Whose to Blame For High School Taxes and Fees?
- on 09.24.06
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Bob Shelstrom, guest columnist in the Daily Southtown points out where the real blame lies for high taxes and fees charged by schools in his column entitled “Overpaid teachers, school system greed are cause of high taxes, fees“. (Hat tip: Students First)
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High taxes and fees are due more to school system “greed” than student “need.” Consider the fees in high school District 230. Last year, District 230 had a budget surplus of about $3.5 million yet still burdened parents with minimum fees of $286 per student, among the highest in the Southland. The Palatine superintendent claims a whopping $44.5 million surplus this year. They still charge students a minimum $140 fee for enrollment, among other high “use” fees. High real estate taxes also are often due to student-unfriendly decisions by school boards, not “inadequate state funding.” Thornton High School District 205 illustrates this point well. District 205 has among the highest tax rates in the state. Its operating expenses are over $12,000 per student. This is about $4,000 more than Lincoln-Way District 210, a district known for providing quality education at a fair cost. Average teacher salaries in Thornton are about $81,000 for nine months work, around $25,000 above state average. By comparison, the average civil engineer in the Chicago area makes only about $67,000 for 12 months work. Over 100 members of the Thornton staff had a six-figure annual compensation according to recent Teacher Retirement System data. The highest paid teacher in Thornton made more than $137,000. With such highly paid teachers and staff, and spending 50 percent higher than the top high school district in the Southland, Thornton students should be extremely successful, right? Wrong. Report cards show that Thornton students meet or exceed state overall testing requirements at less than 40 percent of the state average, despite having the same percentage of low income students. It was the Thornton school board that decided paying teachers $25,000 above state average was more important than providing the courses, extracurriculars and tutoring necessary for student success, not the state. It was District 230 President Dennis Cook and the school board that decided creating a surplus for future raises and “pork” spending was more important than fair fees, not the state. Remember, the greatest fear of those abusing taxpayers and parents in the “Big Ed” bureaucracy is a well informed and active community. Student need will only beat Big Ed greed when parents and taxpayers diligently work together to make student success our schools’ top priority. |
Taxpayers must get involved. If not, the Big Ed machine will continue to steam roll us while providing less and less for the kids they are supposed to teach. You should take some lessons others taxpayer advocate groups and how they let the public know what their school board is doing. Some of these groups are:
- CRAFT
- VoteNoTax.org
- Southland Education Watch
- Coalition for Public Awareness
- Coalition For Our Children’s Future
- Family Taxpayers Foundation
- the Illinois Loop
- The Illinois Policy Institute
- Extreme Wisdom
- McHenry County BLOG
- COSLA
COSLA is now videotaping the board meetings and placing them on YouTube for all to see. That is a wonderful way to use technology to bring truly open government access to the people. It’s a shame the schools and other taxing bodies didn’t do this themselves instead of the citizens having to take it upon themselves to do this.
[...] Bill Zettler wrote a letter to the editor that appeared in todays Daily Herald. In it he confirms who is to blame for the high taxes and fees in schools. It is partly the teachers’ union that hold the children hostage to get better raises than the taxpayers who pay their salaries. The part Bill doesn’t touch on is the system that overtaxes us, examples here and here, and takes money even without our approval. [...]