Taxation and Spending in School Districts

My CP does not directly have the authority to raise funds through taxes although there is a channel that it can go through to do so. As a teacher, she cannot directly raise taxes because she does not have the authority to do so. However, if she can demonstrate the importance of getting more funds to the School Board she has the ability to influence the raising of taxes. School boards have the authority to raise property taxes if they are in need of more funding for their school district. Although the state has to give each school board funds for education, they are often not budgeted enough money to be able to effectively run a school district. In order to compensate for the lack of funding, school boards can propose to raise property taxes in their district to make up for this loss. I believe that this proposal has to be approved by voters in that district before it goes into effect.

Property taxes can be a bit controversial because they rank low in acceptability and accountability in comparison to other taxes. These taxes are applied based on assessment of the house or property which will determine the value of the lot. Once a rate of taxation is placed on that property, the owner will pay the pay the amount based on the rate of taxation and the value of the house. In this way, pieces of property that are worth more will produce more income for the school board that is trying to raise money. Because school boards raise money based on the district that they serve, the can be controversial in the unequal distribution in property values in different counties. Poor counties will yield for poor school districts while rich counties will yield for rich school districts. In addition, it should be noted that assessments of property values can also be over-assessed, under-assessed or just right. So in this way, individuals could be paying more or less than they should be in property taxes.

Napa Valley is home to well-valued property because of the vineyards and presence of well-off individuals. For this reason, the school district can easily raise money through property taxes by raising the local property taxes. However, Carolyn would have to make the case to her school that she needs more funding for her P.E. program to make something happen. Then, her school administrators would have to go to the school board to propose that she needs more funds. Because she does not need that much money, the school board would most likely try to budget her some more money that has already been raised. On the other hand, if all the P.E. programs in the district went to the school board and asked for more funding, the school board would likely have to hike property taxes in order to meet the budget needs. Because of the enactment of No Child Left Behind, funds have been diverted away from programs like P.E., music, art and other programs that are deemed unnecessary to meeting the high academic standards in English-language Arts, math and science. This makes it more and more difficult for P.E. programs like Carolyn’s to receive more funding.

In regards to schools themselves, they are associated with the spending side of the funds that are raised by taxes. This also includes programs within the schools like the P.E. program. The school board is what is directly associated with raising taxes. In different states and school districts, the citizens have veered away from property taxes to raise funds for schools and have instead opted to raise sales tax or higher income taxes. The argument behind doing this is it is more evenly distributed across the board and it also allows school districts that have lower property values to be able relieved of the  burden of having a poor funding pool. In other cases, it has been proposed that school boards should apply a service tax. This would mean that only those families that have a student attending a public school would have to pay taxes or another fee for the use of that service. That would heavily place the burden on the families and avoid having single people or senior citizens pay.

Budgeting

My community partner is reliant on the state government and the local government to provide money for the program. Currently, my community partner is without the money and resources to be able to perform her job effectively. The state government makes the overall budget that will give money to state-wide education. This money tends to be reserved more for Title I, Title III, and other specific education programs. Many of the students at Valley Oak are designated as Title I as they come from low socio-economic backgrounds. Even though the school receives extra funding for these students, it is usually not directed towards programs such as P.E. At the local level, the school is funded based on the money allotted by the local government. Most of the money for education is raised through property taxes at the local level. I am not sure what kind of budgeting method that the Board of Education uses to allocate funds to schools and certain programs. Regardless, Valley Oak would request money from the Napa Unified School District Board of Education to carry out its duties. Valley Oak could try to specifically request money to buy a certain type of P.E. equipment as a one-time request (although it is not a large amount of money) or it could ask for a certain amount of money to be set aside for the P.E. program. It should also make a case for why there needs to be money specifically set aside for this P.E. program. My Community Partner could bring to the School Board’s attention that P.E. is an effective and healthy outlet for many of these students. This could be a way to receive more funding by making sure they know how important it is to keep properly funded.

As my community partner has only been with Valley Oak for this school year, I am unable to find out if she specifically has to ask for funding from the budget. I am pretty sure that the administrators of her school propose a budget to the School Board. Because she has recently gotten comments from various administrators and other outsiders about the work she has done with the students, she is hoping that they will recognize the need for more funding in the following school year. This is the first step to hopefully getting additional funding directly from the school district. Unfortunately, the School Board does not have P.E. as a priority on their budget. They, instead, are more concerned with raising test scores in English, math and science. I believe that the school reapplies for a budget for every school year. They should review the budget from the previous year and see how the funds were used and if the ideal results occurred. My community partner is virtually fully dependent on the school district for all of its funding needs.

