Harrisburg Residents - URGENT
Harrisburg School District 41-4 has a bond issue election TOMORROW, September 27, 2022. PAY ATTENTION. You didn’t know? It really hasn’t been front page news.
Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half. ― Gore Vidal
Bond Issue Election TUESDAY
Tomorrow there is a Bond Issue Election in the Harrisburg, SD school district to authorize the school district to borrow $30 million dollars for you to pay back in taxes.
Sorry about the cruddy graphics. This is the only source we could find of the school district’s bond issue wording, buried in their long brochure.
CONTEXT
In June of last year, the Harrisburg School District No. 41-2, Lincoln and Minnehaha counties passed a $60 million bond issue. This year’s $30 million bond is on top of that one.
You may or may not approve of this freewheeling mortgaging of your assets. But if you do not weigh in, it doesn’t matter what you think. Last year’s bond issue was passed with 5% of registered voters showing up. Of 21,626 registered voters, only 977 voted.
Does More Money = Better Education?
You’ll find a lot of articles that say yes. But “it ain’t necessarily so.” An article in The Hill examines the relationship between more school funding and student outcomes.
At the national level, the Cato Institute has been tracking [school funding and performance] data for a long time, noting that the total cost of the K-12 education system in the United States has skyrocketed — up nearly three times from 1970 in real dollars. Adjusting for the increase in the number of students doesn’t change the trend much. Most of this spending has gone to increasing the number of public school employees. And yet, national test scores — a limited measure, but the best one available — have barely budged.
School boards and city councils must be good and careful stewards of public money. School tax growth rates cannot morally exceed the income growth rate of those who must pay, especially when it does not improve student performance.