I Must Vote Against the Referendum

I have not entered the public discussion about the impending school tax referendum until now.  I have tried to write my RedbankValley.org news articles with as much objectivity as I can muster.  As a news writer, my role is to deliver facts, not to try to sway opinions.  When writing news, I am just the story teller. As an essayist, my role is to entertain, share my point of view, and help to shape opinions.  These are different roles and different functions within the community.

Let us be completely open before I go on – the opinions and ideas expressed in this essay are mine and mine alone.  Neither RedbankValley.Org nor TechReady Professionals has any connection to this essay.  Mayor Barrows has not read this and has no knowledge of what I intend to write.  This NearCommonSense essay is mine and mine alone.

I have a lot of respect for many of the men and women on the Redbank Valley School Board.  There are several that I consider to be friends.  Similarly, I like many of the teachers and administrators that I have met over the years as my daughters and grand kids “did their time”.  There are some marvelous teachers, good role models, and fine people within the staff and faculty.  My thoughts about schools, taxes, referendums, and such are not intended to harm or hurt anyone.  But, “tempus fugit”, “so let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late.”

First, I simply don’t like government monopoly schools.  I do not think that having given control of curricula and outcomes to State and Federal bureaucrats has worked well.  I know that I was not as well prepared to go out into the world after finishing high school as my father was.  And my grandfather was better educated after 8th grade than I was after 12th.  I don’t see very many of today’s 18-year-olds being at all ready to be fully functioning adult citizens.  This is not a criticism of Redbank Valley, but rather an indictment of the entire public-school model.

But it does bring the conversation around to the upcoming referendum on raising school taxes.  As much as it pains me to have to say, I simply cannot support raising taxes for the schools.  It is not that I don’t want kids to get an education – I don’t think that they are now through no fault of our school district itself – but rather, in 25 years of being part of this community, I never seen the Redbank Valley School Board be fiscally responsible and there is nothing in the referendum or proposed budget to suggest that they are going to start being so now.

Over the years, we have seen school board after school board ignore their budgets and spend money on virtually every request made of them.  I cannot recall a time when any Board has refused to fund anything brought to them. And never once have I heard any director ask if this spending request is within this year’s budget.  The Board approves every teacher’s meeting, conference, and travel request with no discussion regarding the budget allotment for such items.  And while these individual items may be only a few hundred or a thousand dollars each, the cavalier disregard for fiscal accountability is staggering.  Or to paraphrase the late Senator Everett Dirksen, “a billion here and a billion there; pretty soon you are talking real money.”

And there have also been some big expenses that the Board has approved with no consideration for financial responsibility.  We really didn’t need a new gym at the high school.  We really didn’t need an off budget renovation of the track for a cool half a million.  Following the Parkland school shooting in find year, the Board jumped into a $100,000 per year over budget ongoing commitment for security personnel. It is fortuitous that Principal Amy Rupp has covered most of this with grants, but again, this is indicative of reactionary spending that speaks of a lack of responsibility.

As I wrote in a recent news analysis for RedbankValley.org, the state and federal bureaucracies mandate so much of the district spending.  PDE doesn’t always adequately fund these mandates, shifting the burden to districts.  But, PDE does not control the cost of labor in individual school districts.  The Redbank Valley School District has created an extraordinarily voracious feeder in its labor practices.

The Board touts their efforts to “cut spending” by citing how many fewer teachers there are now than there were in the past.  However, when you drill down into the numbers, a different story emerges.

Student and Staff numbers

                                         2002-03     2007-08 2012-13 2016-17 2017-18
Student Enrollment                       1450          1207   1146   1083     1116
Elementary Faculty                           55             57       49       46       45.5
Secondary Faculty                           52             49       46       42       38.5
Student: Faculty Ratio             13.6 to 1        11.4 to 1     12.1 to 1   12.3 to 1   13.3 to 1
Support Staff                                  67             66       58       59         57
Administration                            8.5       8.5         7.5         7           7
Student: Administration Ratio   170 to 1 142 to 1 153 to 1 155 to 1 159 to 1

*Chart taken from Redbank Valley School District Press Release #6 September 2017.

This chart clearly shows that in school year 2002 – 2003 there were 107 teachers in the district.  In 2017 – 2018 there were 84 teachers.  Superficially, this is a decrease of 23 teachers; however, the student to teacher ratio decreased from 13.6 students per teacher to 13.3, in effect meaning there were actually more teachers in 2017 – 2018 than there were in 2002 – 2003.  Similarly, the student per administration dropped from 170 to 1 to 159 to 1.  Again, meaning more administrators per students than previously due to a decrease of 334 students over these 15 years.

It is all well and good to talk about paying enough to attract and retain good teachers.  This goal must be tempered with the reality of monies available.  Redbank Valley School District simply cannot afford to pay teachers as much as we currently are.  The money simply is not there.  This tax increase that voters will be voting on does nothing to address the current or future cost of labor in the district. According to “THE REDBANK REFERENDUM FACTUAL INFORMATION” published on the District’s website, ” If a majority of voters vote in favor of a referendum tax increase, the district budget will be balanced without the need for educational program cuts or staff furloughs. The total from the referendum increase plus the Act 1 Index plus the referendum exceptions and PDE adjustment will be enough to balance the 2020-21 budget.” 

