Please read this for an example of how school districts are being treated and school finance numbers are being manipulated.
“At best, these statements are irresponsible, demonstrating the lack of due diligence and fact finding every citizen of this state should expect from our governor. At worst, they are intentional downright lies with the sole purpose to pursue a political agenda without morals; akin to a scorched earth, take-no-prisoners attitude. Neither is acceptable from our state’s highest officeholder…
“Our governor wants us to believe that USD 457’s spending actually increased 9 percent from the 2013-14 to the 2014-15 school years. This is simply not true. What the governor did was compare the 2013-14 actual district spending to the 2014-15 budget (a plan for spending). Anyone running a household knows that you can’t compare a budget from one year to actual spending from another year.
“What we can do is compare the 2013-14 budget (plan) to actual 2013-14 spending. In the case of USD 457, the budget for the 2013-14 school year was $94.3 million. Its actual spending was $88.5 million. To suggest that the school district was irresponsible by saving our taxpayers $5.8 million flies in the face of facts. In fact, our school district saved 6.2 percent of its budget.
“We can also compare the 2013-14 budget to the 2014-15 budget (plan to plan). Again, for USD 457 the 2013-14 budget was $94.3 million. The budget for 2014-15 (our current year that is incomplete) is $96.5 million, representing only a 2.3 percent increase from one year to the next. From my perspective, given the economic conditions here in Garden City, this certainly looks like a prudent, wise and responsible plan — and a far cry from the governor’s suggestion that spending increased 9 percent.
“For the governor to suggest that USD 457 was irresponsible in providing the salary increases is an insult. Our governor in making this statement is telling us that it is OK to allow business owners to pay zero state income tax so that their profits may increase by more than the rate of inflation, but that our state and citizens have no moral obligation to make sure teacher salaries for the very people training our business leaders don’t even have to keep up with inflation. As USD 457 pointed out, 2013-14 salary increases covered only about 50 percent of the rate of inflation and the 2014-15 salary increases covered roughly 85 percent of the rate of inflation. So relatively speaking, teachers in Garden City are earning less today than they were two years ago. And we want to attract the best teachers?”
Read more here: http://m.gctelegram.com/opinion/column-marcy-governor-wrong-on-usd/article_353904e8-4d64-5a95-8d5c-b93d0fc5b336.html