Plenty of Reasons to Vote “NO” on School Bond Issue

Tonchi Weaver always provides a voice of reason.

Her most recent article on the Rapid City School Bond issue should give every taxpayer pause, when it comes to this huge tax increase. Here is her article:

“In the constant barrage of news stories and opinion pieces by elected officials and others who are pushing the $190 million school bond, the stain of maliciousness has arisen. People who oppose the bond have been labeled in print as selfish child-hating tightwads, knuckle-draggers, believers in “Voodoo”, and perennial naysayers. Why would the side with so much (public and private) money go so negative? Could it be that there are weaknesses in the current bond plan that even a Caveman can understand?

Let’s start with the legally binding ballot language. Opponents are called the people of “No”, when actually we are the people of “know”. We want to know what we are getting and that we are meeting ‘needs’ rather than ‘wants’ with this 25-year commitment. No one can explain what “pathways related updates” means, or what might be included in “other school district improvements.” There are holes in the ballot language big enough to drive a school bus through.

We want to know how high the mill levy can be raised to service this debt in an economic downturn or if future growth fails to meet expectations. With nothing in writing, taxpayers have to trust the ‘experts’ forecast of future growth and hope no one drops the crystal ball.

Speaking of uncertain futures, the 324 students currently at Rapid City High School probably want to know what their future looks like, too. Their program has been treated as sort of an afterthought in the scheme of things. RCHS Principal Shane Heilman wrote a recent op-ed trying to explain this away, but what we learned is that he doesn’t know what the plan is either. The best we can surmise is that there is a plan to have a ‘plan’, and it’s now in the planning stage. One wonders why the vaunted task force that spent two years studying to come up with this proposal didn’t think it was necessary to flesh out this important detail. If it’s not in writing, it doesn’t exist.

Parents who live in affordable neighborhoods are questioning the need to close down the neighborhood schools their children can walk to, and they don’t like the idea of their kids riding buses to some distant campus in an uncertain location.

That’s right; the location(s) of the proposed new schools are still unknown… I guess you have to pass it to find out for sure.

Because the bulk of our property taxes go to support a school district whose budget is larger than the City of Rapid City, it seems counter intuitive for elected officials to suggest that this community hasn’t invested in public schools for 50 years. Those eight new schools and several major additions that have been built since 1970, and the renovation of RCHS all came out of the pockets of local taxpayers. You know – those people who were smart enough to elect you to public office.

When reasonable questions are met with contempt instead of reasonable answers, something is wrong with this picture.”

Thank you Tonchi, for your thoughtful insights into this important issue.

I’ll be joining Tonchi in voting “NO”.