Dear Editor,
The League of Women Voters of Diablo Valley endorses Measure A, a ballot measure from the Moraga School District asking for a parcel tax of $225 in Moraga, in support of small class sizes, offsetting state budget cuts, attracting and retaining highly qualified teachers, and financing up-to-date technology, text books, and support services for Moraga’s K-8 schools. Measure A includes a Citizens’ Oversight Committee and an exemption for low income seniors. All funds must be spent locally, and a 2/3rd majority is required.
Moraga schools face increasing teacher salary increases and utility costs, in addition to severe cut backs in state funding. The League has a 92 year history of strong support for public education and adequate funding. We endorse this effort to stabilize adequate funding for Moraga schools, and also strongly recommend increased and reliable funding from the state of California. Ballots must be received by May 6th, either by mail or dropped off at the Moraga Public Library, 1500 St. Mary’s Road, Moraga. We urge your “Yes” vote.
Lee Helena Lawrence
President, League of Women Voters of Diablo Valley
Moraga
Good news is there are plenty of home buyers willing to pay top dollar for your home so they can have their kids go to a good school with a low student to teacher ratio compared to the rest of CA.
And it is always the new home buyers who is expected to pay for things like the old beat up tired roads which were never properly cared for - or help fund the schools etc. But the folks who think they are old timers or even just second Generation peeps think they have some special sort of right or allowance that removes them from the economic responsibility that comes with living and owning a home in a area that commands a very strong home value. LOL If you can't afford $220 a year to make sure class sizes are kept to an ideal size then you for sure cannot afford to buy your home in Moraga at todays prices. You can't cash in your house chips without pointing to the solid highly regarded schools and if you do not support keeping the schools as top performers you would be wise to sell your home and move given its value could very well drop in the coming years.
I already pay for multiple taxes/fees/other to happily support MSD and AUHSD. I have simply reached the point where I believe those that want improvements or additional funding beyond what has already been approved should feel free to provide it, fundraise for it, whatever.... WITHOUT creating an ADDITIONAL general obligation for the rest of us.
Cut the funding and we will still be far exceeding the other schools because of this reason. The home values will remain comparatively high and the only issue will be the continued drumbeat of "give us more money or I we will kill Johnny's (or Jill's) future" that seems to be the only thing that comes from the District Management. Apparently they are powerless to do anything about it which means it will take a wholesale change at the State and Fed levels to get something done. I would support no additional revenue until the fundamental liabilities and tenure structure is corrected.
Choices are good.
Regarding the schools and why a parcel tax is being proposed. Do you really need someone to explain to you that when $600,000 of state funding which has been part of the budget for years is no longer available - that either the funding needs to be found in other ways or major changes need to happen given there really is no money to pay for the three teachers required to keep class sizes as they are? Your so stuck on what you've been paying you have no idea what your not paying. LOL
Example of Rude Selling a home for 1 million dollars - for which you owe nothing for and paid $50,000 for 35yrs ago. New buyer moves in and discovers the roads leading to the home turn to mud in the winter because said home owner and their fellow long time friends never considered properly funding road repair and servicing. It is no different than selling your Mint condition low mileage car for top dollar and failing to tell the buyer - you failed to change the oil in the engine for the first 20,000 miles - and the engine throws a rod on the buyer as they pull onto Highway 24. How about this - you sell your house for 1 million dollars its a 5bd family home ie "FAMILY" and the whole point of buying said home was for the schools and the buyer finds out the town is full of old timers or 2nd Gen folks who pay nearly nothing in taxes and vote against any type of funding effort to retain class sizes at the schools and for sure think that paying to fix the ignored roads is just foolishness, Christ Moraga has nothing regarding City community centers or large city buildings where exactly do you think all those fees and piles of cash you supposedly pay go? You BET people paying 1 million bucks for a 1960's home in Moraga expect at least one thing to be fully supported by ALL Moraga residents. Schools! and preferably the roads we drive on.
1) I am aware of why these items are being suggested 2) I have kids in both MSD and AUHSD, however they will be leaving at some point, and I've seen that parcel taxes never fade away. 3) You are making the "rookie mistake" of assuming a vote against ANOTHER school parcel tax would indicate similar votes for "other" issues (roads, etc...). Not accurate because they are completely separate issues which can't be lumped together. Again, I believed in and voted for the past two parcel taxes. If you believe it is an absolute necessity to raise additional funds for the schools, the mechanisms are already in place via MEF or EFO or whatever is in Lafayette. Take your inflated sense of self-worth and get on the phones calling your friends and neighbors, and get them to give-give-give... I agree with Carol that a lot of the loudest screamers are the ones who move back to "civilization" (as they put it) as soon as the kids are out of the house.
1. Cause versus Effect. Great parents make great kids who make great students who make great schools. Great schools attract great parents who will pay up to be near great schools, and the cycle continues. Teachers help. Infrastructure helps. Higher budgets help. But, make no mistake: you cannot make a bad school great with money, and it is hard to make a great school bad by tightening the belt. 2. Run-rate versus marginal change. The base quality of the schools is very high. Changes at the margin are just that. Do not confuse (uncomfortable) belt tightening with (fatal) torso bisection. 3. Shared benefit versus equal benefit. At the margin, all home owners benefit from better schools and, at the margin, more money tends to make the schools better. HOWEVER, not all homeowners benefit equally. The benefit is highly concentrated on homes with school aged kids (about 1/3 to 1/4 of homes I think). Why is it "fair" for them to be subsidized by others? If we split the tab for dinner and you chip in a dollar and I pay the balance, if that appropriate since "we both contributed and we both benefited?"
