Stan Geiger

Is it Time to Start Saying No?

The national debt is over $12 trillion at present. About half of that, if I have it right, is so-called “intra-government debt”---or Uncle Sam’s IOUs it has issued over the years in exchange for politicians spending surplus funds collected by Social Security and Medicare. The federal government is expected to borrow another $1.5 trillion during this fiscal year.

Those are terrible numbers, to be sure. But one can’t stop with the federal government when examining the total public debt in this country. States borrow money. Counties borrow money. Cities borrow money. Authorities, such as the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority, borrow money. Public colleges and universities borrow money. And public school districts borrow money. Public school districts borrow a lot of money.

Earlier this week, voters in Broken Arrow approved a state record $295 million school bond issue. The record most likely won’t stand long. Tulsa Public Schools is going for $354 million in the spring.

Broken Arrow’s bond issue passed with a 70 percent yes vote. I wonder when people will wise up and start saying no. I wonder how much outstanding debt in this nation is attributed to public school districts.

If you take the $295 million Broken Arrow just passed and add the TPS bond issue of $354 million---assuming it passes---you come up with a total of nearly $650 million in debt for but 2 school districts in a state that has over 500. Try to imagine the number if taken nationwide.

Broken Arrow schools, apparently, have some valid needs. Students are attending class in outbuildings that have been in place for many years. So borrowing a few bucks to construct some classroom space with a long life seems reasonable enough. Of course, one can question why addressing such a valid need has been pushed back for so many years while bond money has gone to other things. I mean why wasn’t the need for more classroom space addressed by the last bond issue?

Well, one might suppose a school district has to keep some kind of physically-visible reason for going into debt in place at all times. Otherwise, voters might get the notion that the debt issue is more about funding wants than funding needs.

I read a report that said $11 million in Broken Arrow bond money will go to the construction of an indoor athletics practice facility at the high school. The district’s website put the number closer to $3 million. Pick the one you like best. Either way, I’d call an indoor practice facility for high school athletes a want, not a need.

The high school I attended, back in the mid ‘70s, had a basketball court and a swimming pool in its basement. Beyond those, there were no practice facilities. The football team practiced at Lee Elementary---outdoors in the elements. The baseball team practiced at Newblock Park---outdoors in the elements, in February. The cross country team, I guess, just on put jocks and shorts and ran the city streets.

Nowadays we need to borrow millions to build indoor, on-campus, practice facilities so the little darlings can practice without getting wet or dirty, in an air-conditioned or heated environment? Puhhhlease.

Ten million dollars of the bond money is slated to go to the purchase of school buses. A large chunk is slated to be spent under the vague heading of “technology.” I think I read this bond issue is to be paid off over a 9-year span of time. How long does a school bus last? How long does “technology” last these days? I mean, geez, it seems a guy can go out and purchase something that is cutting edge only to find a newer, better, yet nonetheless cheaper, product on the market in 6 months. Should we borrow long-term, plus administrative costs relative to issuing the debt and years-long interest, to buy things that have short life spans?

Educators have, skillfully and quietly, moved things that should be paid for with operational funds into the capital improvements category. That has freed up operational money so it can go to pay, bonuses, free vacation trips, pensions and other benefits for employees.

Our Tulsa city “leaders” have done much the same. Money from the added-penny capital-improvements tax has been diverted to other things. That’s why our streets went to crap, and our streets going to crap led to a brand new half-a-billion-dollar tax increase.

I have a problem with school district bond issues in general. It seems there is no oversight relative to how the money is spent outside the district itself. In the Broken Arrow case, $295 million has just been piled on a table. How many folks out there, do ya think, would be willing to throw a little bribe money around to get a piece of that pie?

The most recent figures I could find say Broken Arrow Public Schools has 22 schools housing a student population of a little over 16,000. So BAPS just borrowed over $13 million per school in the district, and over $18,000 per student enrolled in the district.

At what point do we start saying no?

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