[Durham INC] School Budget Meeting (last night) -- coverage and some things to consider

[Melissa Rooney]

BCR has a great summary of the DARE/PTA school budget meeting last night:

http://www.bullcityrising.com/2011/02/bearish-dps-budget-projection-foreshadows-another-year-of-job-cut-local-tax-debates.html#more


We really need to lobby the state for:

1) flexibility with regard to how to use lottery money. Apparently it can only 
be used for construction type things right now, so we can't pay for teachers 
salaries or teaching supplies with this money.

2) Restore the sales tax refund for public schools.

3) Enable PTAs to NOT pay sales tax when they actually purchase things. Unlike 
most places, right now the state requires that the PTAs pay the taxes and then 
file a tax return every quarter requesting reimbursement for sales taxes paid in 
the quarter.  This is usually too much work so no one does it and the state 
keeps money that should be going to better local schools.

4) Require that there be quarterly counts of school populations so that charter 
schools who take students and then return them to public schools do not continue 
to receive funding for those students. Apparently, student populations are only 
counted twice per year, and there are numerous cases where Charter schools 
continue to get funding for students that are now at DPS schools.

5) Give the same requirements to Charters as Public schools with regard to 
things like requiring public transportation and reduced/free lunches. If 
Charters get public funds, then they should have to provide the same services to 
low-income and special needs kids as the public schools. Charters may adopt this 
idea, philosophically, but we need to require it in order to ensure it's put in 
practice.

6) No vouchers (or whatever we're supposed to call them) to parents who 
home-school or send their kids to private schools. They benefit from a better 
educated Durham population as much as the rest of us do.

7) Since the state is reducing money for schools and increasing the 
responsibilities (financial and otherwise) to localities, particularly with 
regard to maintenance, construction, etc.,  it is only right the state also 
relinquish much of the requirements they put upon localities in this regard. If 
they aren't going to pay for it, the state should require it. For instance, we 
should be able to build middle and highschools without having to build athletic 
fields for each one. We have many public parks that go completely unutilized 
during school hours. Things like marching band practice, football practice, 
tennis practice, etc., don't happen during the school day and could use our 
public parks instead of requiring these expensive and environmentally damaging 
athletic fields on the school site.

8) This is more for the city and the county than the state -- stop charging 
public schools to use park facilities and consider building future parks and 
libraries near/at schools in order to enable more use of these facilities by 
school students/teams/etc. And what about a hotel and/or RESTAURANT (as opposed 
to prepared food) tax, so that we can get more financial help from the >60% of 
nondurhamites that work in Durham (and spend most of their time here)?

9) School impact fees solely on NEW development (as opposed to the generalland 
transfer tax that we currently can impose by referendum).


--Melissa


      
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