More $ Does Not Mean Better Schools

 

Spending per public school student in the US.

Inflation-adjusted. pic.twitter.com/XcJGn3G2Ej

— rebelEducator (@rebelEducator) March 26, 2024

 

The Receipts: National Center for Education Statistics

 

A Matter of Misplaced Trust

 By Retha Holland

I keep hearing from those that are in favor of these school bond proposals, “I trust our board members” or “I trust our administration to know what’s best.” This trust is based on the emotional connection with the school, meaning the teachers mostly.

These people are a part of the community that we put our faith and trust in to educate and keep the community’s children safe for the hours they have them.

While the community trusts these people, the community is asleep in the passenger seat. Parents manage to make it to the games and performances of their children but so many do not take an interest in the education, indoctrination or even grooming of social beliefs of their child, let alone pay attention to increasing funds paid by the community to the school.

Just as the people “trust” their board members and administration, they are being led by the ear of organizations they are a part of such as MASA (Missouri Association of School Administrators), and MSBA (Missouri School Boards Association). Your board members and superintendents trust these organizations to know best, along with the unions and bank representatives that are associated with them.

With that being said, if you look at the organizations' missions and legislative priorities and statements you will find little on education; it’s about body count, it’s about getting legislation to get more money from the community and state. It’s about legislation to make it easier to fleece the community for more funds through taxes, and oppose any reductions or relief on bills presented in the Capitol. These organizations lobby our representatives at our state capitol, all on your dime with the funds you pay to the school with the member fees associated with the MSBA and MASA

From: Raymond James

These organizations have partnerships with the lending banks, like Stifel and Raymond James that finance these school bonds. MASA does “free” seminars to help superintendents get more success in getting bonds approved from the community.

 MSBA and MASA are NOT state government organizations, they are private. They too have an agenda and interest for ever-increasing revenue along with reducing the ability of the community’s influence or voice. It’s about the money, it’s about control, it’s not about education. These are organizations your board and administration trust to know best! This is who is leading them! These organizations don’t care about the community, they don’t care about the education of the students or the school as a whole. For them the bigger the dumpster fire the better for implementing more control and garnering more funds with ever-increasing services.

Your board, administration and teachers are being misled, with the “trust” and partnership they have with these organizations and unions all working in lockstep. These organizations and affiliations have connections with federal and WEF agendas, all while the community is trusting their administration and board members

From: WEF

See a pattern? Good people can be misled, many good people will toe the line without question, and good people don’t know the monsters with motives behind the curtain. 

 Did we learn nothing from the shut down? “Two weeks to flatten the curve.” 

At the end of the day public schools are GOVERNMENT schools, they want to feed and grow like all government does, so they should always be met with scrutiny, along with their associations with outside influences.

It’s time to email your ELECTED board members with the expectations from the community, otherwise these organizations will take up the slack to continue to influence our schools.

This is up to the community to do so, otherwise the people they trust with the education of our community’s children will continue to be lead by bad influencers.

Fairy tales, indeed

 

 David Rice seems to have found that it's a fairy tale to believe your school is not infected with gender ideology. Go here to see the video...and how it was edited to exclude the transgender "Mama Bear."

Just like the Christian County Library is infected with gender ideology books for tots, so apparently the Nixa Early Childhood Education Center has its own problem with normalizing this dangerous ideology.

From the article: "Nixa Public Schools is editing videos to hide their support of Transexual ideas in their Early Childhood Education Center."

Parents, do not stand for it. I would highly suggest querying the candidates for school board before April 2, 2024's vote. Ask them if gender ideology should be promoted in the Early Childhood Education Center. Ask them how they would handle this situation. Ask them how they will prevent it from happening again.

Upcoming Library Meeting

 

Missouri Freedom Initiative Livestream Tonight

 

From the Missouri Freedom Initiative:"We will be live tonight at 7:30 PM on Rumble, Twitter (X), Odysee and You Tube. Firstly, Isaac joins us again tonight with information on use taxes coming up on the Missouri ballots. Also, Retha and Gretchen will be joining us tonight as well with new findings linking school lenders to the NWO and WEF right here in Missouri. We’ll cover knock and Shock from the 11th of March and the trip to New Hampshire."

PSA

@right2winozarks

Missouri Freedom Initiative : the truth a out school bonds!!!

♬ original sound - Right2WinOzarks

Clever Residents: Points to Consider Before Voting

(From: Clever School District)

 

Guest Post by Retha Holland

The Clever R-V School District has requested voters approve, on Tuesday April 2, 2024, a bond for $16 million for acquisitions, improvements, construction, and renovation at their various school buildings.

