Imagine a Durango community in which all of our youth, regardless of which school they attend, receive the education they deserve. That’s my vision for our students, and I’ve heard it from others in our community, too. Over the past year, the Durango School District 9-R Board of Education has met with parents, teachers, students and community leaders to discuss the future of our community’s educational needs. Students share that they want a meaningful and relevant educational experience, parents urge us to prepare their children for successful careers, businesses clamor for a more educated workforce, and community members want Durango District 9-R, Animas High School and Mountain Middle School to collaborate because every single child’s future counts.
If we as a community are to achieve this vision, we need your financial support when you fill in your election ballot. Our educators are out of options, and that’s why I’m urging you to vote for 3A.
Durango educational leaders and our staff have exhausted every possible way to stretch dollars and shave costs without negatively affecting our children’s learning. At the same time, Colorado constitutional amendments have prevented Durango schools from receiving $37 million in financial support while new government mandates have also added costs. Additionally, our district has one of the lowest property taxes among the state’s 178 public school districts. With no apparent solution coming in the near or far future from state legislators, we no longer have enough money to support our schools and maintain the excellence we’ve achieved in the past.
Ballot Issue 3A is a mill levy override that will raise $1.7 million in the first year. The revenue will be shared on a per pupil basis in an unprecedented partnership: whether students are enrolled in Durango 9-R, Animas High School or Mountain Middle School, they will all benefit. Our schools share the common goal of providing a top-notch education for our students.
I’m asking the Durango community to invest in our children and in our community’s future. By passing 3A, the voters will support several of our schools’ critical strategies:
Preparing students for college and the workforce;Safeguarding small class sizes and protecting programs valued by the community;Maintaining the district and schools’ ability to attract, retain and train high quality staff; andEnsuring safe facilities, effective learning environments, and up-to-date infrastructure.If approved, 3A would generate approximately $1.7 million of additional funding, while asking the average Durango homeowner to invest less than $5 per month. Businesses, which benefit substantially from an educated workforce, would proportionately invest their share, too.
We don’t just want to imagine this vision. We want to achieve it. This is the Durango education community we want. These are the Durango schools our children deserve. But we need your support.
Join me in voting “yes” on Ballot Issue 3A.
Andy Burns is the president of the Durango School District 9-R Board of Education. Reach him at aburns@durango.k12.co.us.
There are two reasons to decline the Durango School District 9-R’s request for a tax increase.
First, there has been no drop in district revenues over the past eight years. Adjusted for inflation, the district’s projected revenues for 2016-17, $42.2 million, are essential the same as they were in 2008-09, $38.3 million. In addition, the state has increased its funding to the district by $3.3 million, adjusted for inflation, over the past six years and the 2010 voter-approved mill levy increase generates about $3 million per year.
More importantly, there is absolutely no correlation between increased spending and educational outcomes. On a granular level, one of the reasons that the district is requesting more money is to retain high quality staff. However, there is no evidence that 9-R is losing good teachers to other districts or is failing to attract good teachers to replace those who move or retire. Nor is there evidence that the current level of funding $8,958.37 per pupil, is inadequate, as evidenced by the students’ good 2016 PSAT and ACT scores.
On a macro level, according to U.S. Department of Education data, inflation adjusted spending on K-12 increased more than 160 percent between 1970 and 2010, yet there was no increase in test scores. http://www.cato.org/blog/public-school-spending-theres-chart.
Perhaps the starkest comparison is between Utah, which spent $6,612 per pupil in 2012, and the District of Columbia, which spent $19,698 per pupil. While an amazing 97 percent of Utah seniors took the ACT test in 2012, which watered down the average results, they performed substantially better than the 32 percent of D.C. seniors, the higher achievers, who took the test. More telling is the fact that while Utah increased its per pupil spending by 60 percent since 1972, adjusted for inflation, its SAT results declined by about 7 percent. http://libertasutah.org/blog/per-pupil-spending-in-utah-the-wrong-measure-of-success/.
Instead of spending levels, the main drivers of success in both the academic world and adulthood are a person’s willingness to take personal responsibility for their outcomes as well as their willingness to experience gratitude. School funding is wholly divorced from these integral factors of academic success. Students who refuse to accept personal responsibility for their outcomes and who are not grateful for the opportunities presented to them are destined to fail no matter how much we spend on education.
Naturally, parents are principally responsible for instilling values in the their children and a tax increase will not improve parenting skills.
Culture also plays an important role in academic success. The culture of victimhood, blame and bitterness is the enemy of academic achievement that translates into real world success, but instead produces cuddled and infantilized adolescents and young adults who run to “safe spaces” when confronted with real-world adversity. On the other hand, cultures and belief systems that value, promote and nurture learning, analysis, hard work, self-determination and gratitude naturally produce high achievers in adulthood. This is the culture our community needs to promote. The proponents’ motto — “Stronger Schools, Stronger Community” — is backwards. A stronger community creates stronger schools.
William Zimsky is a Durango attorney who has lived in La Plata County since 1993. Reach him at billzimsky@gmail.com.