A ranking system would be devastating but may finally be the impetus for us in this district to really make a fundamental change. Which we really should do anyway. Do you really expect me to believe that we don't focus on education funding enough ( as the article suggests) ? I have lived here nearly all my life.All I have ever heard is the constant threat of cuts and funding. It has never been taken lightly, just maybe ramped up since Prop 13 passed and then gets louder during downturns in the economy. The problem is the spenders who just can't ever have enough. Now it is due to special programs for illegals and underperformers. They already get a disproportionate share of the funding as it is now. If the governor and legislature approve this funding shift, you really have to examine who you vote for and why?
Compulsory taxpayer funded schools have been a disaster for this country and I'm glad to see the arguing and bickering over parcel taxes for schools. Perhaps as these arguments between the two sides escalate and various parcel tax measures win and lose, the two sides will finally get so mad they give up and agree to the best possible outcome - abolishment of public education. People can then move to a voluntary parent funded school system. My six kids attend a private school and that model really inspires active parent involvement and a genuine debate over whether this or that program is cost effective & worth the money because if we decide that it is then we know that it'll mean more out of pocket tuition cost. Once this public education fiasco has been abandoned we can then move forward and begin dismantling social security.
As I said 2nd gen your sense of entitlement due to time served is a joke.
The person who cuts my hair - her daughter failed to pass the basic teachers requirements for public school. Guess where she teaches? You got it a private school. When you can hand pick your students and parents - you can still generate decent results with less than adequate teaching skills or resources. As pointed out by Chris those hand picked parents and kids probably would have done just as well being home schooled. LOL #1 impact on any schooling experience is student to teacher ratio folks. You can't keep that ratio set to a favorable number paying teachers with IOU's. Any idea what one of the largest for profit training organizations considers an ideal student to teacher ratio? Oracle teaches over a million people a year highly technical software and hardware skills with over 600 classrooms world wide. The class rooms are restricted to 24 max and most courses have no more than 20 registered students allowed. You folks really think over 24 kids per class is a smart solution to budget short falls?
As for higher ED? Thats a whole different ball game and has nothing to do with k-12. I know people who share your same logic - they also think that the Armed Forces DRAFT was the best thing going for the US population. It gave basic training and social skills to thousands of people who otherwise would be considered hopeless non contributors in our society.
Regarding home values - the people we bought from made 58% on the home in 4 years. At current value if we sold today we are at break even. If you are buying now (or bought in the past 3.5 years) you are buying the value maintained by us "old-timers" at a huge discount. Your welcome!
If an educated community is better than a non-educated community for the community as a whole as well as the individuals in it...Then how is providing a standing army for the common defense through taxpayer dollars different than providing for a base level of education that makes for a strong economy which is what keeps foreign powers from pushing us around? Seriously, the military has its own uniforms and marching bands and 187 F22 fighters at $420 million apiece that may never see combat. What would you suggest for that socialist endeavor? Parental oversight? Private militias instead? And the public highways? Would you prefer toll roads? Toll roads with private militia checkpoints? The GM toll road? The AT&T toll road? I am a capitalist, Harry, but I am not crazy enough to want toll roads or nuclear power plants built by the lowest bidder, the one is who trying to get his start in the business... An educated populace is more important to our common defense and economic survival than all of those F22s put together. Apparently you don't believe that gov't has a legitimate role to play in a capitalist country, but most people have rejected that proposition through the experience of history.
I do, however, think it's foolish to pretend that any of us can move the needle on this issue by voting down a local parcel tax for the schools. Let's face it, funding for CA schools was decimated by Prop 13. And while irregular, voluntary contributions in local districts have filled in much of the gap, guaranteed community contributions - as through a parcel tax - are what a district really needs in order to prepare the balanced three-year-projected budget that Sacto ultimately requires. To those who complain about being asked to spend 65 cents a day on school funding, I'd propose: (1) Prices for gas, food, prescriptions, utilities are subject to market forces and are rising each year. You absorb these. Add rising costs for education into the mix. It's logical. (2) You agree to absolve my children from paying into Social Security and I'll absolve you from contributing to their education. Our family will fly solo from here on out.
"I am inclined to think that the grass roots of our trouble is our tax-supported school system. It is teaching by example that might makes right; that the end justifies the means; that there is no law superior to the will of the majority. How can we expect the youth of the land, when the public generally believes in tax-supported schools, to believe in freedom, the American way, or a definite limited government?" "Once the socialistic principle is admitted, once the idea is sanctioned of using government’s powers of coercion to take the fruits of the individual’s labor for the ‘collective good,’ there is no logical stopping point.”
Have you ever worked some place where you got a pink slip every year in March for the past 5 yrs? I have a family member who has received a pink slip the past 4 years in March - and it was strictly budget planning related and seniority based. This time she was offered years credit on her seniority status and offered a better role at the school district which laid her off 2yrs ago. Davis Unified was forced to give her a pink slip due to unpredictable budgets but kept telling her she would have a job they just need to find some funding to keep her. She went with the actual job offer with seniority, both districts wanted her she was tired of the pink slips and needed a job. Moraga faces teacher quality issues with the same exact budget problem.