The $50 Million Questions?

School Board Member DEBBIE LARSONBefore you vote on the School Referenda next Tuesday, ask yourself whether the intentions of the Franklin school board are really in the best interests of the students and FPS District taxpayers and can I be certain that this nearly  $50 million will be used as the District told a  FranklinNOW reporter in this article published on October 31?

That is “security, parking, traffic flow and so-called ‘right-sized educational space’ and other important elements...”

We raise these question because in 2007, another FPS refendum was put to voters "based on another FPS survey which voters were told supported building a new high school, when in fact the survey showed voters supported two middle schools.  The 2007 referendum failed.  This decite and maleficence on the part of certain school board members, including current member Debbie Larson (Term expires April 2013) a board member since 2003.

Emails obtained through an open records request revealed then-board vice president Jim Ward (not the state senate candidate) was also heavily involved in this betrayalof taxpayers.

Also, keep in mind that with new and larger facilities, etc., including new football practice fields, utilities and maintainence costs will likely increase.  Where are the estimates from the District for those ongoing expenses?  How can voters be expected to to make an informed decision without all the necessary information?  TRUST?!

Is Franklin Public School District unique to most school districts in America?

We present this qestion to readers because according to the findings in this 32-page, 2012 report on the surge in school staffing  by The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and nonpartisan organization. 

The Friedman Foundation is solely dedicated to advancing Rose and Milton Friedman’s vision of school choice for all children.  The Friedman Foundation was first known as the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation and was established in 1996 to promote school choice as the most effective and equitable way to improve the quality of K-12 education in America.  Teachers and their unions view school choice as the West Nile Virus of public education.  Competition is bad--monopolies are good, as long as they are the monopoly.

The Friedman Foundation is dedicated to research, education, and outreach on the vital issues and implications related to choice in K-12 education and in 2012 issued this 32-page report on school staffing.

In its Executive Summary this report begins:

America’s K-12 public education system has experienced tremendous historical growth in employment, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics.  Between fiscal year (FY) 1950 and FY 2009, the number of K-12 public school students in the United States increased by 96 percent while the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) school employees grew 386 percent.

Public schools grew staffing at a rate four times faster than the increase in students over that time period.

Of those personnel, teachers’ numbers increased 252 percent while administrators and other staff experienced growth of 702 percent, more than seven times the increase in students.

That said, exactly who are taxpayers footing the bill to "right-size educational space" for?