June 10, 2005

More on the Metro Tax Proposals

Today I received an excellent Powerpoint presentation created by Metro Councilman Eric Crafton (Bill Hobbs has it up too with comments of his own). From the looks of it, the Metro school system doesn't need additional funding...it needs better leadership. The teacher to student ratio is low, teachers are paid the second most in the state, spending per student is the highest in the state (and above the national average), but the performance is utterly pathetic compared to schools in the rest of the state.

So, should we continue to pump more money into the schools in Davidson County?

This was in the comments section of my last update of Tuesday night's Metro Council meeting, and I feel it deserves to be posted for all to see...
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Posted by Jon Crisp

I am the current Chairman of the Nashville Republican Party. I lead one of the groups opposing Metro Nashville's property tax increase, a tax that hits the poor and elderly the hardest. Saturday at approximately 2pm on cable channel 3, a replay of Metro Councilman Eric Crafton's presentation on the results of our community's investment in the school system will be rebroadcast. I urge EVERYONE to watch it. To cut to the chase... Metro spends more $ per pupil, has the lowest Teacher - Pupil ratios, and yet has next to the lowest graduation rate in Tennessee, the lowest ACT test scores, and State Report Card grades in an eight county region and when compared to the other large cities in Tennessee. All this aside...the Metro School Board has demanded of the Council that they ignore the Mayors incredible $541 million dollar budget offer (Which many think is excessive) and give them a $571 million dollar budget. Did you know that we have 12,750 fewer kids in the schools than we had in 1975 but we spend over $180 million dollars (inflation adjusted) each and EVERY year more on our schools than we did then. Folks... Thats over a BILLION dollars every 5+ years! Yet it is still not enough for them.

It matters!
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Well, technically, I am the only person from Nashvillefiles.com, but the people who have been out there with Ben Cunningham of Tennessee Tax Revolt are the ones who really deserve the appreciation.

Next Tuesday night at 7:00pm is the next Metro Council meeting. I hope to be there. It doesn't matter which party you side with. What matters is that if you live in Davidson County and are going to be taxed "for the children," and can see that it's quite obvious that more money won't help the schools...well, you should be there as well.

More:
By the way...Crafton was one of the few people on the Metro Council who abstained from every budget or tax proposal vote on Tuesday (see my results here).

Comments:

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I'll be the first to admit, I'm fairly ignorant, about most things. I did however surf into this councilman's presentation, but it wasn't so black and white for me.

In the 70's there was a crapload of "white flight" from Metro due to busing. My folks put me in private school for that reason. Private schools thrived at the time, most having long waiting lists. Did these schools take the poorest and the dumbest? I don't know, but if they did then the net result to Metro would be that test score averages would rise. I suspect the inverse is also true.

In the 90's, there again has been a lot of "white flight" from Davidson county to our surrounding neighbors. I'm going to make a big assumption that the people moving, are on the wealthier end of the income spectrum, not rich, just financially more free to move.

The councilman't basic point was we spend a crapload of money, we should have the best schools in the state.

The councilman did not address, to my satisfaction, the other differences between the student populations of Metro and the surrounding counties.

Average income of the student population, I think, counts.

I will however consider any evidence the councilman has that poorer children in large minority districts perform as well or better than their white counterparts in equally sized, equally funded school districts.

Posted by: Short and Fat at June 12, 2005 08:44 PM