It really cracks me up how many people present themselves as "small government" and "anti-tax", but then cave in when it comes to schools. We NEVER get what we pay for when it comes to government taxation. Come on, people. Stop feeding the machine...

I have participated in two forums involving the LBUSD Parcel Tax. Although I respect Mr. Steinhauser, I disagree with his attempts to go after more money from the taxpayers. Not only is the timing wrong; with everyone receiving their property tax bill, but money never solves the problems in education.

We need to cut class sizes in the early grades and stop taking away the parents responsbility of feeding their children. Bussing, bilingual education; free breakfast and lunches and small class sizes have not proven to be successful in eduating our children. Give reponsibility of their children back to the parents, and demand more accountability of the teachers and administrators before asking for more money. There is too much waste already! Even teachers will admit that.

In addition, Mr. Stallings, the CFO for the LBUSD stated rather candidly at the League of Women's Voter forum that, " the money will go to salaries". The catch is most people think when the LBUSD says the money will not go towards administrators salaries, people think the money won't go for teachers salaries either. Long Beach LBUSD teachers are some of the highest paid.

Why should those who are out of work; have taken salary and benefit cuts, or have had reduced hours pay more, so the teachers can keep their jobs while maintaining their current salary and benefits.

You will not hear from the LBUSD that they are eligible for a piece of the $4Billion of 'Race to the Top' money from the federal government. All eligible schools have to apply no later than January. By Februay, Mr. Steinhauser should know how much of that $4Billion LBUSD will receive. The LBUSD could have waited until they were notified of that amount before asking the taxpayers for money.

California is currently busy at work, for once, trying to come to an agreement on legislation that will allow all California schools to tap into 'Race to the top Money'. The LBUSD is eligible now, because they do tie student performance to teachers. That should be a given.

We cannot permit parcel taxes from becoming the norm for funding education. It will allow the Legislature to underfund education, thus burdening the taxpayers again and again.

I don't know how anyone could disagree with the points made in the text. Though I'm sure some on this site will tell me why I'm wrong. But basically I think it spells out why so many are undecided on this measure. We're tired of the waste, teachers union running wild, etc. but they put the gun to our head and say give us more money or your kids will suffer. It's a tough spot for hard working, homeowner parents...

Answered my question as to whether enrollment was declining, or not, in LBUSD. I still voted NO via absentee ballot.

DW: In the first paragraph, you meant to say "Nov. 3" not Nov. 30.

Thanks! I made the change. November 3 it is.

Simple decision. The LBUSD has made drastic cuts, and there is no way that with the importance of our childrens education that we can't afford this short term very small sacrifice.
Who cares what this "running wild" business union has to say; they have proven that they care less about the welfare of LBUSD students. Sleazy unionboss gordon has made sure of that-total irrelevance and unbelievability in this issue.

I got a kick reading about how few illegals are collecting medical, and how much taxpayer money was wasted in learning this (in a credible paper-the LA Times).
Sure there is abuse, but there can be no screwing with our childrens education. That is such an important issue, and any child that's here deserve the very best. They will be staying here and be a part of our society. It is a shame that, for whatever reason, there are things lacking in their lives; that there could be more support, involvement etc.
Take your tax whines to someone like dirtbag randy gordon, with all the corporate welfare his business welfare queens demand-and get.
My suggestion to you, also, is to take a trip to a country that really doesn't tax their people. Tell me if you like what you see.
Maybe I'm odd, but I don't mind paying my tax share,or more, even though with our high combined income and investments I should be whining along side you.
I even voted for mayor blobs measure, but I wouldn't today. Not because of the money, but because he's shown his true colors.
I must add that I resent your teacher bashing. It shows your true colors also...nuff said.

Mr. Wrong: If, as you say, "there can be no screwing with our childrens education" then we need to craft a viable alternative to our current approach to public education. Our current approach just isn't working and to continue to pump millions and millions of dollars into any system that consistently fails of its intended purpose is simple lunacy and does our children a grave disservice.

Let parents keep more of their money thus enhancing their education choices for their own children. This will instill much-needed competition into a currently monopolistic and overly bureaucratic public education system. This will also diminsh class sizes and make it easier to better encourage and reward excellent public school teachers and dismiss the poorly performing ones (since they aren't helping their Districts newly established need to be competitive).

In short, the "rising tide" of instilling competition into our public school system will lift all of the education "boats" thereon and, most importantly, we help to better guarantee that our children are well-educated and better prepared to, themselves, be more competitive and successful in a rapidly changing world.

Hi John,

Is it not true that California is among the lowest in the US in per student funding?

I think the teaching for testing (NCLB)is a waste. It's like basing your police pay/performance on how many tickets you write. I wouldn't want to hire private security firms to compete with our police public servants.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I'd like to put LOTS of money towards our schools and our schoolchildren. We can pay for it by ending all the corporate/rich people welfare idiot bush pushed. I mean, just locally, how much monthly rent does the LBYC pay the city-$900? What a joke!

In the same light as teachers, I have no problem paying our fire and police heroes top dollar.

Teachers/students, policemen, firemen; feel free to raise my taxes to load them up with everything!

Hi Mr. Wrong: That "California is among the lowest in the US in per student funding" is most assuredly *not* true.

