My school district turned down $32 million dollars.

[donco6]

Because they wouldn't approve a $22 million match that would have raised their property taxes by $2.50 per month.

This is the third time in three years we've lost our election. I give up. These people deserve what they get. Maybe there's a reason our test scores are so low; we're trying to educate the stupidest people on the planet.

[nightrain]

1. sad not to get the benefit for so little increase...

[Lorien]

2. I always remind the self centered 30-50 somethings who won't vote to fund

public education that the kids they are denying decent schools will be the people who are in charge when they are old and in need of services themselves. Ought to give anyone pause.

[unhappycamper]

3. Yea, but you're getting three new National Guard armories.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=259x26879

[donco6]

4. Super!

I can use some wry humor about now.

I have five more years before I retire (assuming the public retirement program isn't completely eliminated by that time). I'm just going to hunker down and barrel through.

[NYC_SKP]

5. Hope they build them next to the High Schools...

This way students who want health care and jobs won't have so far to go.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

6. I have a dumb question.

They would have gotten 32M on their 22M investment - a 45% immediate return. Could you have made the match, scored the 32 mil and then rebated the increase?

[donco6]

8. No.

The grant was for capital construction. The project was about $54 million for a new high school complex to replace ours built in 1964. The new buildings are the collateral for the $32 million. Without the capital, there's no collateral, which means there's no money.

But nice try! :)

[rucky]

7. When the schools go to crap...

property values will go down & people will lose at least that much in overall home equity. Hey, but at least they won't have to pay as many taxes!

[donco6]

9. They'll just have more to complain about -

when the "dirty Mexicans" move in.

That's what this is all about, really. My district is terribly racist against the kids in school (75% Mexican-American). They see them as all "illegals" (even though they're not). They don't want their tax dollars going toward anything that would help them.

[Ms. Toad]

10. Ours lost by fewer than 100 votes.

Our last chance - a $25 million match - for around $13 a month. Sad thing is, the emergency repairs to the existing buildings over the next few years will cost almost as much (at least on a monthly basis - albeit for fewer years) with no state match.

I know the economy is tough - but to throw away $25 million when it is going to take that much anyway out of pocket in this economy is just plain short sighted.

[rurallib]

11. I shall pontificate here a bit.

The anti-tax, anti-education agenda that the repugs foisted on the US with Reagan is now paying its dividends. And it is not good.
When once the US used to be on top in nearly every area of science and technology, we have slipped incredibly badly.
Teachers are poorly paid, school buildings in various states of disrepair and our students continue to lose ground in the global race.
And the cost of going to college is rapidly turning college into an unachievable dream.
All this will cost the US hugely in the long run as more and more of the technology and advancements come from overseas. And Americans who see jobs going overseas can't seem to make the connection.
Saved some pennies today, cost big dollars down the road.

There is a district near me that refused to pass a school bond for many years. The high school burned down and the bond issue still failed on the next vote.
Repugs have really done their job on scaring people on taxes, government and schools.

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. Yeah. I don't know how my boys will be able to go to college. They are very bright but

so are a lot of other kids who will be competing for what few scholarships there are out there. I want them educated but I don't want them saddled with crippling debt for a decade or more.

Damn this country for not having publicly-funded education beyond Pre-K-12, like some civilized nations out there.

[donco6]

12. UPDATE: After two days, the override portion is UP by FIVE VOTES!

After counting all the ballots that arrived on Tuesday, our mill levy override measure is up by five votes, prompting a mandatory recount.

The bond issue is behind by 56 votes. We're ordering a recount of that, too.

[Kievan Rus]

14. Tell me about it

My high school spent $17 million in taxpayer money to construct a new high school football stadium...while the desks in the music rooms were literally falling apart and we had history books from the 1980s.

More than anything else, that showed me where our district's priorities were. It was not totally unexpected, though; it was a district filled with shallow, vapid, materialistic, ignorant-and-proud-of-it types that probably know more about Paris Hilton than Barack Obama.