YES ON MEASURE D
There has been a lot of frustration vented in various screeds on this and other blogs about Measure D. For many of the NO folks, opposition is so engrained as to be a matter of almost religious ferocity such as besets the minority Party of NO that holds our State Legislature hostage when it comes to financial matters. It is that mentality that in many ways helped to create the dynamics and background that torments us. The reality is that we have to support Measure D.
Our public schools in the MDUSD are in the midst of a growing disaster from a lack of stable reliable funding to provide educational services. Unlike other districts that are supplemented by an existing parcel tax in the many hundreds of dollars that feed into its general fund, MDUSD is in the situation of fixed service costs with a quickly declining revenue stream.
For the past year MDUSD has shed item after item and it is now withering away to its core; the teachers and their subjects. Class size is going up, quality expectations are falling down. As the principal of Ygnacio Valley Elementary/Christine Richardon put it: “If this does not pass it will be just awful.”
Voting YES on Measure D will help to slow that fall and help give MDUSD a little cushion as the further destruction of our school system comes from an economic and political reality that we do not like.
Reality is NOW. Teachers need to be on the job, and children need to be taught in public schools, NOW.
((SPOILER ALERT: Those of you committed to the fantasy world that all your alternatives are going to come to fruition and appear mysteriously within the next 6 months should skip this next section.))
Those of you who think that property taxes are arcane, regressive and grossly unfair, I agree with you. But that will not change in the next six months. It has not changed in the last 30 YEARS. The Parcel Tax is the ONLY method allowed to the MDUSD to raise money. They cannot charge per pupil, they cannot even charge by occupied dwelling in their district, they cannot put in a graduated income tax, they cannot put in a voucher system and they cannot print the money. The reason for this is that YOU ALL did not allow them that power. They are a One-Trick-Pony when it comes to revenue and this is it. There will be no system change in the next 6 months, nor is it likely to be even remotely possible since the next major state election is 2010. That is reality. Teachers need to be paid and students need to be taught, NOW. That is why you vote YES on Measure D.
I understand that some of you do not believe in the public school system or even mandatory education or the concept that education is a societal benefit that should be shared by even those who both: do not have children and those of us who seemed to have evolved to this point of reading this without having ever been a child or in need of an education either.
Reality is that children are going to be educated in the public school system and the public has to pay for it because we as a society have said so. If you want to change that, go to it, but it is not going to change in the next 6 months. It is not going to change in the next 6 years. Teachers need to be paid, students need to be taught and kept in school NOW.
That is why you vote YES on Measure D.
The MDUSD is laying off teachers and stopping the teaching of subjects, they have reduced programs that capture the imagination and inspire their students to stay in school. This needs to be stopped.
That is why you vote YES on Measure D.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
What people don’t understand is that an uneducated community will lead to crime in your neighborhood and an untrained, unskilled workforce that will be taking care of you when you’re elderly. People don’t realize that what happens to these kids directly affects them. Soon they will be pushing for a tax to beef up law enforcement. No one ever thinks about long term effects and investment now which pays off greatly later. People are just so focused on saving a buck now. Guaranteed they will be the first to bitch about an increase of crime in their streets and of course it will never be their responsibility. Point the finger, it’s always someone else’s fault. Never willing to work together to address problems, only willing to criticize and never offer any other realistic suggestions. And State Receivership? Oh, I guess because it’s worked out so well for Oakland. Give me a break!
MDUSD is a deadman walking, Edi. Measure D can’t save it. The props can’t save it. No more bail out money’s gonna save it. Some one has to tell the kids “no more”
When your house is on fire, letting it burn down to the ground so you can redo the drapes, structure and the color scheme is a strategy for some, but I prefer to save the children first and then put out the fire and take a less destructive approach to remodeling.
First of all, you talk about OUR and WE when it comes to rewarding poor management, but then you talk about YOU ALL when the adults in the room tell the children it’s time to get serious. It’s the same electorate, Edi, you can’t have it both ways.
Your laundry list of problems only proves my point that MDUSD is hopelessly adrift and supporting any new dollars to that rat hole is a waste of good money, or what’s left. In fact, in describing how far down the totem pole parents are kids are in the monstrosity that is MDUSD, your own statement tells it all…
“Teachers and their subjects” are all that is left.
It’s all about employee wages, benefits, 2,000+ pages of state micro-management, and insurmountable debt obligations. Parents and children don’t figure at all in MDUSD’s mad calculus of brutal unions, state bureaucracy, and incompetent local management.
You are right though, the time to take action is NOW. By Voting NO on Measure D
Unfortunately my $99 will not pay for your laundry list of wonderful things that will never see a dime of Measure D dollars.
Too little too late
Spending any new money on MDUSD is throwing money away
I encourage taxpayers to STOP THE MADNESS NOW and vote for STATE RECEIVORSHIP of MDUSD by voting
NO ON MEASURE D
Measure D would cost a property owner $99 a year– not enough to buy a cup of espresso a week– even at McDonald’s–or a movie ticket or manicure a month, in exchange for music and high school sports programs, and the services of librarians, custodians and vice principals, and more. Sounds like a good deal to me.