”An unimaginative failure. That’s the best way to describe the results of the Long Term Fiscal Stability Commission. Instead of courageous, outside-the-box thinking that would improve state government and provide fiscal stability, the commission indulged the same tired argument that government has to tax and spend more.”

That’s how State Rep Cheri Gerou, Weld County Commissioner Sean Conway and I begin our opinion editorial about our experience on the Long Term Fiscal Stability Commission.  After 11 full days of meetings, the message was we must grow government nearly $1900 per year for every Coloradan.  Read the full text at the Independence Institute Web site.

There seems to be a lack of creative, outside the box thinking from our elected officials and leaders and taxpayers foot the bill.  The fiscal note for the commission was more than $27,000.

Voters stood up to school bullies with a resounding NO VOTE on 3A, the massive, forever property tax increase.  The results: 66 percent NO; 34 percent YES. 

Taxpayers sent a strong message to the big spending school bullies.  Live within your means like the rest of Colorado working families, and show taxpayers some respect by opening your books.  Be transparent.  Colorado Spending Transparency predicted the tax increase would be a tough sell without it.

Despite the bullies’ establishment support and the ridiculous amount of money they raised, Citizens Against School Bullies and taxpayers beat them!  Bullies raised over $90,000 (monetary and in-kind) in contributions.  We raised $1100.  Bullies spent $55,000.  We spent $900.

Congratulations and thank you to everyone who supported us.

I just reviewed the campaign finance reports for the school bullies, a.k.a. Yes on 3A.  The largest single contributor to the campaign for 3A, the massive, forever property tax increase — the Greeley Tribune.  Our local newspaper donated $20,000 in advertising.  I wonder if they included all the opinion editorials posing as “news” stories on the front page of the paper.

Other contributors to school bullies include:

Wells Fargo: $5,000
RR Donley: $5,000
Phelps-Tointon: $10,000
Realtor Issues Political Action Committee: $7,000
Ernie Martin: $1,000
Hensel-Phelps: $7,500
Flood & Peterson: $7,500
Conquest Holdings: $1,000
Cache Bank: $7,500
Bank of Choice: $7,500
Holly Ehrlich: $2,500

Readers are welcome to see how Citizens Against School Bullies, the opposition to 3A, spent its money.  On the Colorado Secretary of State’s Web site, you’ll see we raised $1100 total, and have spent about $900.  We were out raised almost 90 to 1, outspent 55 to 1, and they still stole our signs.  We’ll find out on Tuesday, who had a better message.

Following my opinion editorial,  school bullies asked me to prove my facts and figures.  I warned them to be prepared to read because I brought hundreds of pages of documents and studies to back up my position.  Below are links to information that I routinely use to make my points about this disasterous tax increase that voters are being bullied into supporting.

Counting Cash: The Facts about Per-Pupil Spending in Colorado

Heritage Foundation: Does Spending More on Education Improve Academic Achievement?

Separation of Degrees: State-By-State Analysis of Teachers’ Compensation for Master’s Degrees

Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights: National Teachers Union and the Struggle Over School Reform

Remedial education in Colorado higher education:  Page 25 shows Greeley Evans District 6 percentage of first time undergraduates that require remedial education in higher education.

Colorado per-pupil statisics including funding by school district.

Using this intellectual ammunition, we can stand up to school bullies. Vote NO on 3A!  And join Citizens Against School Bullies.

One of the things I find disingenuous about the school bullies’ campaign for 3A is their sudden embrace of charter schools.  In April 2008, Greeley Evans District 6 blamed charter schools for the district’s financial woes.  The Greeley Tribune reported Chief Operations Officer Wayne Eads take on charter schools in the district:

But he [Eads] said much of the crunch was because of the district’s growing charter school student population.

 

Though charter schools, like University Schools and Union Colony Preparatory School, are in District 6, the district’s only role is to pass along the money from state, federal and local levels to the charter schools, keeping about 2.4 percent for administration costs.

 

In the past eight years, while the district’s own student population increased by 9 percent, it saw charter schools grow 79 percent. In the past seven years, the district has seen its charter school allocation increase from $6.8 million to an expected $15.1 million. Each pupil equates to about $6,500 each.

 

“During that time, we have not eliminated a classroom, school or bus route despite loss of revenue,” Eads said.

