Support Oak Ridge Schools (please)
May 17th, 2006 by Atomictumor
If you’ve been under a rock, or not reading any local news, the Oak Ridge city council has voted against a budget increase to the Oak Ridge school system, with the expected results being cutting current programs to the tune of about $400K.
The rub of the whole thing, and what a lot of people reading the front pages don’t understand is that the city has evidently been giving schools the shaft for a while. Get this, ripped off directly from Citizen Netmom, a person in the know:
“…the City has been charging the school system not only for parts and labor for bus maintenance (as a regular garage would) but adding a 129% overhead charge plus a 10% ‘administrative fee’” (emphasis mine, because JESUS CHRIST the city is charging our kids out the ass)
The thing with the school board is that they have gone through the proposed budget LINE BY LINE and chopped out $600,000 before asking for the budget increase. Some of the proposed cuts include band camp, bussing within a 1.5 mile radius of the school, elementary school strings classes, nurses, janitors, chaperones, state competitions, and other things that schools have offered for 20 years or so without problems.
The city’s talk is that they are on a ‘flat budget’ plan, and granting the school board’s request would result in a property tax increase, estimated at $30/year for a $150,000 home.
Listen, anybody with any sense at all is going to understand that gutting the school system will have an adverse effect on the city. Less educated people make less money, buy fewer house, and pay less taxes. The crime rate goes up, property values go down, and cities go to seed, and why? Because the city council is concerned that the school board keeps wanting more money? Problem is, the city council unamiously shot down the school boards request earlier in the month, so they evidently don’t possess the same opinion of the worth of the school system as I do.
This is what needs to happen. Everybody concerned about the fate of schools in Oak Ridge needs to email city council and tell them exactly what they need to do. Tell them you can spare a few bucks a month so that you don’t kids walking through your yard to school because the bus doesn’t pick them up.
David Bradshaw
Leonard Abbatiello
Tom Beehan (he didn’t participate in the vote, but email him anyway)
Louise Dunlap
Willie Golden, Jr
Jane Miller
David Mosby
And then to be safe, email the whole crowd at
ccouncil@cortn.org
Don’t know what to say? Try this:
As a concerned citizen of Oak Ridge, I am troubled that the city council does not seem to be supporting its school system. It has come to my attention recently that a necessary, but unfortunate, budget increase requested by the school board has been denied, causing the school board to cut a half million dollars of needed services from their budget for 2007.
This troubles me, as I have always understood that Oak Ridge has a strong commitment to education. In fact, the election platforms of several members of city council (Jane Miller, for instance, mentions it as one of her top three issues in a 2005 Democracy for East Tenneessee questionaire) seem to indicate that the City Council shares my concern for the school system, and Oak Ridge’s future.
Please make the right decision. Now is not the time to try to lecture other officials on remaining within unrealistic budgets, because that only hurts the children and working parents of Oak Ridge.
Thank you sincerly for your time and attention, and for your continued efforts in our city.
Then put your name on it. All you have to do is cut and paste, but seriously, do it. If you have kids, you owe it to them to try to make these people see light.
May 17th, 2006 at 8:18 am
“If you have kids, you owe it to them to try to make these people see light.”
And if you don’t have kids, or they’ve graduated, you owe it to yourself to keep your property values up. Let’s say that $30/yr on a $150K home is the price of housing price stability. OTOH, without the $30/yr, the reputation of OR schools slips, let’s say that home prices drop an average of 5%. That’s $7500 on a $150K home. In this scenario, $30/yr is a bargain.
Even if prices only slip 1% in five years, it’s a wash.
And none of that counts the possible impact of local sales taxes and business developement.
May 17th, 2006 at 8:26 am
Damn straight man. Its pure shortsightedness.
May 17th, 2006 at 9:21 am
There’s plenty shortsightedness to go around. The anti-tax crowd seems pretty strong in the Ridge.
May 17th, 2006 at 9:27 pm
AT, thank you. Your letter is beautifully written and to the point.
Joel, your argument is perfect for appealing to the “don’t raise my taxes” crowd. Oddly, one of the strongest just-say-no voices in the community, Martin McBride, has spoken strongly in favor of fully funding the schools’ request, but covering the cost by reducing economic development funding.
It probably time to put up a fresh post of my own again… I’ve been neglecting my responsibilities there.
May 17th, 2006 at 9:59 pm
“Joel, your argument is perfect for appealing to the “don’t raise my taxes†crowd.”
Really? Then they’re stupider or more illiterate than I dreamed.
Anyone with a rudimentary grasp of elementary logic can see that self-interest argues tax support for schools. However, I do assume that the reader is possessed of rudimentary reasoning skills.
You are on the right side of this issue, Netmom, but just because clowns like McBride use anti-logic doesn’t mean that thoughtful people should abandon reason.
May 18th, 2007 at 7:28 am
[…] he noted that it was exactly one year ago — to the day — that I’d thanked him for a very supportive post for our school system on […]