Financial Frustrations As the superintendent of Aurora R-VIII Schools I must say that I am frustrated with our legislators. If you are a parent or have students in school you should be aware of what is going on not only with your school, but with your elected officials. To place things in perspective, I have spent the last year doing everything that I can do to get the district back in good financial standing. We reduced expenditures by more than $300,000 dollars and with your support, we passed a bond issue that will take care many of the districts glaring needs. With all of that said, I had a budget prepared to go before the Board of Education that I believe would have for the first time in several years kept the district from deficit spending. On Wednesday, June 25th the governor announced the freezing of 1.1 billion in funding due to numerous tax cut bills that had passed at the last minute. I am no fan of taxes, but I do expect that when I drive my car and pay taxes for the highway, the roads should be maintained. I believe most of us feel that if the taxes we pay are going to be used wisely for the services we need, then we are willing to do our part. Last spring was evidence to that fact when our community passed a bond to take care of our student needs by a 70% margin. As long as I have been in education, students and schools were viewed as an “investment in our future.” I am here to tell you that that is no longer the case. The spring was full of political nonsense in which parties were equally to blame. To put it in perspective Missouri has some of the lowest taxes in the nation and our schools rank near the bottom in financial support. SB 509 was introduced as a massive tax reduction bill that threatened to rip school funding to shreds. With many educators making their feelings known, the bill was given a phase-in that would allow schools not to be hurt until the formula for schools was fully funded and would not take effect until 2017. I attended several legislator forums in which we were assured that they were there to support schools and they were just trying to grow the economy. Then in the wee hours of the legislative session the following bills were passed: HB 1296, SB 1865, SB 584, SB 612, SB 662, SB 693, SB 860, and SB 662. The net effect to Aurora Schools was that the budget - I was prepared to bring before the board went from an $80,000 dollar surplus to a $300,000 deficit. If the governor vetoes these bills we will be spared the massive reduction in funds, but his veto can always be overridden. I am frustrated that the children of this state which were once viewed as a precious resource are political pawns. Each political party blames the other and in the end the kids are hurt. The bills that were passed at the last moment despite promises to protect education are nothing more than a slap in the face of the 900,000 students who go to public schools in Missouri. This is my question to our community, “Are the actions of our politicians representative of what we desire?” As a spokesperson for students, I am not impressed. For the kids, Alan Stauffacher
Posted on: Wed, 09 Jul 2014 12:31:04 +0000
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