I think there is a lack of consistency with budgeting in the most recent school years. Because of the recent recession and cuts to education, schools have had no choice but to make drastic cuts in its programs. Performing Arts, Fine Arts and Physical Education always seem to be the first programs that experience the chopping block in some way. Physical Education has experienced budget cuts by seeing cuts to equipment funding. My community partner has especially experienced this cut because she does not have the proper equipment to be able to effectively run her classes. The majority of the time she has to modify her lessons or borrow equipment from other schools because she does not have what she needs.

The Judicary

                My community partner does not directly work with the judicial process to resolve problems, nor does she work with the prison system in any way. The closest thing to using the judicial system is the fact that many of the students at this alternative school have been in previous run-ins with the law. Also, students may face having to go through the judicial process to resolve any truancy issues, as it is punishable by law. However, this all takes place at the most local system of the judiciary branch.

                I think it is interesting to look at the various ways in which judges are appointed to positions whether it is at the local or state level. Many states use the merit system which is used to combine the nominating of a judge, the approval from the governor and then accountability by the citizens. There are also variations on this merit plan that will adapt to the state’s needs. The merit system is interesting because it incorporates the elements of non-partisanship and accountability by the people. I think that it is important for judges to be held accountable by the people because otherwise the people cannot speak their voice about how their feel about certain issues. However, most voters do not attempt to get rid of the incumbent judge unless it is a controversial issue that is decided in a unfavorable way. It must be a high-profile issue and decision in order to vote a judge out.

                In the case of judges who are only appointed by the governor, there seem to be accountability problems. That judge is only really accountable to the individual who put that judge into office. A gubernational appointment can also be seen as a political favor by appointing someone that the governor may own. An appointment can also be used to satisfy party leaders or voters in certain regions. According to the author, the gubernational process is actually the most common way for a judge to be appointed to an appellate or major trial court. There is no accountability to the voters in this method of appointment because they are not subject to an election. In addition, even if a state uses the merit system, a governor has the ability to appoint a new judge in an internment term after one retires. This will give a judge incumbency to help them be more likely to be elected.

                For those states that elect judges into their appointment, there are also problems. There is often a lot of campaign funding that comes into play. This can subject an election to bias based on the amount of money that one candidate may have. There is also low voter turn out to elect judges because it is not a position that is really in the spotlight. In addition, campaign money will often come from individuals that are heavily invested in the outcome. For example, major law firms, corporations and lawyers may contribute to the judge that will most heavily favor them because they will have to deal with them in court. These individuals will want to have a person in the judge’s seat that is going to rule in their favor. In this way, the election of a judge could be a reflection of the opinion of a few individuals as opposed to being that of the majority.

                The most important thing to learn here is that the appointments in the judicial branch should be free from partisanship, money, favors and any other biases that could occur. Money in the election of judges could corrupt the system. In addition, the appointment of judges by political favor could also corrupt the system if it is done from a partisan stand point. Regardless, personal opinions and views will always come into play in the minds of the judges. The important thing is appointing someone to be judge who will do their best to rule by the law and not by their own bias.

