In the past two years, innovators have been providing
technology to citizens of emerging countries that would help them connect with
their governments and give a voice to their ideas and desires. That’s probably
a strange concept to some Americans, after all we can send emails to government
leaders, attend meetings and testify, fill in their online surveys. All that
SHOULD give our ideas and demands weight with our elected leaders. It’s called democracy.
If any of this sounds familiar, than maybe you just attended
one of the Jeffco Board of Education’s community budget meetings, where you
submitted your ideas about spending priorities for the budget. You may have
gone to board meeting where you voiced your opinion. Maybe you were one of the
13,000 people who submitted a survey telling the board how you wanted your tax
dollars spent.
Overwhelmingly, the Board has heard from the public through
the survey and through public comment that these are their top ideas and
desires for budget priorities:
- Keep class sizes small (this will mean spending money to
hire & retain teachers)
- Increase employee compensation (Jeffco staff have not had a
raise since 2010)
- Maintain electives (again, the requires teachers and materials)
- Increase funding for full-day kindergarten (at least $700, 000 for 13 classes is needed)
To do all this will require some re-balancing of the district’s
budget.
-The Board's proposal of giving more than between $7 milion to
charter schools
was not supported by the community
(NOTE: According to the board meeting notes and the board presentation, three members of the Board are proposing:
Equalizing mill levy override money to match what
neighborhood and option schools received. This would required between $6 to $8
million. It would not be given as loans to Charter School, but given outright.)
-The Boards' proposal of increasing funding for gifted and talented
students was not supported by the community.
Through a democratic process that represents the opinions of
Jeffco parents, students and staff, RIGHT NOW, not last November, a loud message
has been sent to the Board of Education about what their constituency wants.
All indications are that the Board of Education is going to
ignore democracy, ignore the majorities' voice and do what they damn well
please and support their cronies (watch who applies for the next charter school). History has shown what happens to
elected officials who take this course.
Unless its stopped:
- The Board will probably take
$700,000 from the budget that could go to neighborhood schools and give it to
charter schools.
- The Board may give teachers
(but not principals) a raise, but it will then be reduced by the board’s new
requirement that employees pay more for their retirement fund(they don’t get
Social Security). So, no real increase for teacher salaries.
-An increase in health
insurance costs for Jeffco employees has already been approved by the Board,
and Jeffco employees will receive no salary increase, or other means of
offsetting this increase. It looks like Jeffco salaries may actually go
backwards.
Tell the Board of Education that this is America not a
third-world country and that democracy is alive. Keep making your voice heard.
The $7 million the board has earmarked for charter schools
should go into free full-day kindergarten, or to retain and hire teachers and
keep small classes and electives.
You can see summaries from each of the Budget Meetings at
the bottom of this page:
You can see summaries of the survey here:
