LAUSD wants another tax? Yes (a parcel tax to pay for operating expenses, like administrators)

LA Daily News ^ | 1/17/09 | Editorial

[NormsRevenge]

Barely two months since Los Angeles Unified School District officials duped the area's generous voters into signing away an additional $7 billion of their money for a vague school-improvement plan, the officials are at it again.

That's right. In the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, officials who have secured about $22 billion in construction bonds from property owners in the district in recent years are thinking of passing the hat again.

So what's this new measure for? More buildings? Technology? Maintenance? School lunches for poor kids?

Nope, the district wants a parcel tax to pay for operating expenses - like administrators' six-figure salaries, consultant fees and teacher pay. You know, the things that are supposed to be funded by the property tax bills we already pay.

The problem is that the LAUSD is feeling the same pain as every other California governmental agency, from the state down to cities. Tax revenue is down all around, and everyone's hurting. LAUSD officials expect $400 million less from Sacramento than they had anticipated.

But rather than cut expenses, scale back the bloated bureaucracy or programs, they just ask for more.

And we thought former Superintendent David Brewer III was living in a fantasy world when he suggested last summer that what the LAUSD really needed was an additional $60 billion in the next decade - not just the $7 billion he was pushing for at that time. Just to put that in perspective, it's more than $85,000 per student - or perhaps even more per student because the LAUSD's enrollment is decreasing all the time.

We might as well use the money to simply pay for the college education of every kid in Los Angeles and save kids the experience of attending the LAUSD's schools.

Most unfortunately, the proposal is being floated by new Superintendent Ray Cortines, who has promised to downsize the administration while protecting the classrooms.

"We have to show signs that we're responsible and that we are not just asking for another buck," Cortines said earlier this week.

We agree. And it's going to take more than a year - which is when that proposal for a new parcel tax might make it to the ballot - for the district to prove it is responsible. Until then, school officials should refrain from asking for additional money.

Meanwhile, residents must speak up. If they don't now, the requests will never end.

[bboop]

It’s never enough for the (union) piggies at the trough.

[EagleUSA]

Yes, our dear Taxifornia. The idiot liberal legislature continues to drive out businesses and individuals who pay taxes, then they raise the taxes more to compensate, further driving out more revenue sources.

If every liberal left the Taxifornia government, it would be a beautiful day. We could get back to the conservative, CONTROLLED government of the seventies where Taxifornia shined as an example of fiscal, educational, and demographic excellence.

I wonder if Ah-nold and his buddies in the legislature ever thought about running the illegals out of Taxifornia? That would net them about (latest estimate)$15 BILLION per year of revenue they are feeding to criminals and Mexico. Yet they fume over $40 BILLION in debt which could be paid down in several years.

Malfeasance, incompetence, selfishness, and greed — and the moron liberal voters keep putting them back in.

[bd476]

From the article:

" 'We have to show signs that we're responsible and that we are not just asking for another buck,' Cortines said earlier this week. "

They'll be needing to get in touch with Barack Hussein's Obama's handlers for lessons in how to disguise incompetence, corruption and thievery.

[umgud]

My education started in the 50’s without computers, calculators or any other modern high tech gadgetry. I got my first slide-rule in the 60’s. I’ll bet my education stacks up better than the modern fare at a fraction of the inflation adjusted costs of today.

This is insanity and economic suicide, not to mention legalized robbery.

[Thommas]

This bond will pass because:

1. L.A. residents are West Coast liberals
2. The school system has only to say "it's for the children" and the locals get misty-eyed as they reach for their wallets
3. Liberals will hear any logic or reason as screeching
from right-wing extremist ideologues, and
4. Even if the Liberals vote against the measure, ACORN will ensure that it passes.

[RC2]

Pay for performance????? One of the few industries where performance means nothing. In Los Angeles, it is said that about 30% graduate from High School. Great performance record!

[darkwing104]

Public Education...What a racket. I am surprised Organized Crime hasn't taken it over yet.