Voters should consider these points when deciding to approve or disapprove the proposed bond:

1) Will the proposed bond help increase student academic scores? Clever  has among the lowest student scores in the county, despite having an ideal teacher to student ratio of 1:15.

2) Is the additional tax burden justified and reasonable? The Clever School District levy is currently at $4.6394 per $100 of assessed valuation of real and personal property, with $3.1636 of that going toward district operations, and the rest--$1.2758--going toward debt service (additional account that services the bonds). Currently, this alone represents over ¼ paid to Clever Schools in property taxes.

3) Does the Clever School District currently have bond debt? According to the estimated tax collection the district could be within $100,000 of all debt paid on their bonds. Currently the collection of tax for the levy associated with the bond account is nearly $1.4 million in revenue. However, knowing they were close to paying off the bond debt, the District refinanced the 2017 bond at lower interest rate, but in doing this kicked the can down the road to 2026 before they could call it for payoff--which means they extended the loan with interest. Let that sink in.

4) Has the population of students in Clever increased or decreased? There has been a reduction in student population in recent years; for example, in 2021-2022 there were 1,351 students, while according to January 2024 school board minutes we currently have 1,309 students. Surrounding schools are also slowing or stagnant in student population growth, even though the population as a whole has increased.

5) How much local tax revenue has the school district received and is it increasing or decreasing? Total local revenue in 2022 was $4,563,636. The estimated current tax year revenue is $5,015,274, an increase of $451,638. Additionally, tax reassessments of property (not counting new construction) is up over 6%, which means more money for the District. Note, the local tax effort increased from 2020-2021 through 2022-2023 by $782,192. Combined, this is over a million dollars in extra property tax revenue in four years. Remember, this is just local tax revenue!

About 2,750 homes serve the school district with property taxes. The median income in town is $53,000, while total median household income serving the Clever School District is $63,295. The median for Christian County is $66,500. Yet we have the highest property tax levy associated with the school district in Christian County. (Income obtained from Clever Schools RSP presentation stats for 2022.)

6) What are the payments and interest going to be on the $16 million bond? Take a look at the repayment plan (Bond Debt Service) that is on page 17 of the Raymond James Public Finance company's "Financial Overview of the District." Over the term of the loan, the interest payments on the $16 million bond would total nearly $8.8 million and would not end until 2043.

Taxpayers can get a copy of the plan by emailing the Clever School District and requesting a copy of the "Financial Overview of the District" by Raymond James.

Page 17 of the District overview

7) Is there an itemized or estimated cost for the projects proposed? To date, there has been little concrete project plans and projected costs shared with citizens. The language on the ballot allows the District to use the bond money for just about anything. They are borrowing millions of dollars without a clear cost plan for any of the school facilities.

8) Does the language on the ballot matter? It does! It says, "If this proposition is approved, the debt service levy of the District is estimated to remain unchanged at $1.2768 per one hundred dollars assessed valuation of real and personal property." The language should read "to remain unchanged," which protects the taxpayer from any levy increases during the contract. For instance, if tax revenues would decrease for whatever reason, the District might not be able to make their payments on the bond, and would have to increase the tax levy, thereby burdening taxpayers in perpetuity. The use of the word "estimated" gives the District the wiggle room to increase the levy. "Estimated" means taxpayers could be subject to levy increases if needed to pay the debt. That $1.2758 could turn into $1.40--all based on a forecast of 4% increase in property values, averaged.

Additionally, the ballot language would allow the District to push off some of their internal debt (called lease-purchase debt) onto the taxpayer. It is made unclear how much that will be; as of last fall the total internal debt was $5,985,000.

9) What about renters who don't pay property taxes? If renters ever wonder why their rent is raised every year, and thought they had a greedy landlord, they should realize that when property taxes go up, the landlord is paying more for the rented home, and thus must raise rents in order to keep pace with taxes. Additionally, a percentage of the personal property tax that everyone pays on their vehicles also goes to the schools. Everyone suffers from ever-increasing property taxes!

10) What about SB 190, the tax freeze for seniors? That bill caps assessments on property for those eligible for Social Security, but it does not protect elderly homeowners from a levy increase. It only caps the value of the property.

11) Why should I vote? Nothing ever changes. While our national votes don't seem to matter much, your vote in local elections has major impact. Few people vote in off-year elections, so those who do vote have an outsized impact on what happens in your community. It can and has come down to a single vote that can elect a new mayor or alderman or approve/disapprove a bond issue. Your vote in a local election has a direct impact on you and your community.

