STEVE BARNES: School board member resigns out of disgust for state support

TO THE EDITOR:

Here I sit on one of the best school boards with one of the best superintendents and staff in the area.

People ask, “Why then resign?” The state is gradually taking over control of every school district by manipulating the purse strings. By the summer of 2011, we had already endured several years of cuts.

Inflation, retirement increases, losses in per-student funding and other variables all play into it.

Then the legislature decided to cut $470 a student even though there was a projected excess in the School Aid Fund and the state’s general fund, which played out to be true later.

Under Proposal A, the extra 2 percent sales tax was supposed go into the School Aid Fund, along with the lottery and local taxation to be redistributed to the schools in what they call the foundation grant, which is currently at around $7,000 a student. Roughly two-thirds of that amount is from sales tax/lottery and one-third is local taxation.

After the $470 per pupil cut in 2011, they told us, “Here is how we are going to give you $200 per pupil of that money back: We are going to make the school employees pay

20 percent of their benefits and tax pensions.” Our employees were already paying a portion of their benefits. Basically, all they did was indirectly tax the employees.

Then they told us the way they would give us another $100 per pupil back for “best practices,” including privatization bids; we already met that criterion.

The latest thing they did in 2012 was attempt to address a problem school officials had pointed out for years. Somehow when Proposal A was passed, it left a $5,000 difference in the amount of state aid some districts receive. This still exists. They now are giving lower-end districts an extra $120 per pupil to try to close that gap.

So, yes, we now are about $20 ahead per student, but because of cost increases and the loss of 88 students, we have had to continue to cut. We tracked the student loss somewhat, and the majority of the students left because economically it was an advantage for their parents to go elsewhere in the state for work. Strong evidence that the state economic policies are not working is here in the Morley-Stanwood area. Only a small portion of the declined student enrollment was from school of choice.

The only reason the disparity in state funding between the districts got addressed has nothing to do with the years that education people have been trying to get state legislators to address it. It was because leaders in the Chamber of Commerce finally acknowledged the adverse effect that the education cuts have had on the local economies and the education system.

What I find wrong with the $470 cut and how the money was manipulated is that all it succeeded in doing is devaluing and degrading the teaching profession plus scaring the public – the very wrong thing to do, economically. We would be better off today if they had done nothing at all.

Teaching is the very core of what public education is all about – not some legislator, administrator or board member. By dragging it down, you are not just dragging down public education, but our kids and our future.

What’s been done to the teachers I compare to taking educated, experienced professional chefs then cutting their wages and putting them on a street corner making and selling hot dogs. Then giving them only mustard to put on them and ration the mustard. They won’t be chefs very long.

This applies to teachers also. There isn’t much reason to be a teacher anymore or to stay in teaching. These intelligent people will find something better to do with their college education. ...

The summation of this for me is I thought when I became a school board member I would be somewhat representing and helping the kids, but I get reminded that I represent the voter taxpayers of this district. ...

We simply cannot continue to use the School Aid Fund as a rainy day fund as far as I’m concerned. It should be used for nothing but K-12 education, for what the voters agreed to under Proposal A.

People who genuinely know me, know that I will go out of my way to help people who want to help themselves or can’t help themselves. I’m sorry I can no long represent people who elect and re-elect (representatives) who don’t adequately support public education. If you disagree, then we will have to respectfully agree to disagree.

Steve Barnes

Former treasurer of the Morley Stanwood Community Schools Board of Education

EDITOR’S NOTE: This letter is longer than the 500 words typically allowed for a letter to the editor, but today we made an exception.