 

The district makes the argument the growth in charter schools is chipping away at its budget because of fixed operational costs, such as teaching, administration and building costs.

 

The article reveals that students are little more than cash cows for the district.  Less students mean less money.  Charter schools siphon off students so therefore they siphon off cash from the district.  Rather than finding out what it is about charter schools that so many parents find attractive, the district criticizes them for “chipping away at its budget.”

Fast forward to summer 2009 and the start of the push for 3A the massive tax increase.  Now the district is courting, not criticizing, charter schools.  Why?  Because charter school parents are involved, and they vote.  The district wants them to vote yes on 3A so it has included charter schools along with the traditional schools as beneficiaries of mill levy override.

And Wayne Eads is singing a different tune on charter schools.  He recently told a leader in the business community, “I am personally a strong supporter of charters as an expansion of choice for our parents and as competition for the old style model of educational delivery…”

Not surprising that business leader is a actively involved in charter schools in district 6.  Sounds more like campaigning.  Don’t let them BS or bully you.  Vote no on 3A. 

Join our “modest” campaign Citizens Against School Bullies.

The school bullies who are threatening to take away student programs and text books unless  District 6 taxpayers pony up more money are whining.  Apparently some members of the campaign want “equal time” on KFKA because I am helping to organize the opposition to 3A, their massive tax increase.  

What the bullies don’t realize is that the equal time rule pertains only to candidates, not issues. 

My question: why aren’t the series of daily op-eds and a plethora of completely bias “news” articles in the Greeley Tribune enough?  Are they that worried about our new committee Citizens Against School Bullies?  They should be.

Those of us in Greeley Evans School District 6 get daily doses of scare tactics if the massive Mill Levy Override (3A MLO) doesn’t pass.  The real problem is not how much but how the district spends taxpayer dollars.   Check out this great piece in the Wall Street Journal  that explains how teachers’ unions are opposing reforms that lead to greater student achievement among minorities and low income students. 

Throwing more money won’t lead to better educated students; reform will.   We must tie teacher and administrator pay to student achievement and graduation rates.  If we don’t, then parents and students will continue to suffer in the same failing system. Technology, security cameras, new buses, similar starting times may be nice things to have but just having them won’t lead to better educated students.  District 6 must change how it spends taxpayer dollars not just how much it spends. 

Those opposed to 3A please join us at Citizens Against School Bullies.

While taxpayers have to decide whether or not to approve a massive property tax increase, 3A MLO,  for District 6, the school board and teachers’ union are locked in a battle over the teachers’ master contract agreement. (I’ve actually read the entire document.)  The teachers’ union originally asked for a 10.25% total compensation increase.  According to a recent District press release the school board is offering:

• Fully pay the increased cost of teachers’ contribution to their retirement (PERA).
• Fully pay the increased cost of teachers’ health, dental and vision insurance.
• Continue to pay teachers for advancing their own education.
• Increase per-hour pay for non-contract work to $25 per hour from the current $18.

The teachers union will make a decision to accept or reject by October 6. 

How much do teachers make right now for their 184 day contract?  Roger Fiedler, Communications Director, provided me with the following information in an email:

There are 1,285 teachers in District 6. Of these teachers, 926 receive a total compensation package of at least $40,000. The only teachers whose total compensation package is less than $40,000 are part-time teachers or partial-year teachers (those who will work less than a full contract year because they were hired after the start of school).

• Number of teachers whose total compensation package (salary and benefits) is $40,000–$60,000 per year: 421
• Number of teachers whose total compensation package (salary and benefits) is $60,000–$75,000 per year: 229
• Number of teachers whose total compensation package (salary and benefits) is $75,000–$90,000 per year: 170
• Number of teachers whose total compensation package (salary and benefits) is more than $90,000 per year: 106

To put these figures into context, the median household income in Greeley is $39,438 according to the census.  When the Greeley Education Association embraces performance-based pay, I’ll support pay raises.  Right now, we endure below average graduation rates, below average standardize test scores and above average teacher salaries. 

I’m still waiting for specifics on pay for District 6 administrators.

3A is a massive 16 mils property tax increase for Greeley Evans District 6.  District voters will be asked to decide the tax increase with an all mail-in election.   Ballot will be mailed the week of October 12.  Ballot must be returned no later than 7 pm on November 3, to the Weld County Clerk and Recorders office.