12) What about the Hancock Amendment? Clever Schools has been taking advantage of the loophole in the Hancock Amendment that caps property tax increases to 5% for the District's Operations Account. The District has been  transferring a portion of the levy funds from the Operations Account to the Bond Account (which pays down the bond debt). This is a type of legal but unethical "shell game" to keep any and all of the increase over the 5% excess revenue on existing property, instead of returning it to the taxpayer. (Last year was over a 6% increase.)

13) But it's for the children! We all want our schools to be able to have what they need to function well. When we lead with emotional sentiment it can cloud judgment of what is appropriate or reasonable. This tax affects everyone, low income, fixed income, even the children who will be paying off this bond debt for 20 years! Stop and think about that. These loans last about 20 years, and when we approve them, the payments and interest will affect the next generation of students.

14) Is there a better way? Yes. I have found nothing stating that we cannot save money through a tax levy in the District's Capital Projects Fund, where not only can the debt be for a shorter stated period, but with a reduced levy rate the school gets all the property tax revenue that is collected instead of 33% (over $8.7 million) in interest going to the bank and putting our next generation in debt. It would remain our approved debt with a clearly defined contract. It is a win for everyone. We can navigate the needs of the school in a more productive, clear and efficient way.

For example, a 50-cent "saving levy" in the Capital Projects Fund would be approximately $500,000 per year currently in tax revenue. If approved, for say, five years, it would be $2.5 million for stated projects. Currently, according to the Raymond James contract of the proposed $16 million bond, the interest alone over the next five years is higher than the proposed example.

We should live up to our name and be more Clever in how we do things. 

Additional Resources:

Clever Schools Bond Issue

Clever Missouri Hold on to Your Wallets

City of Clever Elections Page

Christian County Election Calendar

Controlled Programming

 

By Gretchen Garrity

Tuesday night (March 19, 2024) there was a Nixa School Board Candidate Forum. It was hosted by the Nixa Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) and the Nixa Teachers Association (NTA). Held in the Media Center, the forum was well attended.

The sponsors had selected questions and given them to the candidates ahead of the forum. Therefore, the candidates' answers were about as vanilla as they could get. They were canned. They were rehearsed. I'm not blaming the candidates. Who wouldn't want to be spared inconvenient questions, or questions that one had no answer for? Who would want to be confronted by an upset parent or voter?

The forum was what is called controlled programming. You, the voter, have no voice (unless you managed to get a submitted question chosen and even then you couldn't talk). If you arrived at the meeting early enough to meet and shake hands with the candidates, you might have been able to ask them a question. Or, if you lingered afterwards you might have gotten a question in. 

But the formal process of a citizen squaring off in public with a declared candidate, a citizen positioned as an equal able to query and expect answers from the person who is asking for their vote, was missing.

In general, these forums are how the System checks off boxes. Public meeting? Check. Candidate forum? Check. Voter information? Check. Public duty? Check. 

It's all for show.

How much is really learned about the candidates? Having sat through a couple of these types of events, the candidates pretty much said the same things as at the other times. The forum last night was recorded. Whether it was live-streamed or will be released online I don't know. If it was live-streamed or released, I would've saved the time and energy of being a mere spectator needed to fill the audience.

I had questions. They weren't the questions in the prearranged forum. They were tough questions I wanted to ask two of the candidates. 

A question for current school board president/candidate Josh Roberts: "You mentioned that the school district is currently consulting with a psychologist to decide whether to provide an on-campus psychologist to teachers. Can you tell me what has changed in the last decade or so that would warrant teachers needing a psychologist on campus?"

A question for school board candidate Megan Deal: "Can you give your opinion of trauma-based education?" And a followup, "Would you agree that parents should be provided an opt-out form if they decide they don't want their children participating in any type of data collection via surveys, questionnaires or evaluations that refers to their child's feelings or beliefs or attitudes, especially those relating to sexual behavior, orientation, or gender identity?"

Civic participation in the election process is so important that events like the PTO/NTA forum ultimately prove unhelpful. What has happened to debates, and open forums, where voters can get a real idea of the candidates' suitability for public office? To preempt questions from the citizens and give candidates the questions ahead of time is a disservice to the community when there is no other avenues for public discourse.

We are being controlled by a managerial class of government workers and their associates who may not even be aware that the processes they implement are not in the spirit or letter of a free exchange of ideas. Citizens deserve to be able to interview the candidates in order to determine which one best deserves their vote.