According to the most recent data available from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), comparative per pupil funding (or PPF) reflects that California is right in the middle (ranked 25th) and only slightly below the national average in PPF.

There is nothing in NCLB that asks or requires any School or District to teach to a test. NCLB is, in fact, a vastly comprehensive educational initiative that makes at least an *attempt* at setting realistic national standards of academic performance for students, schools and Districts that receive federal funding. But it doesn't only mandate requirements -and even then only for Districts and schools that receive Title 1 funding- but also offers many, many resources to help accomplish them.

I believe your analogy between Teacher and public safety performance to be fallacious. A teacher's job is (or should be) to educate according to specific and measurable standards and their performance assessment should be based upon how well they do that. The only reasonable and objective way to assess this is through an appropriate and standardized test of their students.

Conversely a cop's job is to enforce the laws, to keep the peace and to promote public safety and these are not nearly so easily quantifiable. For example; the average Beat Cop can only be in one place in his/her Beat at a given time and, so, he/she cannot possibly be responsible for failing to prevent a crime that occurs wherever he/she is not, nor can he/she always prevent a crime that occurs in his/her presence but, rather, can often only react appropriately to the unlawful actions of another. Conversely how do we accurately quantify the number of crimes the officer *has* prevented? How do we accurately count crime occurrences that did not happen?

No, Mr. Wrong, on my planet teachers are required to teach and to teach well. When they do so they should be *highly* paid. When they consistently fail to do so they should be summarily dismissed. The only way to guage their competency as educators is by testing their students.

NCLB has it's faults and flaws, no doubt. But at least it attempts to set academic standards and enforce them, something our public education system stopped doing on its own long ago.

I too am willing to tax myself to pay for various public programs and services. But since it is our money that these public education institutions are spending, they must remain fully accountable to us and right now they are not.

There's an excellent study on Public Education Finance by Vanderbilt's Dr. James Guthrie from 1996 entitled: "Reinventing Education Finance: Alternatives for Allocating Resources to Individual Schools" that you and others might find worth the read:

http://nces.ed.gov/pubs98/finance/98217-5.asp

One of Dr. Guthrie's suggestions is that education revenues should be seen as belonging to the *School*, and not to the *District* and that these revenues should follow the student as they transfer from school to school.

Such a paradigm shift would serve to empower the School over the District and would help to re-focus our attention where it is most appropriate...with the student.

John:

You must belong to the union, or be a politician. The only people they ever mention on the campaign trail are: police, fire and teachers. There is enough union money behind all of these individuals to fill their coffers.

By the way, police and fire are not listed among the most dangerous positions, and the word "hero" applies to an individual, not to a groups of people, i.e.; police, fire teachers.

Just how much would you be willing to pay a police officer who works 30 years, retires at 50 at 90% of his salary?

Is it your contention that union membership is somehow improper or undesireable? Do you assert that people shouldn't have a right to engage in collective bargaining in the workplace if they freely and openly agree to do so?

Are there any other rights on your list that you would like to deny to others?

I do not participate or contribute funds to my union's political action committee. I pay them, and pay them well, to bargain collectively on my behalf so I can provide the best life for my family and myself. How is this wrong?

I never claimed that police or fire were listed among the most dangerous professions but neither does this mean that both professions aren't dangerous.

Nor have I ever claimed that others in our society are not heroes...good and effective teachers are most certainly on my list of community heroes.

No police officer, at least in Long Beach, can possibly "work 30 years, retire at 50 at 90% of his salary". Cops in Long Beach have to be at least 21 when they are appointed, this means that they have to be at least 51 to be able to retire with 30 years of service and to my mind any cop that survives a 30-year career in Long Beach deserves every single penny *and then some* of service retirement payments that they receive.

Walk a mile in their shoes, kathy. See what they see and deal with the things they deal with in Long Beach, day in and day out for 30 long years and then see if you don't agree with me on this.

The problem is not that we don't tax enough. We do. It's just that low and middle income workers do not pay their fair share. Nearly 50% of our population does not pay any Federal Income Tax. That is not sustainable. Everyone needs to pay something, even a small amount. Otherwise you end up with a society where a majority of the population demands more service regardless of the cost because they know they will not have to pay for it. Then the producing members of society leave or give up. Everyone needs to pay their fair share, including the non "so called rich".

The hostage taking methodology of our education system is getting old.

Why is it that we demand efficiency and productivity in the private sector, push and wish for it in State & local government, yet give education a hall pass? Education is nearly 50% of our state budget. The same state budget that people are freaking out about the wastefullness of.

I'm tired of it. I'm tired of teachers lamenting about being underpaid (although last time I checked they worked ~ 9 months out of the year). I'm tired of teachers pining that there is no effective way to evaluate teachers...we just have to trust that they're doing their best. I'm tired of educators claiming to be all about the best interest of the children AND opposing vouchers.

I'm sorry, because there are some amazing teachers that are in the public school system and I hope they can continue doing the job they love. But I'll show how fed up I am at the ballot box on Nov. 3.

Very, very, well said.

Taking a neutral stand on increasing tax is not a strong stance by the Chamber, but rather a weak/easy one.