Of Education Bondage

 … A Tea Party Idea…

There is an article in today’s Journal about homes purchased in 2006 and the subsequent rise in property taxes (as a result of an increase in the assessed value) beyond a 3% assessment value cap. A big chunk of the increase is due to the increase in tax percentage for Albuquerque Public Schools from a $351 million dollar bond issue (for new school construction and building maintenance) passed in September of 2006. I haven’t received my property tax bill yet so I went online and got the numbers.

My property taxes have gone up a whopping 37.35% on the whole and the biggest chunk is a 47.62% monetary increase for Albuquerque Public Schools. Now, of course, this is to build new schools (they are sorely needed on the Westside, in particular) and for “building maintenance.”

Let’s see what I’m getting for my whopping 47.62%:

A new high school on the Westside. Granted, our kids won’t be in high school until 2012, but, hey, it’ll be there and will probably be just as over-crowded as Cibola High School with its 3,000, or so, students.

A new high school on the southwest mesa. Nice school. Our kids won’t be going there.

At the start of school, the air conditioning (aka “swamp cooling”) wasn’t working properly. It took them weeks to get it fixed but by then the temps had dropped. Kids were being sent home sick because of the heat.

Huge controversy about an alternative high school being moved onto our elementary school campus. Sure, they moved the portables, built a fence, put in a new, paved road to the high school, but they didn’t tell anyone before they did it. I don’t have a problem with those kids being so close to our school because I now understand why APS did it, who those kids are, the reputation of the principal, and the safeguards that were put together to keep the little ones separated from the handful of students trying to get their lives back on track. I do have a problem with APS’ “go ahead and do it and ask for forgiveness later” attitude about it. Would I have protested it if I had known ahead of time? “Protest” is a strong word. I am sure I would have asked questions about the process and definitely would have wanted to know how close the school would be, what steps/measures would be taken to ensure the high school kids wouldn’t affect the little kids, and, now that I’ve driven down Western Trail at the same time these kids are getting out of school, I would have definitely mentioned that teenagers in cars next to an elementary school is an accident waiting to happen. Those kids speed out of the parking lot, show-off, and are a menace on the road. That is, if you happen to be behind, in front, or alongside them while driving. These problems need to be addressed, which I’ve tried to do with my principal, to no avail. To. No. Avail. This is what I’m talkin’ about…

Okay, there are lots of other construction projects going on at many, many schools and all of this is a good thing. I’d like to think that my taxes are going toward improving schools and while construction is part of it, let’s take a look at what other things my taxes have bought me, so far this year:

Scandals. Too many to list… again…

Our youngest is in special education. He’s autistic with a myriad of other “special” needs. His new teacher was a first year, regular education teacher, who “lost” him twice because she hadn’t read his IEP which noted that he needed to be with someone at all times. We just worked things out with her, including his homework, classroom instruction, disciplinary procedures, whom to call, and a preliminary IEP when…

Without any notification, our youngest suddenly had a new teacher. I don’t know if ya’ll know anything about autism but a very important aspect of someone with autism is to live within strict routines. Any upset of routines are cause for breakdown, set-backs, and chaos. Yet, suddenly, youngest has a new teacher and how did we find this out? Our older boys told us. Not the principal, not the assistant principal (she was already gone but we didn’t know this yet), and not from his current teacher or the Special Ed office. We were wondering why the little guy was pitching a fit every morning and wouldn’t get on the bus. He kept saying, “I dun wanna!” when we asked him to get on the bus and go to school. He wasn’t like that all year, last year, and actually loved going to school. Oh, how things had changed!

The loss of both the school principal and assistant principal. I just recently found out about this as it started out as a rumor until I finally got in touch with the principal (who, once again, hadn’t been returning my calls) and he confirmed that the assistant principal was gone and that he, too, would be leaving at the end of November. No communication… no new principal in the works… but, yes, there’s a new assistant principal and it would be a “good idea” for me to introduce myself to her, considering all of the issues we’ve had with the school, special ed., and the buses. Uh-huh.

Long conversations with educators, not just at our school, but at several schools, based on my involvement with APS, about the future of APS, their concerns, and the worst morale (Who can blame them?) I’ve ever encountered in a school district. These are people who genuinely care about our kids and their futures, their careers and future, and the future of, not just APS, but of education as a whole.

So, there you have it in a nutshell: just a few of the things I personally paid for through my increased property taxes. I now understand, just a little more personally, exactly what it means when someone says, “Let’s get down to brass taxes.” (Or, brass tacks, if you’re a stickler for phrases.)

I’m pretty sure people pay attention to what’s going on with their property taxes, sales tax, income tax, etc… If they paid as much attention to what’s really going on with our schools, our children’s’ education, the morale of teachers/principals/everyone within the educational system, they might actually demand some changes. I know I have.

To. No. Avail. Frustrating doesn’t even begin to describe my personal feelings about what is going on with public education in the city of Albuquerque.

“Never give up; never surrender!” is a silly little catch phrase from a silly little movie called, “Galaxy Quest.” The premise of this movie is that a bunch of actors play space heroes on a television program (ala Star Trek) and are beamed up by real aliens who have emulated everything they saw on the “history newsreels” and now need the space heroes to help them deal with a nasty alien attempting to kill them all. The actor/captain eventually acts like a real leader versus a washed-up, drunken actor, and saves the day.  Eh.  I digress…

My point, and I do have one, is that it’s going to take more than a new superintendent to create significant change within APS. It’s going to take everyone paying attention to what they are paying for and the results of those investments. Yes; education is an investment. I guess you can buy leadership but that doesn’t guarantee leadership or improved education results. My property taxes, sales taxes, lottery results, legislative financing, grants, and every other way a school district can procure monies, is everyone’s business when it involves public schools. There are over 90,000 kids whose future depends on those monies and I want to be sure we are all getting our money’s worth.

One way or another, it’s up to you and me to get involved and demand better.

Never give up; never surrender.

Just pay your bill and be sure you know what you’re getting out of it. If you don’t like it, you can always throw a small tea party by going to Board of Education meetings, pressuring your city councilor, pressuring the mayor, pressuring the superintendent of schools, and, for God’s sake, VOTE!

By the way, my APS tax amount is 49.7% higher this year than in 2005. The incline is steady but the results have only gotten worse. Wouldn’t you be piping-hot mad or at least spurred into action? Less than .1% of the city population has given their input into the characteristics, qualifications, and priorities they’d like to see in the next superintendent. A whopping (hint of sarcasm here) 9.5% of registered voters approved the $351 million bond issue.

Yep. You get what you pay for and you get what others will choose for you through apathy. Our schools need the taxes to build new and fix old schools. That’s the price of growth. What’s it going to cost you to be involved to ensure money goes to the right places, leadership is at the helm, and the school board actually listens to an increasingly involved community?

Priceless.