Despite recession, most voters support school bonds and levies
01/09—The nation’s economic troubles did not appear to discourage most voters confronted with school bonds or levies on the Nov. 4 ballot.
Nationally, 230 out of 330 school bond measures supporting K-12 education were approved on Election Day, generating about $24 billion, the Bond Buyer reports. The overall approval rate, nearly 87 percent, is better than previous years.
In fact, the overall approval rate of K-12 bonds in all of 2008 (about 84.5 percent) beats the annual rates for the last four years.
“Despite what people say about the economy, people are continuing to support their schools,” says Rick Pratt, assistant executive director of the California School Boards Association.
California voters approved an unprecedented number of local school bonds, even though the measures needed a supermajority of 55 percent to pass. Among 86 bonds on local ballots in the state, 78 were approved, generating $16.8 billion for school facilities, class size reduction, teacher recruitment, and other purposes.
Voters approved all 23 school bonds on the ballot in Los Angeles County, including a $7 billion school construction bond for Los Angeles Unified, which was promoted as stimulating job creation.
And in California’s San Jose County, where there were five bonds and four parcel measures on the ballot, all passed.
Marc B. Liebman, superintendent of the Berryessa Union School District in San Jose County, was pleasantly surprised that the district’s first-ever parcel tax, which needed a two-thirds majority to pass, was approved with 72 percent of the vote.
The measure calls for property owners to pay a flat rate of $79 annually for five years. It will generate about $1.3 million to $1.4 million a year for five years to raise teacher salaries; keep school libraries open; and provide math and science tutoring, hands-on science materials, and technology infrastructure.
Liebman attributes the strong community support for the tax increase to several factors: The district held a lot of discussions before putting it on the ballot. Seniors, who are exempt from the parcel tax, voted in large numbers for it. The district stressed the message that “better schools will raise your property values.” And, unlike prior tax measures, there was no organized opposition.
In Ohio, 61 percent of the tax issues on local ballots were approved, the highest rate in the past six years, reports Scott Ebright, deputy director of communications services for the Ohio School Boards Association.
However, a large percentage of those were renewals, which tend to have a higher passing rate. Among 138 ballot questions seeking new money -- for capital projects, emergency operating levies, or other purposes -- 83 failed.
In Minnesota, the passage rate of school funding measures on the Nov. 4 ballot was “a little worse than usual,” says Kirk Schneidawind, associate director of government relations at the Minnesota School Boards Association.
Of the 42 school districts with at least one operating levy question, 22 had at least one that passed, MSBA reports. Just seven of the 13 school district capital facility bonds on the ballot passed.
In Minneapolis, however, a referendum to generate $60 million a year for eight years passed with nearly 71 percent of the vote. It will support class size reduction, technology upgrades, and programs to improve reading, math, and science instruction.
After an operating levy failed by a two-to-one margin in the rural Perham-Dent, Minn., school district, Superintendent Tamara Uselman surveyed voters to find out what went wrong.
“By far, the biggest reason it failed was that voters thought the levy was for too long a time period,” Uselman says. It would have raised taxes about $695 a year for 10 years, generating about $8 million for the district.
Other reasons cited by voters were “fear of a recession” and “opposition to additional taxes no matter what they’re for,” she says.
The failure of the operating levy means the district is facing “massive cuts,” Uselman says. “We’re looking at a bloodbath.” First areas to cut are things like “mops, brooms, and lights,” then the district will look at support staff, including social workers and counselors, and might have to close a preschool and alternate school by the end of the year, with those students moved to other facilities.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, voters rejected all of the major tax cuts on statewide ballots, including a proposal in Massachusetts to eliminate the state’s income tax and a proposal in Oregon that would have removed the cap on how much federal income taxes citizens can deduct from their state income taxes.
In Maryland, a proposal to place up to 15,000 video slot machines around the state to raise revenue for education passed by a large margin. “If the economy was in a better condition, getting that passed would have been much more difficult,” says David Griffith, director of governmental and public affairs at the National Association of State Boards of Education.
Missouri voters approved a measure to create a new fund with gambling revenues to support K-12 schools. Maine voters rejected a measure to authorize a casino to provide funding for education.
In Oregon, voters rejected measures that would have required local boards to establish a merit pay plan for teachers and prohibit non-English-speaking students from being taught in their native language for more than two years. The Oregon School Boards Associations opposed both proposals.
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