I would ask the Nixa PTO and NTA to change their format during the next election and allow a period of time for the citizens to actually participate in the forum. Allow questions that might bring up uncomfortable subjects such as Social Emotional Learning and Diversity Equity and Inclusion, and how those agenda--implemented from both the federal and state level in our local schools--are causing behavioral issues in students.

Instead of calling for more social workers and psychologists and more government programs, perhaps a truly open forum would allow citizens to engage on a level that would actually bring both enlightenment and change to our school boards and ultimately benefit the students and staff.

I'm inserting this video of an interview of Abigail Shrier, author of Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren't Growing Up, to give you an idea of how important ideas are not being shared with our candidates, or others in the audience. It's fascinating, and our community needs to know that there is a very different narrative to the one we are exposed to by the System, which is always and only a call for more programs and more staff:

One last point. We the People of Christian County is the only group I know of (please tell me if you know of others), that had local school board candidates come to speak...and take unvetted questions from the citizens. I would say a couple of the candidates were probably sweating by the time they got out of there, but they came and took questions. Thanks to Josh Roberts and Megan Deal of Nixa, and to Jason Shaffer in Ozark and Edmund Unger in Sparta. And a big thanks to We the People of Christian County.

Get Over the Paradigm

 

The Problem with Friends

 

From: Ozarktigers.org

 

By Gretchen Garrity

The oft-repeated line that the Missouri Legislature has a Republican super majority is a terrible hindrance to the truth of the matter. When some Republican legislators vote, on average, about 50% of the time with the Democrats, that is not a super majority of Republicans. 

That is called the Uniparty. And the Uniparty's interests do not align with the vast majority of citizens in Missouri who vote (often vainly) for Republicans who hopefully represent their interests.

This is also a problem on the local level with school boards and other elected offices. Uniparty influence easily reaches down to locally-elected positions. How else are their vast interests going to be implemented in local schools, health boards, city councils and libraries?

Citizens need to awaken to the understanding that the candidate or official you have known for years, who attends your church, whose business you frequent, or whose children go to school with your children, may not be the best person for the local school board or city council.

It is vital that you become educated on how they view the world, how they will or have vote(d), and what organizations and individuals they are affiliated with. For instance, the Chamber of Commerce is not what it used to be. It has been co-opted by globalist interests that seek to implement worker programs in the schools. They are more interested in worker bees than an educated populace.

Many local schools are deeply intertwined with the local chambers of commerce. School board members, past and present, and even superintendents are members of the local chamber of commerce. They represent the public/private partnerships that purport to have a mutually beneficial relationship that helps students as well as the chamber. 

Think.

The chamber is a business-oriented entity. It desires what most benefits businesses in the area. Do the benefits of a culinary program outweigh the negative aspects of turning a school into a business that churns out workers and not educated citizens who can reason and determine their own future?

There are plenty of culinary schools around. Why start a program in a high school? Ask yourself the hard questions. Who benefits most from a bunch of kids that know how to work in hospitality, typically a relatively low-income career? Why aren't schools turning out kids who can read well, write well, and do mathematics? The scores are awful in many local districts, yet programs that ultimately benefit business are an expanding focus. Why?

On a similar note, David Rice has written an excellent article about Dustin Kirkman, a candidate for the Ozark School District School Board. Rice asks some important questions and he exposes some important information. His article deserves to be shared around.

From his article: "Dustin Kirkman has made questionable statements about schools, has supported two men who had felony charges against them (and in Christian County, they received a slap on their wrists), and belongs to an organization that does good and services, but leans left and doesn’t believe in absolute truth. Even the ancient Greeks understood truth better than Rotarians seem to understand it."

Incidentally, there will be a radio spot at 91.1 FM KSMU tomorrow at noon (March 19, 2024) with Ozark School Board candidates sponsored by the Informed Voter Coalition (Show Me Christian County).

"Bondemic" Bond(age)

 Retha Holland was was a guest with Kyle Wyatt of All Out Law on KSGF 104.1 this morning. The subject was the "bondemic" that our school districts are attempting to impose on taxpayers. Take a listen. Clever, Springfield, Nixa, and Ozark are all mentioned.

Holland explains how schools propose more bonds just as previous bonds are due to be paid off, basically keeping taxpayers on a rolling schedule of never-ending debt. Always couched as "for the children," these bonds are often 20-year obligations, which means that performing arts center for today's students will be paid for by those same students as they join the workforce in years to come.

Take a look at your ballot on April 2. Chances are you will see a proposed school bond. After listening to Wyatt and Holland you will understand that all is not always as it seems with school bond debt.