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Rally to save school funding set for Sunday
Word is circulating of a rally against unfreezing the composite index this Sunday at the Capitol Building:
Parents & concerned citizens of Henrico, Chesterfield, Hanover & Richmond will rally together at the Capitol Building on Sunday, February 21 at 12:30pm in support of the “SAVE OUR SCHOOLS – KEEP THE FREEZE” campaign, a response to Governor McDonnell’s recent proposed cuts and change in the Local Composite Index.
A more grassroots message going around says:
With Governor McDonnell’s cuts and a change in the Local Composite Index, Richmond Public Schools stands to lose over 38 million dollars. But Richmond is not alone in this; Henrico, Hanover, Chesterfield, Chesapeake, Norfolk, and Hampton Roads are in the same boat. Our legislators need to know where we stand on this issue. Please help us get out the word, and meet us at 12:30pm this Sunday, February 21st, at the Capitol Building in support of the “SAVE OUR SCHOOLS – KEEP THE FREEZE” campaign. We encourage you to take a stand for the education of our children!
Please bring homemade posters, banners, ribbons, and buttons with “SAVE OUR SCHOOLS – KEEP THE FREEZE” as we rally together to keep our classrooms free of drastic cuts!
TAGGED: schools
Where then do they suggest the Commonwealth and the schools come up with the money? Perhaps the City of Richmond should impose a tax on parents with school age children attending public schools to cover the shortfall? After all they, or their children rather, reap the benefit but impose the burden on all taxpayers.
The Commonwealth is on the hook for the same amount of dollars either way; the controversy here is how the money is to be distributed. The Composite Index describes where the money goes.
The CI somehow says that Richmond is one of the wealthiest localities in the Commonwealth, and is thus *not* deserving of the funds. The CI is based on real estate values and retail sales, I believe, but does not take into account the amount a locality has to come up with for other social needs.
Unfreezing the CI will mean taking money away from all of the Richmond area school systems (and Hampton Roads), and sending this money to the poor impoverished Northern Virginia schools.
From the post linked above:
Actually Richmond’s LCI is .4945 which means that about half the school funding comes from the state and half locality. There is some from the federal in there too. The ratio goes from about .2000 (“poorest”) to .8000 (“wealthiest”. Fairfax’s is around .7200 as I recall.
So the index indicates that Richmond is smack in the middle of “ability to pay”.
The index is weighted by real estate values (40%), income, sales tax, population and enrollment, which means that your local taxes can go up when you put your kids in private school or homeschool them.
The VA constitution requires that education be free. There can be no “tuition”. Keep in mind that schools are not for the students and their parents. They are for the community. An educated community benefits all.
If there isn’t enough money for schools dont’ blame it all on the LCI.
I don’t blame it all on the LCI, but this is a really terrible time to take that big of a chunk away from Richmond Public Schools.
Where are you getting the relative LCI numbers? I’ve been looking for that.
#1, If we stick with that line of thinking, then we should make those who are for war pay for it.
There’s a blog post on the Times Dispatch website that gives some more info, too.
“Although the change would help 39 localities, the vast benefit would go to Northern Virginia schools which stand to gain $134.4 million. In contrast, 93 school systems – including those in Hampton Roads and metropolitan Richmond – would lose a total $119 million. Educators from 87 of those losing districts signed a letter of complaint to McDonnell.” (excerpt from the post)
Gray – agree with your comment #5.
Actually, the text of the letter from the 87 localities is included in that article I gave a link to. It’s a pretty persuasive letter. There are specific examples, such as the cuts that Roanoke has already made and how much more they’d lose there if the LCI isn’t frozen; there are other examples. John’s question as to relative LCI numbers isn’t addressed, unfortunately.
I don’t have kids in the schools but I’d be willing to attend the rally on Sunday.
Instead of rallying to keep an acknowledged broken system in place, wouldn’t it make more sense to rally to fix it?
With the underlying message that the funding distribution system is flawed, the rally certainly isn’t in favor of a broken system. The blunt message is simply don’t gut funding this year of all years; another take-away is certainly that a long term fix needs to be put in place.
When I first came across the composite index several years ago it didn’t seem right that Richmond was judged wealthier than some other jurisdictions you might think of. However, once I looked into it, I realized that the CI is simply a formula measuring real estate values, sales and income to produce an estimate of how wealthy a locality it. You could argue about changing some of the values, but ultimately it is an objective standard that I think produces a reasonable result. It would be impossible to come up with a formula that everyone is happy with.
As far as freezing the calculation, why should it be frozen? Haven’t the underlying values changed? I don’t recall anyone offering to freeze my taxes when real estate values went up.
Richmond has a great deal of money to spend on schools, and it does. The problem is it wants to be insulated from its choices. We choose to keep more schools open than what we need, and that means there is less money to spend on other things. Cuts should have been made last year, but they were put off due to federal stimulus money. Now that money is gone, and the choices still have to be made. The school system isn’t sustainable, and I don’t mean we need solar panels on the roof. Spending needs to be in line with the taxes we are able to pay.
The bottom line is that, for the most part, schools are underfunded. Cutting more money creates a crisis. Couple that with an insular administration that refuses to police itself and denies all accountability for its actions, and we are doomed. Education is the single most profitable thing you can invest in, and educated children turn into educated adults, and that is what will make a difference in this city.
This rally really hit the press -all local tv news, The times-dispatch, various sites and blogs, including the Washington Post blog. Note – this rally/group of citizens were not affiliated with any organization or institution or party. Grassroots.
Go here for updates and what’s next:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Metro-Richmond-Parents-Against-Cuts-in-School-Funding/312387036495?ref=mf