 Below, readers will find some facts about the District and the tax increase. Following is the full text of 3A.

• Greeley Evans District 6 funding per pupil:  $9049 for 2007-2008 according to the Colorado Department of Education.
• Total funding from all sources — local, state and federal: $158.8 million according to CDE.
• District says it spends 87 percent of its budget on personnel costs.  According to MLO supporters the District cannot reduce personnel funding.
• District graduation rate for 2008: 65.75%  State: 73.9%
• District composite ACT: 18.2  State: 19.6
• Additional tax per $100,000 of residential property:  $127.36
• Additional tax per $100,000 of commercial property: $464.64
• Accountability: District says it will create a citizen’s advisory board to “monitor and report” how the additional tax dollars are spent.  This board has no authority.   School Board member Bob Stack testified at the state capitol against transparency.

3A full text courtesy of the District Web site.

BALLOT ISSUE NO. 3A:
SHALL WELD COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT 6 TAXES BE INCREASED $16,000,000 ANNUALLY, BEGINNING IN TAX COLLECTION YEAR 2010, AND THEREAFTER BY WHATEVER AMOUNTS AS MAY BE COLLECTED ANNUALLY IN EACH FISCAL YEAR FROM A MILL LEVY INCREASE OF NOT TO EXCEED 16 MILLS, TO BE DEPOSITED IN THE GENERAL FUND OF THE DISTRICT AND EXPENDED FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES, INCLUDING:
• PURCHASE TEXTBOOKS, COMPUTERS AND OTHER INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCES REQUIRED BY STUDENTS AND TEACHERS FOR HIGHLY EFFECTIVE, HIGH-QUALITY ACADEMIC INSTRUCTION;

• SUPPORT COLLEGE, ACADEMIC, CAREER AND VOCATIONAL PROGRAMS TO PREPARE STUDENTS IN THE BEST POSSIBLE WAY FOR THE FUTURE;

• ENHANCE THE SAFETY AND SECURITY OF STUDENTS, STAFF AND SCHOOL PROPERTY;

• ACQUIRE, OPERATE AND MAINTAIN BUSES TO IMPROVE STUDENT TRANSPORTATION;

AND SHALL SUCH TAX INCREASE BE AN ADDITIONAL PROPERTY TAX MILL LEVY IN EXCESS OF THE LEVY AUTHORIZED FOR THE DISTRICT’S GENERAL FUND, PURSUANT TO AND IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION 22-54-108, C.R.S.; AND SHALL THE DISTRICT BE AUTHORIZED TO COLLECT, RETAIN, AND SPEND ALL REVENUES FROM SUCH TAXES AND THE EARNINGS FROM THE INVESTMENT OF SUCH REVENUES AS A VOTER APPROVED REVENUE CHANGE AND AN EXCEPTION TO THE LIMITS THAT WOULD OTHERWISE APPLY UNDER ARTICLE X, SECTION 20 OF THE COLORADO CONSTITUTION?

I’m MAD — a member of Mothers Against Debt.  I guess that I am more than a member; I’m the founder.  I launched the new group on Saturday during my speech at the 912 rally in Denver.  After reading a WSJ article by John Fund titled “The Deficits Are Coming,” I felt compelled to act to protect my three children.

Fund reports that former head of the General Accounting Office David Walker serves as a modern day Paul Revere.  Walker warns:

Our off balance sheet obligations associated with Social Security and Medicare put us in a $56 trillion financial hole—and that’s before the recession was officially declared last year. America now owes more than Americans are worth—and the gap is growing.

Walker puts the gargantuan number into perspective. 

Our $56 trillion in unfunded obligations amount to $483,000 per household. That’s 10 times the median household income—so it’s as if everyone had a second or third mortgage on a house equal to 10 times their income but no house they can lay claim to.

As for this year’s $1.8 trillion deficit, Walker says, ”a deficit that large is $3.4 million a minute, $200 million an hour, $5 billion a day.”

That’s the inspiration for MAD.   Our mission is to hold accountable any elected official who increases our children’s public debt.  The fiscal enslavement of our children really is taxation without representation. 

No dues.  No meetings.  Just a pledge to hold politicians of all parties accountable and to work against those who spend our tax dollars recklessly.   Hell hath no fury like a Mother scorned.

Check out MAD — Mothers Against Debt– on Facebook.