School district's plans aren't good for children
I have lived in Burbank for more than 17 years. And although I
don't have children, I am a substitute teacher for kindergarten
through fifth grade in the Los Angeles Unified School District. I
know firsthand how hard it is to teach these days.
Many children are learning to speak English, and 20 students in a
classroom takes every bit of my energy. Many children who aren't
"getting it" have to be individually helped -- not to mention all the
paperwork, parental support and everything else that teachers do.
Many Burbank teachers have been put on notice that they might lose
their jobs if the number of children in classrooms is increased. This
will be harmful to children and teachers.
On an economic level, many people move to Burbank because of the
schools. We need to find alternative ways of funding our schools.
Let's hope when we have a new school board in place, that board
will work with the city in finding the money to allow our children to
receive a decent education.
GAYLE RAY
Burbank
Solve the school deficit with a local tax
This is in regards to the current crisis in the Burbank Unified
School District's budget, and I wish to propose the following.
Why not set up some kind of special property tax district for
Burbank, whereby there would be a yearly special assessment for the
local schools? This could be set up to be voted on annually (for
example, the assessment must be renewed each year by the voters),
which would become a community referendum on the quality of our
schools.
As with the libraries and school bonds, many people will howl that
we do not need any new taxation. This might be true in the larger
sense that most of our taxes (income tax especially, but also sales
taxes) disappear into the great maw of state and federal government,
never to be seen again in visible form in our community.
A local tax of this kind, however, is just that. It benefits the
community directly, by assuring funding for our schools. Good schools
are the major component for property values, so even those who do not
have children attending our public schools can benefit from such a
tax.
As noted above, this could be set up on a temporary basis in that
it can be approved or repealed each year, thus putting the onus on
the BUSD to prove it is using the money productively. Voters, on the
other hand, can decide whether they are getting their money's worth.
In sum, the school deficit is too big to be solved by the usual
