I too was part of the survey; however, I disagree with your assessment of the value. The questions were posed similar to most political polling where they have a prescribed response they want to achieve. That was the reason they did not allow any answer but Yes or No as far as whether you would be more or less in favor of the referendum. There was no middle ground. I thought they were scare tactics at best to see which questions provided the most opportunity to pass this new tax increase.

While I am all for quality education (as I have four children in the District), I am concerned about the short and long-term effects of passing such an increase when people barely have enough money to pay their bills (if that). Operating levies and recently passed referendums in neighboring Districts have not proven effective in improving the quality of the education received. As recently reported by the state, the test results show that Bell Plaine, Prior Lake-Savage and New Prague were among the 10 worst in proficiency. So how does more money equate to better education? It does not! Many Districts in the state receive far more funding than Jordan on a per pupil basis, but many of those Districts also have some of the poorest scores and highest dropout rates. Money does not equal success!

I believe parents needs to take a more active role in their children’s education, freeing up some of the time the teacher has to spend working with slower learning children. Not every student progresses at the same pace; however, we expect the teachers to teach all students at the same level. Society does not allow the discipline of troubled students and the teachers have to deal with them, while affecting the education the rest of the students should receive. I have volunteered at the schools and I see what it is like within the classrooms. When I went to K-12 school, I dealt with split shifts and large classrooms while still getting a quality education. We had teachers that could discipline a student and take them out of class as necessary. We had Special Education for the students needing extra help, without it affecting the education of the other students. So what has changed? The arguments over more money have been going on for as long as I have been alive and I am sure much longer than that. I can tell you that the problem and the solution starts at home with the parents!

When are we as parents going to start taking responsibility for our children and their education?! This does not have to equate to higher taxes and spending more money in all cases. If I struggled as a child, my parents were there to help me, tutor me, guide me, protect me, and instill a solid foundation of responsibility and self-motivation (you get out of life what you put into it!). I do not see the same culture in society today. I am not judging people in any way; however, society has changed with a lowering of standards in morals, ethics and values. We live in a society that blames everyone and everything else for our problems. This is being taught to children so each new generation has expectations that “they are owed”. Both my wife and I work; however, the minute we get home from work we spend time with the children. During school, that means reviewing homework, helping them study, and simply spending time together as a family. Parents have to take some of the responsibility for their child’s education. The school system is a tool to assist in that process; it is not a replacement for the parent’s involvement.

The overall financial problem in public schools and the reason why each school in the state of Minnesota is asking local taxpayers to pass a referendum is because the legislature is shifting more and more school district funding to the local districts.

Schools are being asked to do more and more each year, and have not been given the finances to keep up. This is called an unfunded mandate. An unfunded mandate is where the state and federal government requires schools to provide certain services, but then does not provide 100% of the funding to do so. Examples of unfunded mandates at JPS are special education, transportation, testing, phy. ed., sex ed., HIV/AIDS drug abuse education, health and safety mandates, and many others.

Did you know that one high needs special ed student costs the school over $50,000 a year? It is not the students fault, it is not the parents fault for sending their special needs kids to school. The service should be provided. There should also be dollars to support that service.

It is also hard to focus on science, math, english, and 21st century learning skills when your having to take time to educate kids on drug safety, sex ed. and passing standardized testing. And since some parents are not taking responsibility for their child's education, schools are being asked to pick up the slack. Schools are doing so without the funding.

Jordan Public schools have done a good job in the past with their budget. The fact that they are one of the 6% of schools that do not receive operating levy dollars is proof of that.

Unfortunately, I do not think Jordan can go very long without passing an operating levy. I foresee larger class sizes, no ability to purchase new books or curriculum, and no tools to keep the students up with the trends in technology and 21st century learning.

Now is a bad time to ask the community to pass an operating levy - that is why I hope the school district does not ask for a large amount of money. Whatever the amount is, I hope the town passes the levy or Jordan students will fall behind.