Interactions with Local Government

School districts are one of the six different types of local governments. They are also known as single district local governments because they generally have jurisdiction over part of a city or even multiple counties. In recent years, there have been a shrinking number of school districts because the operating cost to run them can be too great. Valley Oak High School interacts with the Napa Valley Unified School District. NVUSD decides the funding that Valley Oak will receive and for what specific programs in the school it will go to. Schools are usually allotted money on a per pupil basis which means that a smaller school like Valley Oak will not receive as much funding as other schools. In addition, schools usually receive money based on daily attendance. Because many of the students at Valley Oak have left regular high school because of truancy issues, it may be hard for the school to find extra money that they can give to programs such as P.E. In the case P.E. at Valley Oak, the decision to create a P.E./health program that will teach various sports was made by various administrators in the school. The administrators in the school are connected directly to the NVUSD School Board because the administrators are appointed by this group of 5-7 members. The administrators of Valley Oak, however, do not have control of the purse strings so they cannot give additional funding to my sister. The decision for the P.E. program at Valley Oak to receive more funding must come from the school board. The school board is in charge of making basic policy decisions and how money is spent. The school board also has the power to raise property taxes which are used to fund schools. If my sister were able to make the case for how important P.E. has been for the alternative school students, the school district decide to give her program more money. They could raise this money by raising the property taxes if they needed to. I do not know of any specific person that has had a key influence on my community partner. Although the administrators and principal of the school are not directly elected, they are hired by the school board. In this way, I could argue that the principal and administrators of the school have been the ones that have been the biggest advocates for my sister. She has recently gotten compliments from the principal of Valley Oak and a few other administrators about my sister’s ability to get things done. Since she first arrived at Valley Oak, my sister has been able to convince the nearby Boys and Girls Club to allow her to use their gym on a daily basis. She also has a key to their building. This has greatly helped her because she now has an indoor facility that she can use when it is raining outside. She also has gained access to some of their equipment. By partnering with other community groups, she has been able to get some things accomplished. She has also gotten compliments from the principal and school administrators about how much the students like her class and how they now see more students excited about going to class. If she can continue to show this success, I think she will be able to gain the support of influential people in the school district. This may be a relationship that will gain her more funding.

In the case of alternative high schools, they also serve students from across several districts. In a number of cases, students will come from a bordering district because they have been expelled from the district in which they live. This means that their requirement to continue in school must be completed in another school district. For example, she has several students from Fairfield, which is part of the Solano County School District. I am not sure what happens with funding when your school agrees to teach a student from an outside district. I imagine that the other school district will send money for that student to the school that they are now at. I also want to mention that the majority of the money that schools receive are from the local school district. Only a small portion of funding comes from the state or federal government and most of that money is directed at a specific program. In this way, it is important for my community partner to try to convince at the most local level that she needs more money.

State--Local Relations

Does your CP ever get caught up in conflict relating to its various local and state relationships?

In the realm of education, there are various relationships among the local needs, county-wide school districts, state and federal government. To narrow the focus further, there is deep conflict between the state education policy and how that is translated into the local school districts. Because not every school district has the same basic needs and student demographics to cater to, the state cannot possibly create an education plan that is going to address the needs of every school district. Furthermore, not every school has the same student population or the same community needs. For this specific example, we should view each school as representing a portion of a city's population. As such, every school will represent a different portion of the population and have different percentages of demographic groups. In this way, it is very difficult for an outsider to generalize about the basic needs of each school district and the state in general. It is, however, more manageable for a school district, which only has to address the needs of a dozen or so schools, rather than a state to address the needs of hundreds of thousands of schools.

When examining the situation in more detail, it is clear that the state cannot always address the needs of a generalized population where there should be more focus on individualized problems. In terms of state mandates, they are usually done as a broad blanket that is suppose to address state wide problems even though they may not apply in every school district or every school. For example, the state might require that every school provides a golf unit in their P.E. classes because they find that it is necessary for all citizens now entering the workforce to have these basic skills. (Weird example, I know, but they may find the reason being something like "in order to get to know your boss and get a promotion at work, you must be able to play golf because he likes to conduct business there"). So the state enforces this mandate upon all P.E. programs at high schools, yet, the state does not provide any funding to do so. Instead, all school districts must budget their money accordingly to be able to buy this newly required equipment. On a side note, the state could make this a funded mandate in which all schools would get the money from the state to buy this equipment. The local school district can also have a reimbursement requirement if the state allows that which will give the school money after they purchase the equipment. In addition, my community partner can have issues with mandates because her normal funding could be directed towards another program at schools and take away funding from her own program. This makes it hard for her to then purchase the necessary equipment to keep her students active, engaged and healthy.

I would also like to note that the state requires all schools to test their students in health and fitness requirements in certain grades (this is also a requirement by the federal government). Even though it is required for schools to have a physical education class, they are still removing funding from their programs to direct it towards other state and federal government mandated programs. There is also the issue that without proper P.E. equipment, it is difficult to engage students in fitness activities and to prepare them for these required measures of health.

