The Colonial School District is in dire straits. They MUST pass their referendum attempt today. If not, expect a huge amount of cuts and layoffs. Unfortunately for Colonial, this comes at a time when all eyes are on the state budget deficit.
I’ve learned there are three camps when it comes to referenda.
There are those who promote referenda because it is an essential must in Delaware for a school district to be fully funded. I tend to live in this camp most of the time with very few exceptions.
There are those who believe a referendum exists to pillage taxes out of the wallets of citizens within the district. They fight referenda tooth and nail and sometimes post “fake news” to make sure a referendum does not pass.
There are those who don’t even know what a referendum is. They get their property tax bill and pay it, no questions asked. These campers are by far the biggest of the three. They don’t vote in referenda and have no knowledge whatsoever of what it even means.
Colonial’s referendum today is do or die for them. Yes, I often state we need to see more transparency when it comes to education funding. Our State Auditor does not conduct yearly audits of school districts even though it is required by state law. But that doesn’t mean I oppose referenda in Delaware. Until a new mechanism is created which changes this warped way Delaware has with funding schools, the referendum is the only way for school districts to survive. There is a very good chance our legislators will approve Carney’s idiot idea of school boards being able to pass a one-time match tax without a referendum. I oppose this for more reasons than I can count. But Colonial had this referendum planned way before Carney even introduced this idiot idea.
To vote no is to vote no for students in many ways. If you enjoy bloated classrooms with over 30 kids in the class, then you will vote no. If you feel all administrators are an evil monopoly choking instruction in the classroom, you will vote no. If you feel no taxpayer dollars have ever funded a school, you will vote no. All three of the above are what the referenda naysayers like to promote. There is a difference between wanting transparency (folks like me) and those who don’t want education funding at all (the referenda naysayers).
Many of the folks who oppose referenda don’t even have kids in the school district. They have kids in private schools or they are elderly citizens who feel they have been taxed too much. The private school parents actually want a school voucher system to take place so their taxpayer dollars go towards me and not the community.
I support the Colonial referendum today and if I lived there, I would vote a resounding YES!
The Season Of Myths 