We have to vote here on Tuesday for an opt-out to increase property taxes for

[volsboy]

school funding. Are your schools there in as much of a budget crisis as they are here? The state has cut it's aid to schools drastically. Teacher pay sucks here and a lot of teachers are leaving the school district. It seems this crisis is common around the country.

[midtnvol]

If I could roll back the clock, I would have spent my life working an eight to five job. Don't have to carry your work home with you and employers that think you owe them many of your free hours. Not treated like professionals at all. All that and the pay suxed to the max.

[73Volgrad]

If you do not vote to increase funding for schools, then all you cheap people need to stop screaming about poor performing schools and clamoring for public vouchers to pay for private schools. If you cannot afford to pay your taxes, you did not plan well. Maybe you will have to sell or not buy that 200 HP bass boat that runs 100 MPH.

I am retired and I planned on extra money to pay my taxes. I also never spent more than I could afford. I also paid extra to send my kid to private school and never asked or expected taxpayers to pay for it.

[Creek Walker]

We have two school districts -- a county district and an independent city district. The city district has always been strapped for cash. A benefactor pumped millions of dollars into the school system in the '90s and early '00s, but now that money has run out and last year they had to request the state legislature to increase the property tax rate. So they're in much the same shape. It's a problem everywhere, as you said. State and federal budgets alike are slashing their education budgets...which is a slap in the face to our public schools considering that they're simultaneously cranking up requirements for educators. Even worse, the federal government waved a carrot in front of the horse's face with the "Race To The Top" funding. Tennessee was one of the states to accept the funding. With it came a boatload of new requirements for participating schools. Now the funding has run out, but of course the additional stipulations remain.

Public schools all across this nation are in a precarious predicament.

[PirateVOL]

Then you have Hillsborough County (Tampa) that puts two schools on double shifts in an attempt to force a yes vote on a penny sales tax increase to fund the new Tampa football stadium and two new high schools.  The tax passed (barely) and construction started the NEXT DAY on the football stadium, a YEAR later on one high school and 5 years later on the 2nd!
Oh, the 2 high schools on double shifts?  Stopped IMMEDIATELY.

Interestingly, one of the HS on double shifts just had a new addition completed about 10 years later, within the school system budget.

BTW, the two new HS were put into the plan to force a yes vote on the new stadium, which had failed 2 previous times.  Also, this episode is why I made a commitment to never enter the new football stadium unless the VOLS are playing there, which I have kept.

Then there is Springboro (OH) schools.  A funding increase for two schools was approved by the voters.  Then the school board said they needed to keep the two old schools open along with the 2 new ones even though attendance was DECLINING.  The board then put a new increase on the ballot to fund the increased maintenance cost, twice - failing each time by considerable margins.  The board shuttered the 2 new schools, held another vote, that failed again.  The next general election each of the board members up for reelection were defeated, along with the mayor.  Long story short, the superintendent was fired, the old schools closed, the new schools opened, all within budget.

Bottom line is that IMO most school increases are NOT REQUIRED. 

[HerbTarlekVol]

In Knox County people are fed up with the Nazistic appointed school superintendent.  He doesn't listen to the teachers, he doesn't listen to parents, and he doesn't listen to the taxpayers.  He is only accountable to 5 of 9 school board members, as that's what it takes for him to get what he wants. 

And the school board isn't much better.  They continue to extend his contract to the point where it is cost prohibitive to fire him because he would be owed so damned much money as a buyout. 

I'm pretty much like most everybody else in Knox County - we are fed up with the lack of accountability of both the Stupidintendent (spelled like I mean to spell it) and the school board.  The individual teachers by and large to a great job.  They simply have little support from their in school administration or from Central Office Administration.  It's not a money thing - the funding is there.  What that money is being spent on by the administrative powers that be is the issue here. 

[midtnvol]

In Knox County people are fed up with the Nazistic appointed school superintendent.  He doesn't listen to the teachers, he doesn't listen to parents, and he doesn't listen to the taxpayers.  He is only accountable to 5 of 9 school board members, as that's what it takes for him to get what he wants. 

And the school board isn't much better.  They continue to extend his contract to the point where it is cost prohibitive to fire him because he would be owed so damned much money as a buyout. 

I'm pretty much like most everybody else in Knox County - we are fed up with the lack of accountability of both the Stupidintendent (spelled like I mean to spell it) and the school board.  The individual teachers by and large to a great job.  They simply have little support from their in school administration or from Central Office Administration.  It's not a money thing - the funding is there.  What that money is being spent on by the administrative powers that be is the issue here. 

In our county the power shift occured in the last school board election (a 4-3 support edge changed to a 2-5 deficit)and this was last fall. Our director of schools (superintendent) resigned and was actually forced out before the end of the school year. He wasn't even allowed to award diplomas at the HS graduation. I think most people are happy he is not there anymore but that may have been a little overboard. He also didn't believe he was accountable for his spending. We have two school plants that are over 50 years old and he was proposing purchasing land to construct a new school but would not tell the county court or the board what type of school he was planning to have built (a high school or an elementary school), needless to say his request for funds were denied. By law he doesn't have to line item his request but hell they just wanted to know what they were going to put out cash for. Some people don't know how to handle power.