To the editor:
The Alpine School District Board of Education voted unanimously, in a non-election year, to increase our taxes after a one-hour hearing in which all taxpayers but one spoke against the tax increase. The board "heard" but did not listen.The board tried to "sell" the budget throughout the meeting. They said they had millions of requests for funds but only accepted $355,000 above their allotted revenues. (What would happen if we budgeted that way?) The budget is now $117,790,004 for the projected enrollment of 38,429 children in the Alpine District. Isn't there a better way?
The educational bureaucracy sees increased revenue as the primary solution to educational problems. I understand that perspective, but I submit that only when one is willing to challenge this perspective that places artificial boundaries on education are the problems in education going to be solved.
As an educator, John Gatto, said in his speech upon accepting an award for Teacher of the Year: "We have to demand that new voices and new ideas get a hearing, my ideas and yours . . . Experts in education have never been right; their "solutions" are expensive, self-serving, and always involve further centralization. Enough."
Let us as a community - including but not limited to parents - attend our school board meetings and submit our ideas. And let the school board listen.
L. Furner
Orem