^{The Bottom Line} Lucidity is Lacking

As reported on IdahoEdNews, the Bonneville School District pushed out an emergency levy worth $2 million. The issue with this emergency levy is that it does not require voter approval. The levy falls on the taxpayers’ property, and yet they have no say in the matter.

Transparency is described as something that can be seen through. When it comes to transparency in government, we mean that citizens must be able to “see through” its mechanisms, to understand exactly what goes on when public officials manage public business. A government or government officials that are not transparent are more prone to corruption because there is no public oversight of their decisions.

The spokeswoman of D93 Citizens, a group outspoken on this issue, rightly complains, “We are sick and tired of being the most highly taxed large school district in Idaho, especially when we have so many new homes paying more property taxes than ever before.”

As we’ve reported on before, taxpayers need to know where their taxes are being spent—especially the annual per student education spending.

Instead we see, in the words of Halli Stone, “utter contempt and total disregard” for the taxpayers of Bonneville.

Too often, educational leaders sidestep the true crux of our educational crisis: the system itself. This system has become obsolete in the information age. Many suggest that money is the problem, that funding is never enough. This is false. The system is the problem.

The issues within our education system do not come from the lack of money, they come from the lack of leadership. Legislators cannot continue avoiding telling districts to manage their money better and to quit kowtowing to union demands. It is hurting our children and hurting hard working citizens of Idaho.

Without systemic change, the system will continue promote distrust between stakeholders at all levels.