School Budgets approved - for good reason
Despite rising gas prices and a flagging economy, voters in all 17 of Monroe County’s suburban school districts approved their school budgets on the first try Tuesday.
Well, this opening ‘graf from a D&C article simply struck me the wrong way. I suppose in other news people, bought gas, drove to work, took college classes, dropped their kids off to day care, bought groceries, tended gardens breathed air, and well, you get the idea.
I’m not sure what the reporter is trying to imply, infer or otherwise. Maybe that voters voted against their own self interest? Sorry Dorothy, we aren’t in Kansas anymore.
I voted to approve my budget and for my incumbent School board members. There are a number of reasons. Schools, successful schools, are integral to a community and they grow the future. I beleive my school board has figured out how to oversee the school district and, basically, I trust them.
Want a selfish reason? Well, how about tying my home property value to a school district’s success. Frankly, are property values going down in towns with really solid school districts? Even in a lousy economy the value is stable.
So, both altruistic and selfish motives play here. Taxes, properly invested, pay huge dividends - school taxes are just another example. Is the overall system perfect? - No - the drama over the past few years in Greece and their school budget, coupled with lack of oversight, immediately come to mind - but guess what?- that is working itself out as well.
I think the quote from the paper means that voters are smarter than the reporter who wrote that article. Voters know what is in their own self-interest; all the reasons mentioned by Stlo7 are the reasons the budgets were approved. The reporter can only see that more school board spending means less money in his pocket.
One look no further than yesterday’s 51 count indictment in the Assessor Fraud trial in Greece to know that smarter minds are now presenting real competition and I am confident that the school theft will soon meet the same ending.
And we’ll keep watching for the involvement of those crafty Greece elected officials who think that incorporating the fraud removes them from guilt!