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Without being too critical of all the good and well meaning people trying to get their arms around the school budget problem, perhaps one more observation won’t hurt. Right up front, I want to say that, while I don’t have any children in the school system, I support the best wages for our teachers that we can afford. There is no better place the county can spend its money.
But, that is not the crux of the school budget problem. The problem is one of priorities. The enormity of the federal budget process makes its comparison to the problem at hand a stretch, but let me remind you of the “Washington Monument” budget argument.
For some years, various administrations tried to cut back all federal department budgets, including the Department of the Interior. One group that reports to DOI, you will recall, is the National Park Service. One of those national parks is the Washington Monument. DOI’s response to proposed budget cuts was, “Well, we will have to close the Washington Monument.” As this story goes, congressman and senators, not wanting their constituents to come to Washington, D.C., and not be able to visit the Washington Monument, would bring pressure to bear to make sure the DOI budget wasn’t cut.
Tb some extent, the foregoing is a fable; to some extent, it is not. What we have here is a problem of priorities. Too many people, with varied interests, have imposed their will on the county and school budget, and, as a result, too much money is being spent in areas that are far below the top of the priority list. That is not to say that many of these items are not “nice to have.” But, you cannot have it all. And putting teacher salaries first on the chopping block is disingenuous and mean-spirited.
The taxpayers should not allow the school administration, to come to a public meeting with the premise that if the proposed budget isn’t approved and they don’t get the half million dollars ‘extra’ they need, then the teachers will not get a raise, and, so it would be implied, it is all the fault of the stingy taxpayers. ,
Look at your own property taxes and how they have increased over the last two or I three years. Using my own as ■ an example, if the county had
91.3%