“Will be enough to balance the 2020-21 budget.”   There isn’t much here to inspire hope.

At the present time, teachers are working without a contract.  If past performance is the indicator of future actions, we can safely assume that the Union wants 2 – 3% guaranteed raises annually.  Where will that money come from?  The state increases in funding have amounted to less than 1% annually in the past few years with no promise of improvement.  The proposed 2020 – 2021 district budget projects that labor will be about 65% of the district’s spending next year (without a new contract).  A 1% increase in 100% of your spending will be more than consumed by even a 2% increase in 65% of your spending.  (If you don’t understand the math, email me and I will explain it to you.)

The district simply must get control over salaries, wages, and benefits.  The Board must demand that the Union present an immediate 5% decrease in salaries and benefits.  This drawdown must be coupled with a contractual guarantee that all future changes in salaries and benefits will match (plus or minus) annual changes in state funding.  The District must also lower starting salaries to be more in line with incomes within the district. It is unconscionable that a starting teacher should be paid more than the median household income in the area. It is even more egregious that the top salaried teachers can make 50% than that median household income.  There can be no solution to the district’s finances with anything less.

If we lose teachers because of lower pay, then, so be it.  At this point in time in our district we need teachers who have the calling, who love the area, and who want to help rebuild the community.  Those teachers who would leave for a handful of dollars, may not be the best fit in our current situation.  This may seem harsh, but the onus for saving the Redbank Valley School District is completely in the hands of the teacher’s union.

Without an ironclad guarantee of draw downs and raises tied to increases in state revenue, I cannot support the tax increase referendum.

It's Just the Flu!

The note below showed up on Facebook this morning and tied in very nicely with my thinking on this “pandemic coronavirus”.

Throughout most of human history, life itself was dangerous enough to keep the people in line.  Modernity removed many of the natural threats – humans, especially Americans, were less likely in 1920 to be killed or eaten in their front yard than in 1820.  We hardly given any thought today to “lions and tigers and bears, oh my!”, and there don’t tend to be roaming marauders like there were 200 years ago.  In many ways, life has become so tame that we sometimes seem to manufacture things to be afraid of.  A free people, free of fear, are difficult to control.  The horse running free over the hills, is not plowing the Master’s field.  The unharnessed horse has little value.

Novelist Michael Crichton wrote a very good thriller called “State of Fear”, in which he posits that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the World (and especially the American people) were totally free of fear.  Unshackled, or unharnessed, if you will, the American people were poised to explode with a burst of creativity the likes of which had not been seen since the dawn of the industrial age.  Without the looming threat of nuclear annihilation, there was no way to control the people. 

Crichton’s story is that the government, media, and academia conspire to make Climate Change seem like an immediate, existential threat, thereby, giving governments more control over the people.  Like the horse in our previous illustration, the Masters cannot control a free, unharnessed people.
This writer wonders just how prescient Crichton may have been.  The American voters completely derailed the Masters’ plans by electing Donald Trump as President.  The man does not play by Their rules and is an existential threat to the world’s Ruling Class.  After three years of constant attacks, the man just keeps on keeping on.  They can’t figure out how to stop him.  They thought he would resign when they impeached him, but when that failed, They needed something bigger.

Something far more frightening.  A global pandemic, perhaps?

The news media began “reporting” on the coronavirus immediately following Trump’s acquittal by the Senate.  The actual seriousness of this new flu does not warrant the news coverage or the resulting hysteria.  As of this writing (March 13), fewer than 50 people have died in the US.  Fifty out of 320, 000,000 Americans – .00015625% of our estimated population.   More Americans died today from cancer than have died from the coronavirus.  More Americans died on the highways today than have died from the virus.  Many more American babies died from abortion today than from Covid – 19. 

The hype is absolutely irresponsible.

But yet, it is serving the purpose.  Professional sports leagues have postponed their seasons.  Gutless state governors are closing schools – now, I must wonder under what authority, but that’s just me.  The Democratic Party is cancelling their primary elections to give the nomination to a senile sex fiend rather than to a senile, rabid Communist.  President Trump has cancelled his campaign rallies – ah! Now, that’s the big one!  Keep those damn Deplorables from gathering. So goes our First Amendment Right to free Assembly.

The economic impact of all of this hysteria will be staggering.  Events cancelled, pay checks disrupted, payments missed, banks failing – all over a mild flu.  The Ruling Class is taking full advantage of this, fueling the hysteria, trying to disrupt the economy, trying to bring as much misery as possible to the American people, knowing full well that the news media, will blame Trump for whatever bad they are able to rain down on the people.  The more pain, the more economic hardships, the more the media will trash Trump in their effort to restore the Ruling Class to power.

Fueled by the media hype, the Ruling Class has set out to destroy our economy in order to blame it on President Trump.  Mark my words, but in the meantime, it’s just a flu.  Live when you live then die and be done with it.