Recently at a neighborhood party, a few of the moms were talking
about school and the high cost of private school tuition. Two of them
had their children enrolled in parochial elementary and high schools.
I
believe it is the right of every parent to choose the type of school
their child attends.Sending children to private school or
homeschooling them is a financial sacrifice many parents are willing to
make, but as our property taxes increase it is a choice that is
becoming increasingly difficult. (The major portion of your bill is the school tax).
That discussion reminded me of something I read in January's 2007 Elmbrook Link regarding the budget.
There has never been a greater need than now to recruit all possible resident-student enrollments into our schools,
according to assistant superintendent for finance and operations, Bob
Borch. The amount of revenue that the State of Wisconsin allows school
districts to receive each year is based on enrollment figures under
what are called, "state revenue caps." Either the School District of
Elmbrook increases its resident enrollment as one way to produce more
revenue or it must continue to make dramatic spending cuts to keep the
annual budget in balance. (Emphasis added)
When
that publication came out, some people made the comment that because
property taxes (school taxes) were getting so high, soon
residents would have no choice but to send their kids to public
school--they couldn't could afford tuition on top of the property
taxes. Elmbrook was taxing us out of our ability to choose! This holds
true for homeschoolers too. (Most homeschool moms cannot work outside
the home and teach their children at the same time, so they are single income families.)
The
absurdity of Elmbrook's rational in their wish to recruit every
possible student is unbelievable. In very rounded numbers, the total
cost per student is $13,000/year. The district receives about
$3,000/student from the coveted state reimbursement mentioned in the Link. The remaining $10,000 per student comes from us, the ELMBROOK School District taxpayers!
But
cost aside, is this what Public Schools were designed to be? Something
that parents had to enlist their children in with out a choice? A drift net that would snag and snare every living creature in
its path? Or was the concept of the public school set up to be a safety
net, designed to catch those who fell through the cracks, to keep them from injury.
If we look at the history of public education in the United States,
we see that the Puritans were the first to implement free public
education in the colonies. They wanted their children to be literate so
they could read the Bible. It is ironic that the very reason for free
public education is evolving into a
mandate to attend a school where God cannot be mentioned nor a Bible
read.
The first free public school in the United States was not available until the mid 1800s. (Section, The Beginning of the Public Education System)
The common-school reformers argued for the case
on the belief that common schooling could create good citizens, unite society
and prevent crime and poverty.
These
reformers thought education should not just be for the wealthy, who
could afford tuition to a private school or a tutor, but be available
to all American children. It was not until 1918 that there even was a
Federal law on the books requiring compulsory elementary school attendance in all
states. These laws came about to ensure that all children, regardless
of financial ability to pay, could reap the benefits of a basic
education.
Many families today are already being priced out of
their ability to choose the type of education their child receives by
the very system of public education (and resulting high property taxes)
that was created to ensure all children be educated. If this pattern
of ever increasing school property taxes continues, then ironically,
the only families that will still be able to choose will again be those
who are very wealthy, or in select districts, the poor who qualify for
school choice vouchers.
Elmbrook must come to
terms that they must find other ways to work within their budget than
just continually trying to increase their student enrollments.
Recruiting all the resident students who currently attend private
schools, non-resident students, and now the possible 4K students, just
to receive the paltry (in comparison to the total cost) state aid
monies to boost their budget is not the answer.
Enrollments
will continue to drop. That is just the reality of the aging baby boom.
Adding 4K may ease Elmbrook's budget woes for now (not the Embrook
taxpayers' burden), but how will that help when enrollments drop
further?
Elmbrook will suggest adding all day 4K, to double the
state aid money. Then they will suggest adding 3K. The real answer lies
in cutting the fat out of the budget and improving efficiency, and only
asking the public to fund our own students.
Elmbrook
needs to be reminded that they only receive about 25% of actual cost
for each Elmbrook student from the state (that includes Elmbrook taxes too)
and that it is the Elmbrook taxpayer that must make up the remaining
75%.
Elmbrook's drift net mentality costs the taxpayer about $10,000 per student. At that price, how does snagging a larger catch help us?
