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August 31, 2000 Libby Gierach President, School Board Hilliard City Schools Dear Libby,
As I mentioned to you, I hope that in the communications strategy for the upcoming levy campaign, we make an attempt to appeal to both right-brain and left-brain thinkers. It is good that we tell folks about the all the tremendous things the District does with the tax money, and the terrific results achieved. Pictures of happy kids and teachers play an important role in telling people that our school system is a great one, and they should be proud to have their kids attend here. That’s the right-brain stuff. For the left-brain folks out there (and I tend to be one of them), I think we need to lay hard facts on the table. When Terry and I first moved into the District twenty-one years ago, we had no kids, and felt no need to support school levies. Even when our firstborn entered school, and we saw firsthand the wonderful job the District does in educating and caring for our kids, I was suspicious of the economics. After all, had we not been paying property taxes from the moment we bought our house? If the District needed more money because of all the new kids, wouldn’t the property taxes from their new homes pay for it? It wasn’t until I attended an new parent’s meeting, and Roger Nehls explained the situation, that I finally understood these relationships: o The per-student cost in the District is comparable to other Districts in the area (that gives me some confidence that the money is being spent appropriately). o The tax revenues per household are less than the cost per student. o The only way the previous two relationships allow for adequate funding is if the student per household ratio is less than one. For example (and these are entirely fictitious numbers), if it costs $3,000/yr to educate a student, and the average property tax for a residence is $1,500/year, then there must be twice as many residences as students to generate sufficient income. o But a significant portion of people moving into the District is coming here to enjoy Hilliard City Schools. The ratio of students to household for these new residents may be one-to-one, or even greater! So, the cold, hard fact is that for growing districts, the tax revenue per household needs to increase toward the point where per household tax revenues approach per student costs multiplied by the average numbers of students in a household. I think there are plenty of people in the district who will understand this chain of logic, would desire to hear it, and will be able to make better decisions when all the information is disclosed. The kinds of conclusions I hope they would come to include: 1. It is important to support the levy this year to ensure that the quality of our District is not compromised in the short run; 2. Failure to support this and future levies will have consequences that are entirely predictable: a) overcrowded schools and classrooms; b) demoralized faculty and staff; c) lowered student performance; d) decaying infrastructure as maintenance money is diverted to instructional priorities; e) double-shifts or other scheduling approaches to deal with overcrowding; and, f) diminished property values as living here becomes less desirable. 3. More attention should be paid to the debate about how schools should be funded. I don’t know if the current funding system is good or bad because I haven’t heard enough of the debate yet. But I like the idea that my tax dollars get spent where my kids go to school, and that if we, as a community, decide we want to pay more in taxes to support a high performance school system, then that’s what happens. In other areas of the country, such as West Virginia, where much of my family lives, tax revenues from one area are redirected to others to “equalize the educational opportunity.” Of course, what this is really doing is diminishing the performance of public schools in economically healthy areas, and demotivating the taxpayers in those areas from supporting levies because they realize the money just goes somewhere else. The ultimate perversion is when people in the subsidized areas stop supporting their local levies because they know the shortfall will be made up with tax dollars coming from other areas. Soon, no one votes in support of levies. Private schools are booming as parents take direct control of the educational choices. The student population of public schools becomes increasingly segregated, economically and culturally, as kids move to private schools for the well-heeled, or to schools related to religious institutions. 4. Population explosion in the District may be good for property sellers, real estate firms, home builders, and merchants, but it is not a good thing for the school system if it leads to underfunding and overcrowding. A story common in human history is when a good thing is ruined by too many flocking to it (see Thomas Malthus: Failure of the Commons). Sometimes, I feel that my kids will have had the chance to enjoy the golden years of HCSD. They attended Heritage and Darby when they were brand new, when the district was big enough to offer tremendous educational and extra-curricular activities, and the funding adequate to make it all happen. But already Darby is headed toward overflow, with a number of high school classes planned to be held in Heritage next year, as I understand it. We must find a way to drive toward a balance of population growth and school funding. For example, I would favor a mechanism whereby a property developer is required to fully fund the cost for the land and construction of any schools necessary to support the expected number of kids the development would generate. Those costs would be passed along to home buyers, who would carry it in their mortgage. That seems entirely fair, and eliminates the possibility that a high density development could put a burden on a schools, while voting against property taxes to support them. I’ll be the first to admit that I enjoy our house in the country, and don’t want to see urban sprawl consume all the farmland around us. But I also realize that development is likely, and so I would rather see happen in a way that the school system is protected and the economic burden is fairly shared. If I can be of help in this year’s levy campaign, let me know. But do so knowing that I’ll bring this agenda with me.
Sincerely, Paul Lambert
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