An article headline from The Forum, Fargo, North Dakota, 4-17-2012, "(I won't name the town) passes ipad2 plan for school." Subhead: "School board OKs $595K initiative for 900 students to get own devices." That's $595,000.00, folks. Just in case everyone doesn't know what "K" means.
So where will that money come from?
Well, the school...right? The school will pay for it. But where does the school get it's money? Uhh, dhh, I don't know. Well, if you have kids and don't own a home, you maybe don't know. That money will come from homeowners paying property taxes. And if the school doesn't have enough bucks in their account they'll ask the county tax assessors to go out and reassess homeowner's properties. Will those homeowners have a choice about it? Well, no, they'll have to pay the tax or, eventually, get out. Sometimes the schools (or interested parties--I don't exactly know how it's done, but I know it's done) will approach the local government and get it on the ballot. The citizens get to vote for or against.
But guess what: It doesn't always stop there. The citizens can vote down the initiative, but then the schools or the "interested" parties will go out and get their signatures again and get it back on the ballot again, and again, and again, until they get their way.
I'd like to quote the superintendent of that school, and he does have a point, but I think he's sending a very bad message to our youth. Here's the quote: "...the future of education likely isn't tied to print textbooks, pen-and-paper quizzes or other traditional school trappings." That's just one sentence. He said more, but there's no point in me recopying more.
So what's the bad message he's sending our youth? Pretty much that tradition is dead. No more pens and pencils, paper, penmanship, books where one can actually turn physical pages...one can just get everything from a TOUCH screen. Well, one can get a lot from computers, I'm not saying that's a bad idea, but I am saying that we need to keep the hand basics alive too.
But what I'm really saying is that homeowners shoud not have to get their taxes raised in order that every kid can have an ipad2. Parents should make that purchase, or, maybe the school should buy just a few that the kids can "use" while in school. But it sounds like the school will just hand them over to do with as they will.
Another interesting article appeared in that same issue. The headline: "Gov tells agencies to hold steady" The subhead: "Dalrymple: We must act as 'good stewards of the people's money.' "That's Governor Jack Dalrymple of the state of North Dakota. Good for you, Governor, you stand for what's right, so I hope you can pull it off, because, yes, it is the people's money.
What, exactly was he talking about? This isn't a quote; it's what the article said: "...directed state agencies to develop "hold-even" budgets...and to suggest spending reductions of 3% in case savings are needed." The Governor really had me until "...in case..."
I won't go any farther into that article but will get back to my opinion: Why not suggest savings all the time? Why can't extra money go into savings accounts? (Hopefully an honest bank, or maybe a credit union.) Why? I'll tell you why. Because if these agencies and bureaus and whatever and whatever don't spend their entire budget they won't get the same amount next year. So arises the local pork barrel.
This brings us back to property taxes. The more money the "whatever" places get, the more they spend, and then need property tax increases to keep paying for the sometimes-unnecessary programs they created when they had excess money.
It's a maddening cycle that needs to stop.
Force these bureaucrats and school boards to learn real budget management. People of North Dakota, vote to eliminate property taxes and lead the other states to eliminate theirs.
It can be done.
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