The Schools Our Children Deserve

The Jefferson County Board of Education voted to raise an additional $50 million for our public schools. The increased investment will come from an additional $70 per year per $100,000 tax valuation of homes. The state legislature cut annual funding to JCPS by $52 million in 2015 to distribute to other districts; that may be why JCPS was criticized for not raising taxes previously in the audit prepared during the attempted state takeover.

Most of the increased investment will be focused on

• · increased pay for teachers so that we attract, hire, train (including expanding an intensive teacher residency program) and retain great staff in an increasingly very competitive marketplace;
• · increased supports for schools with the lowest average proficiency rates—pay incentives for experienced teachers and administrators, smaller class size, and additional programming and support staff; and
• · year-round extended learning opportunities for students struggling with math and literacy proficiencies, including expanding Summer Backpack League for 10,000 students

One-fourth of the increase will go toward funding about half of projected 10-year facilities needs. JCPS faces a whopping $1+ billion needed to renovate or build new schools. Ballard High School (JCPS’s newest facility, was built more than 50 years ago in 1968) had to abandon its football stadium in 2019 when it was condemned! Shawnee High School has been unable to use its third floor for decades because it was that unsafe. So the money will go to renovate four magnet schools, to double the amount of renovation to our aging school buildings, to renovate athletic facilities, and to build two middle-schools and a high school so that West End families will finally have the same choice that East End parents have had all along: to have the option of a great public-school education closer to home.

For comparison, Fayette County used their higher tax rate to build five new schools and renovate 21 others in the past 12 years.

Despite what you also might have heard — repeatedly — JCPS’s tax rate isn’t high; it’s lower than most of its neighbors and counterparts, as you can see from the chart. In fact, the main organizer in the recall to deny our public schools adequate funding pays nearly 25% more in Anchorage than she would in Jefferson County. If you own a $200,000 home, your investment would come to 38 cents per day — ensuring that all students have equal access to better buildings and academic programs, that JCPS can respond to the expensive COVID-19 crisis as it continues, and that we will have the doctors, entrepreneurs, librarians, editors, lawyers, authors, scientists, designers, police, translators, plumbers, architects, actors, bus drivers, nurses, managers, pilots, technicians, secretaries, bookkeepers, historians — and, yes, teachers and parents — we will need in the future.

When someone presents misinformation or opposes investing in our schools, please ask them: Why do you oppose giving our children the schools they deserve?