[BAW]

I was in Florida (gulf side) last week and picked up a local (Lee County) newspaper. The front page article discussed the $30/$40 million reduction the regional schools would receive because of reduced property values and resulting tax.

What impressed me . . . really impressed me . . . the head of the school was looking for ways to cut expenses and find efficiencies. No pleading for more money or proposals to raise the tax base. After living in CA for 10 years, reading Florida’s perspective was refreshing.

[PrincessB]

I am convinced this is the mark of a succesful public school administrator:

1.Created red tape or rules are so rigid that the classrom is disfunctional
2. Received promotion
3. Created red tape for teachers that took time and resources away from the school
4. Received promotion
5. Participates in the red tape game by earning a Ph.D. in Education or an Ed.D.
6. Now with degree in hand requires a higher salary or promotion
7. Creates more red tape and supports the state’s latest certification requirements that require the average teacher to earn approximately 60 college credit hours beyond the bachelor’s.
8. Begs for money to pay these people since they now invested so much in eduction. Realizes that the red tape created now requires more administrators to navigate.
10. Hires more administrators and cries that there isn’t enough money for textbooks or heating/air conditioning the schools.

[AuntB]

This is from a recent study/report Immigrants ravage U.S. infrastructure
Financial analyst: $1.6 trillion required to repair devastation by researcher Edwin S. Rubenstein

http://www.thesocialcontract.com/docs/tsc_twin_crises_rubenstein_2009jan12.pdf

Just one section:

Public schools

Immigrants make up 21 percent of the school-age population in the U.S.

“In California, a whopping 47 percent of the school-age population consists of immigrants or the children of immigrants,” the report states. “Some Los Angeles schools are so crowded that they have lengthened the time between classes to give students time to make their way through crowded halls. Los Angeles’ school construction program is so massive that the Army Corps of Engineers was called in to manage it.”

According to the U.S. Department of Education, 18 percent of all schools are considered overcrowded, and 37 percent use trailers and portable structures to accommodate growing student bodies. Public facilities are an average of 40 years old. Cities with high populations of illegal aliens are spending large amounts of their budgets on constructing new schools.

“Our anticipated gains in the number of foreign-born students alone will require us to build one elementary school a month to keep up,” Miami-Dade, Fla., school Superintendent Roger Cuevas said.

[PrincessB]

I should add that this isn’t EVERY public school system. However, the ones that are run into the ground seem to have the same themes going.

[DPMD]

It took a little longer than expected, but finally left has started cashing in on Proposition 39, passed Nov 7, 2000.

Recall the palliatives the democrats passed out for prop’s passage: That the money would be used ONLY for schools, there would be STRICT accountability, regular audits, and, of course, severe consequences for any abuse.

Yeah, but that was the campaign. Then we voted.

Nice going, California. Your just desserts are now being served. You have it coming to you.

[maryz]

What is a "parcel tax"?

[NormsRevenge]

a special tax that is assessed on properties in your area or district and used to finance local things like schools, hospitals.. usually not a huge amount for most but still another tax..

[NormsRevenge]

Here’s a good definition..

http://www.orrick.com/fileupload/259.pdf

[maryz]

Sounds like a way to increase the property tax beyond statutory limits by calling it something else? (Wait’ll MA hears of this idea! Oy!)

[NormsRevenge]

They are all over the place here in California.. almost every election has a few on the ballot

[4Liberty]

I live in LA, & I actually work for a public agency (community college - as a teacher).

These unions don’t have a competitive mentality, they have an ‘entitlement’ mentality.

Shameful, corrupt organizations - public unions. A bunch of Marxist whiners....

It is no wonder that the state of CA and its municipalities are going bankrupt. They are completely disconnected from regular markets and civil society (free trade).

[4Liberty]

5. Unions have organized efforts to urge their members to vote, and they use taxpayer money to fund union-organized phone banks to "get out the vote" (of union members, to get MORE money ... for themselves. A direct conflict of interest, obviously). Meanwhile, the average property taxpayer doesn't know what hit him - and gets reamed fiscally.