Letter to The Editor

    Letter to the Editor:
    Down to the wire on the school override campaign

    5 Comments

    By Mike Schroeder

    (November 2, 2013)

    logo_lettereditorWe are down to the wire on the school override campaign.  For votes to count they will have to be hand carried by 7PM on Tuesday. 

    I along with many others still encourage a VOTE NO on the SD9 override.  There are too many inconsistencies with the programs that are being offered and the way the district is managed. 

    • Property values went down and are creeping back up – all during the past override period. So the property value argument really does not track with override dollars.

    •  Using the school system to tout attracting population and professionals to the Sedona Market really does not fly when Sedona population growth was flat over the last 10 years, even losing population according to the last census when AZ gained 10% in population.

    • The misuse of school assets as described by past teachers who have written into our website whose comments have been posted.

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    • Parents putting their kids into Charter Schools because they are not happy with the public school system.

    • Sedona Performing Arts center mismanaged and losing $50K a year.

    • Graduating kids from RRHS who are unprepared for college, average 65% drop out of college.

    • The elimination of trade courses, limiting the opportunities for our young people.

    And the list goes on – for details, including reference sources go to www.USALadyLiberty.org

    What a NO vote does is send a WAKE UP call to school management that the public is NOT PLESASED with the current state of affairs, especially with an average of 55% of an INCREASED property tax bill going to education.  VOTE NO, and let’s see what changes the district can make, in programs, personal and efficiencies.  If they actually try to make improvements, bring value for the dollars they are allocated instead of just doing basically what Camp Verde is accomplishing with no override, (looking at ALL three schools as comparison which the YES people don’t want you to look at), then come back next year with an override request of 5 or 6% instead of 15%, they might find a lot of NO voters supporting the efforts of a more efficient school district giving more opportunity to the kids.

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    5 Comments

    1. J. Rick Normand on

      What Verde Valley “Vote Yes” Advocates want is to own the best looking horse in the glue factory (the global job market)! A Harvard study found NO RELEVANT CORRELATION BETWEEN INCREASING PER-PUPIL SPENDING AND GAINS IN TEST SCORES. This is why of the 1.66 million high school students in the class of 2013 who took the SAT, only 43 percent were academically prepared for college-level work, according to this year’s SAT Report on College & Career Readiness. For the fifth year in a row, fewer than half of SAT-participants received scores that qualified them as “college-ready.”

      In 2009, the U.S. spent more than $10,000 per student, ranging from $6,356 in Utah to $18,126 in New York. Utah graduates a higher percentage of its students than does New York.

      Yet, school funding is the number one reason given by government officials and U.S. Education Dept advocates to support the need to impose a property tax on American citizens. I am not against spending more money on education, I’m just against spending any more money for a failed system of education that will never work! Vote NO and actually help our kids by channeling them into a new and different free-agency (for teachers) system that will teach our kids valuable global job and scientific skills.

    3. Tommy Acosta on

      Hi Rick and Mike:

      You put up a valiant fight and even though a solid majority of Sedona voters could not say “no” you definitely got a point across.

      All these zillions of dollars spent across the country on football fields no one needs, Astro Turf that cause cancer, giant school sports stadiums and other big-ticket pet projects that suck up the big portion of education funding is an issue and should be an issue of concern.

      Just like the zillions spent on defense that get wasted every year with taxpayers paying $10 dollars for screws that cost a dime, the taxpayers get screwed by the contractors in education who with their friends in influential places and in school boards across the country plunder educational funds, leaving students and teachers in classrooms begging for pencils.

      Like funds for defense, education funding has become a trough for those who build and sell big things to schools that don’t need them. This is called “business as usual” in America.

      But the bucks in this election are not going there as we have been told. The yes side got that point across. The majority of Sedona voters in good conscience could not say no to money that goes directly into the classrooms.

      Last bond election was lost by four votes. Parents, teachers, students, community leaders banded together, ran a solid campaign and won by a large margin this time around.

      People studied both arguments, took their time, figured they could afford the 60 or so dollars in extra-yearly taxes, made up their minds and voted.

      But to break everything down to its simplest components. It’s always easier to say yes than no.

    5. J. Rick Normand on

      Excellent analysis and commentary Tommy! Of course, the “Yes Vote” camp probably owes you, as much as anybody, for their success.