Letters to the Editor: School Daze

With the financial meltdown in Sacramento, the education system is gearing up for another fight for tax dollars. There are many arguments pro and con about the cost of effective education.

Questions include: Is the teacher seniority system detrimental in that new teachers and the students are victims of a “last-in first-out” policy? Is a 20:1 student to teacher ratio indeed not the panacea promised? Have unions become the biggest threat to public education thus encouraging more charter schools?

There are also misconceptions about the use of bond and general fund monies. Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District Measure R and S bond funds, for example, cannot be used for operating expenses e.g. salaries and benefits.

In fact, they cannot be used for projects not covered in the initiative passed by the voters. Thus, monies for the come from other capital improvement funds. By the same token, the parcel tax passed by the voters must be used for operating expenses.

The intent here, however, is only to summarize where the PVPUSD currently stands financially. The district has a budget of about $90 million per year of which about $75 million is for salaries and benefits. Reserves are estimated at $6.3 million with a state mandate of 3 percent or about $2.7 million.

There are various estimates of future “shortfalls” with an eye to extending the Measure P and V parcel taxes (currently $7.2 million per year) that expire in 2012-13. The total assessment for 20,000 parcels is $374 per parcel. Seniors are eligible for an exemption that allowed them to vote for a tax without paying it.

The PVPUSD has to plan ahead and it is difficult to determine what the need might be two years from now. Extending the parcel tax with voter approval is one option as is a temporary 5 percent (about $4 million per year) reduction in salaries and benefits that might help save teachers jobs. That is a discussion for another day when Sacramento has an actual budget plan. 

—Don Reeves

Want to submit a ? Send them to meredith.skrzypczak@patch.com.