On second thought

‘Throwing money at schools isn’t the answer,’ but bills need to be paidToday is Oct. 20. and that means:
There are only nine more shopping weeks until Christmas,
There’s still time to get me something for my Oct. 23 birthday, and
There are only 18 days remaining before the Nov. 8 special election on Luverne School District’s referendum.A recent phone poll in the Luverne District showed that many of our local residents aren’t familiar with the issues surrounding the referendum and don’t care.That surprises me, considering the health of a school district is a major indicator in the overall health of a community.We should ALL care about the vote, regardless of whether or not we have children in school.Families choose to live here because of the strong school, and entire businesses have located here because there’s a healthy district for the children of employees.I’m also surprised by the number of people who think they understand school finance. We have district residents (whom I’ve never seen at a public school board meeting) assert that our teachers are overpaid, our classrooms over funded and that "throwing money at schools" isn’t the answer.Unfortunately, money is the answer to maintaining a thriving district. It allows us to offer competitive salaries to the people who deliver the quality programs we’ve enjoyed to this point.Those who believe a teacher’s work day is from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. haven’t been to the school at 7 a.m. or at 5:30 p.m. and don’t see the large tote bags of work these "overpaid" teachers take home with them at night.The majority of cuts so far ($600,000 last year) represent teachers who are NO LONGER employed by the district and are no longer leading the programs we were once proud of (all day every day kindergarten and high school vocational coursework, for example).Without a referendum, we’ll be looking at additional program cuts, equally as drastic as those, and frankly, we won’t recognize Luverne School District when it’s all over.The meager 1.7 percent increase in state aid (not 4 percent legislators are bragging about) not only doesn’t keep up with inflation, it won’t keep up with this winter’s heat bill at school. That says nothing about fueling buses and maintaining computer labs.It all takes money that the state has failed to adequately provide.The district mailed information to every home last week. If you missed that, you can call the district office, 283-8088, with questions, or see the district’s Web site, www.2184.net.