Influencing Legislation

My community partners at Valley Oak High School have encouraged and tried to make legislative changes in education like many other schools. Unlike most schools, as an alternative high school, they are seeking to get a exemption from the STAR testing. They are seeking an exemption from the test because the majority of students at an alternative high school are already likely to score poorly on the tests. In the past few years, Valley Oak High School has failed to meet testing expectations and goals set by the state and federal governments. Alternative high schools have experienced some legislative in California. Alternative High Schools now try to meet the goals of the Alternative Schools Accountability Model (ASAM) as outlined by California. In order to become a model school, the alternative education program must prove to be effective in helping students graduate and improve their learning. For example, Valley Oak High School is now considered to be a model high school because they are effectively engaging and educating students.  This year, Valley Oak has made an effort to engage the students even more and creating an outlet for them by introducing a P.E. program that actually incorporates lesson plans. The biggest challenge for this program is being able to find funding that will allow my sister to by P.E. equipment. Because of NCLB and recent budget cuts, states have had to cut education funding in programs that are deemed to be unnecessary. These programs include physical education and performing/fine arts.

The school districts and teachers in California are advocating for more funding to go directly to teachers and their programs. This is done through the Teacher's Union and various other lobby groups that are associated with education. In addition, there is also a committee at the state level that has to do with education. The Teacher's Union and other special interest groups are able to go the committee on education and push pieces of legislation that represent their interests. A great example of this is Prop 30 which passed this past election on the ballot. In this case, they took this proposition directly to the voters to have approved. In other cases, educators and those interested in effective public education will go directly to their representatives and ask for their voice to be translated into law.

Some of the biggest problems that have been encountered for influencing legislative changes have come from the recent budget crisis. When the state has to make budget cuts, one of the first areas that experiences cuts is education. Furthermore, these cuts are made specifically to the programs that are not considered to be the core fundamentals of education. For my sister, this specifically means the physical education departments of schools because they are not  considered to be important. However, there is a growing importance for physical education because there is a huge obesity concern among adolescents. Valley Oak High School, although it lacks funding, has found a reason and a little bit of money to get the program going. There is also a reason to incorporate health into her class because it teaches students things like healthy habits and stress relief techniques. I am not sure is there is any specific interest group to make sure physical education programs stay well-funded in schools, but I do know that there is interest in keeping the youth of the nation healthy. Physical education will continue to face obstacles in schools until teachers, parents and law makers realize the importance of teaching students about becoming healthy and active at a young age.

Founder's Week

Blog Topic:

For Founder's Week, I participated in the Milk and Cookies Event with the Sisters on Monday Night. For this event, myself and a group of students lit candles in the quad and then walked down to the residence of the Sisters. We brought with us milk and cookies to share with the sisters. We were greeted at the door by two sisters who welcomed us in and took us upstairs to greet the rest of the sisters who were waiting for us in their dinning room. All the students were asked to share their name and a bit of information about ourselves including our hometown, grade and major. Then the sister's went around the room and shared information about themselves. It was interesting to learn that all of the sisters have spent their lifetimes within the realm of education, whether it be as an elementary school teacher, a librarian, an administrator or a college professor. It was also inspiring to learn that many of them taught for at least half a century and many of them have been in the sisterhood since they were around 18-20 years old. After all of the sisters shared their stories, we were invited to join the sisters at the tables and get to know a few of them more closely. I am not quite sure of the names of the sisters I sat with but they were all very interesting in learning more about the extracurricular activities that myself and the two other students that were sitting at the table with me were involved in.Interestingly enough, I got to talking to them about my CP and how I am helping to find my sister more funding for her program. They were very happy to hear of my attempt to help my sister. They were also excited to hear that I volunteer with youth softball and BAWSI with the school softball team. Although I never realized it, the sports teams at our school follow the mission statements of the sisters in someway because we all try to give back to the community in some way. One of the students also sung two songs for the sisters and the sisters later sung a song for us. It was a very inspiring and interesting evening.

During this event, I learned more about the individual achievements and career choices of the various foundresses. It gave me a chance to learn about how involved each of the sisters were in education in their own right. It was also inspiring to hear about how devoted each of the sisters were to educating the youth. The foundresses at my table were also excited to learn and hear about the various students getting involved in extracurricular activities. They liked to hear that students were doing what they could to give back to the community. Their passion and devotion to being involved in the community shone through.

I believe that a student in the political science department at NDNU could incorporate the ideals of the foundresses into their future careers in a variety of ways. One way in which a political science major could to this is by pursuing a career that has them directly involved in protecting and fighting for the rights of citizens. This could be anything from being a politician, writing laws, being a public servant or being a lawyer. One could also volunteer on the side to make sure that each member of society is able to exercise their right to vote. For example, one could work to make sure the youth register to vote or someone could help design a voter identification law that does not make it difficult for citizens to be able to vote.