Stan Geiger

Focus on Three Things

Educators won!! Taxpayers lost!! No surprise. That's usually the way it goes with school bond issues these days. They pass with 70 percent, 80 percent or even 90 percent yes votes.

Such was the case yesterday. All four TPS measures passed, by an average yes vote of 75 percent.

There are a couple of points to make concerning the numbers.

First, there is the low turnout. Only about 25,000 people showed up to cast a vote. In a city with a population of nearly 400,000 people, most of which is covered by TPS, only 25,000 showed up to vote.

School districts rely on low turnout. That's why they set school bond votes for days when there is nothing else on the ballot. About 6,000 staunch citizens showed up to vote no. Roughly 19,000 showed up to vote yes. I suspect almost all of the roughly 19,000 yes votes came from TPS employees and their family members.

Somebody wrote, two or three hundred years ago, that democracies fail when people realize they can vote themselves money from the tax coffers.

Relative to education, I'd say we're about there.

Second, there were about a thousand votes less cast on the third and fourth propositions than there were on the first two. That tends to indicate about a thousand voters didn't have sense enough to turn the ballot over. That's a sad comment on the state of our society.

Whatever, the measures passed. TPS gets a whopping $354 million to spend. The rug-wearing dick of a superintendent is gleeful. Good for him.

I recall reading about the super of the day, back in the '90s, getting a fat bonus because of the passage of a bond issue. Do you reckon the current super is having an orgasm because he gets a bonus due to the passage of this bond issue?

Maybe somebody in the bona fide media should ask.

I request that you pay attention over the next few years. Supposedly, this bond issue, set to expire in 2016, constitutes the last leg in a 20-year plan to make TPS all shiny and new. Fine. Pay attention.

Pay attention to performance. I mean after several hundred million dollars in borrowed money has been pumped into TPS, performance should be enhanced. I'd say dropout rates would be a good thing to watch. Currently, they say a fourth to a fifth of students entering high school don't graduate. Let's see if all the "shiny and new" changes that.

Pay attention to your tax bills. The educators claimed pumping $354 million into a school district wouldn't affect your taxes. Validate that claim.

Pay attention to the end. As I said, this bond issue is supposed to be the end of a 20-year run. Let's see if that comes to pass. Let's see if the school district quits now that all its dreams have come true.

Pay attention.

---