Ready for a New Local Parcel Tax, Moraga?

Moraga School Superintendent Bruce Burns states pretty clearly that Moragans are facing a parcel tax in their future as cuts in education funding take their toll on local schools.

In a message titled: "The Time Has Come for a New Local Parcel Tax," Burns makes his case in the most straightforward possible manner in the January issue of the school district newsletter.

"The MSD has reached a crossroad where an ever increasing gap between revenue and expenditures necessitates taking local control to ensure we can continue to provide our students a quality educational experience," Burns writes. And it is to that end, he continues, that the district's governing board intends to vote on a parcel tax resolution for a May 2012 parcel tax election at its January 10 meeting.

Burns bases the district's rationale for calling for a new tax on three main factors:

• State reduction of per-student funding (more than $1,200 per student over the past three years)
• More than $1.2 million in district wide cuts since the 2007/08 school year
• District dependence on support from the Moraga Education Foundation and school PTAs to fund valued programs

"The quality education we are so proud of has become more challenging to provide," Burns wrote. "The State's structural deficit has significantly impacted our schools and is chipping away at the quality we strive for in educting our future surgeons, judges, engineers, teachers, musicians, software developers, and community leaders."