More Chutzpah

First School Superintendent Kevin Maxwell wanted to hike school spending. Now, he wants to hike the piggyback tax:

Anne Arundel County school officials -- hoping for a $131 million boost in school funding -- are pressing the county executive and County Council to raise a local income tax that hasn't been touched since Lyndon B. Johnson was president.

Undaunted by the long shot, schools Superintendent Kevin Maxwell is pushing for the tax increase because it could generate $80 million for the cash-strapped school system and county.

Maxwell said last week that he hopes the council will consider raising the county's local income tax rate from 2.5 to 3.2 percent, the legal limit. Such an increase would mean that a taxpayer who earns $50,000 a year would pay $350 more in local income tax annually.

Needless to say, it makes me particularly unhappy when unelected bureaucrats who among Anne Arundel County's highest paid public employees come out and starting screaming and moaning that we need to pay more taxes. And you know why he wants to raise the tax:

"It's a quick way to get money," Maxwell said.

Is there any better way to show how out of touch the educational bureaucracy is with the communities they serve than by Maxwell's flippant comment? Blame the lack of money as the root of all of the system's problems, and demand more and more of it to make the schools better. If you can, cite the No Child Left Behind boogeyman and say we need the money because it's "for the children." Spend, spend, and spend some more; it worked so well for Washington, DC.

And it's not just Maxwell; it's Board Member Eugene Peterson too:

"It's frustrating for me when people run for election on motherhood, apple pie and excellent education, and then, when it comes time to pay for it they're against raising taxes," said Eugene Peterson, the vice chairman of the school board.

"This may look like a lot of money, $131 million, but the fact is these are things that should've been done years ago. This is just trying to get us up to par to what is rational to run a good system."

The point I made in my previous post about Maxwell's proposed spending hike is not at all being addressed. Clearly, we have spent billions of dollars on education over the years. Why have we gotten to this point? What has put our education system so far behind the eight ball? Have Maxwell, Peterson, and their ilk even bothered to consider whether or not the educational philosophies and teaching methods that are currently being employed in the school system are effective? And if they're not, why should the good people of Anne Arundel County be subjected to more and more taxation to continue to fund programs that are failing. Clearly, however, Maxwell's comments clearly indicate that he is not interested in finding out whether the money currently being spent is effective or not:

"I do not believe that we have the amount of resources to provide the quality education that Anne Arundel County citizens say they want."

To Maxwell, it seems to be all about the money. I am not trying to say that we do not need to concern ourselves with improving our infrastructure in the areas of computers, labs, textbooks, etc. However, I have not as of yet seen anything from the Superintendent indicating how this money is going to be an improvement. Nor, has he indicated that any new money would be spent any differently than it is now.

Only two people in the Sun article display any common sense whatsoever. First, School Board Member Vic Bernson:

"We're only operating on one side of the economic ledger here, and that's spend, spend, spend...The unspoken but self-evident goal of this budget and those who support it is to raise taxes. It's too easy to ask for moon and stars, say it's all for the children and then force the county executive and the County Council to be the bad guys."

And John Leopold:

"I've done everything in my power and will continue to do everything in my power to find efficiencies...I encourage the superintendent and the school board to do the same thing...I want to work with them to achieve that excellence to accomplish those goals within the parameters of fiscal responsibility."

At the moment, the Board is very limited on fiscally responsible members; when the majority of members need the support of the teacher's union and liberal interest groups to advance in the selection process, that happens. Thank goodness we actually have elected representatives to make fiscal decisions on the budget and taxes in the form of a County Council and a County Executive. However, what disturbs me more than the fiscal responsibility is the fact that the current board membership seems to be disinterested in determining whether or not existant programs are working before rallying around the "let's raise taxes" flag.

Day after day we find more and more reasons to have an elected school board.