Local School Board Model - Broken

The July 1st issue of North Shore Now included a report that the Fox Point Bayside School District School Board voted in favor of a budget that increased spending by $2.2 million. An astonishing increase of 14% in the face of declining enrollment. While most people outside of government have learned it is fiscally prudent to figure out how to live within one’s means, the School Board is off spending other people’s money as if the people serving on the Board had lost all common sense. And we thought MPS was out of control.

It is becoming clear that the model of local school boards with local control and taxing authority is broken. The School Board is beholding to the powerful and well financed teacher’s union. The Board responded to the voting parents in the district with kids in the schools, garnering more subsidies for about 900 students. (In the interest of full disclosure, I had three children benefit from the largess of previous Boards). Unfortunately, no one is representing the interests of the taxpayer.

While the local school board model is broken, it will take a long time to replace it with something that works for all constituencies. In the meantime, the alternative is to restrict their access to money. The Taxpayer Bill of Rights has been effective in this regard in states like Colorado, even though the entrenched special educational interests continue to peck away at it. It is time to reign in tax and spending machines like the Fox Point Bayside School District. It is time to reconsider TABOR