Jerry Brown will not go through with these cuts if Props 30 & 38 are defeated. He and his fellow politicians in Sacramento are first and foremost interested in self-preservation. There is no way they are going to alienate the voters by making huge cuts in public education.

This reminds me what you guys do every year. In March, you send out all these reduction-in-force notices to a whole bunch of teachers and then a few months later rescind almost of them.

If you divide the total revenues of $117 million by the 13 thousand plus students, you get around $8,800 per student. It is true that total educational funds from all sources are somewhere on the order of ten to eleven thousand dollars per student in Ca. The reason why the SBUSD doesn’t see all of this money is because of a gigantic educational bureaucracy in Sacramento and its County Educational Offices throughout the state. The one in Santa Barbara spends somewhere on the order of $50 million, almost half of the district’s budget. Most everyone acknowledges, at least privately, that the County Education Office doesn’t add any value to the district. It would be far better if we redirected much of its revenues to the districts, so the money could actually be spent to improve the inadequate educational outcomes we are now experiencing, assuming the reforms I have advocated are enacted.

As for the parcel tax, Proposition I, the current tax, allocates 90% of the money to elementary schools to music. Only 10% goes to science, math or technology. How many voters do you think were aware of this when they generously approved this parcel tax 4 years ago? Remember Ed, the district has lost over 1000 students in the last five years. When you take this into account, the per pupil spending has actually gone up. Revenues in 2011-12 have been restored to the amount the school was receiving 3 years ago.