This Just In ...

Careful Franklin, school administrators are setting you up for a fat tax increase

Posted by Kevin Fischer on June 9, 2010

I believe Franklin has a fine school district.

My issues are Franklin has a fiscally irresponsible, fumbling, bumbling, totally inept school board, and generally speaking, management of the district is mediocre.

School board members and district administrators in Franklin get away with their major shortcomings because Franklin is predominantly politically apathetic. Even city of Milwaukee taxpayers care more about being held up by highway robbers masked as education bureaucrats.

(It’s at this point I intended to post a photo from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel taken at an MPS budget hearing in November 2007 showing the hundreds that turned out to protest a 16.4% property tax levy increase. However, a search to find the article that contained the photo using the ingenious Journal Sentinel search engine came up with, “Page Not Found”).

Back in 2007, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Alan Borsuk wrote about the apathy surrounding MPS issues, especially that proposed 16% tax increase.

Borsuk wrote:

"If you wanted to ponder the prospects for educational success in Milwaukee Public Schools, you only needed to walk into the auditorium of the district's central office Tuesday night. With a property tax increase of 16.4% up for consideration, with proposals for substantial changes in educational services as part of what the money would buy, there were close to no citizens present to give their opinions or to show their support or opposition. The room would have been just about empty if you took out the MPS officials and the news media who showed up, expecting a ruckus.

What does it take to stir people? Would that have happened in any suburban district?

It's a speculative question, but let's suggest the answer is no. Opponents of a tax increase that size would have been present in force. Supporters of the increase would probably also have been vocal. "

Borsuk then wrote that another hearing would be held.

"Officials hope there will be a higher turnout. Don't assume there will be. Apathetic responses from parents and the public are common when it comes to MPS issues. "

Some apathy. Hundreds turned out at the meeting to protest the huge tax increase. Milwaukee School Board members, in contempt of taxpayers and with no regard to the large crowd that attended the meeting, approved a big increase anyway, 14.6 %after the board acted to protect their travel budget and to keep their right to receive $150 a year in car allowances.

Borsuk also wrote in his story about apathy, “Would that have happened in any suburban district?”
The answer is yes.

It happened in my community, Franklin. Only a handful of concerned taxpayers showed up at a budget meeting, and the Franklin School Board robbed us blind again.

Alright, let’s get to the heart of this blog seeing as I have violated a key rule of journalism by totally burying the lead.

I received the latest Franklin newsletter this week, complete with Franklin School District's (cue Barney) everything is rosy and hunky-dory insert.

Now, I like and respect Franklin Superintendent Steve Patz. You have to love a guy whose IQ is 800 times greater than the people he works for, namely the Franklin School Board. However, his message in the city newsletter makes a guy like me who can smell doublespeak a million miles away nervous.

Congratulations, Dr. Patz. I’ve never seen in all my life such an extensive use of glittering generalities. If anyone can tell me what Patz really and specifically means in his “message,” I am all ears.

My guess is the plan is to bombard residents with a survey asking what they want, and then taking those answers and then using them politically to submit huge budget (i.e. property tax) increases to build and build and build, even though most realize nice, shiny new facilities don’t translate into increased GPAs or state football titles.

Dr. Patz and Franklin residents, please carefully review the results of the recent Franklin newsletter. Patz opens with the typical birds singing, angels playing harps, all is well initial paragraph. Then comes the hammer disguised as a feather.

Our Super says the school district (the good guys that they are) want to hear from you and you and you and you about (cue the doublespeak) “the physical status of our district facilities.”

Those administrators that run our schools all year round then clean our fiscal clocks every December are going to send out a survey in September. Wow. They really care about us and our opinion, right?

Yes, but not for the right reasons.

Patz argues that unlike most school districts around Wisconsin, Franklin has seen a small increase in enrollment. Patz theorizes that enrollment could grow even more (God, I’d love to take his crystal ball to Vegas). Patz then writes, “Should that (enrollment) number increase at a more  dramatic rate than anticipated (he provides absolutely no evidence to suggest that will, indeed, occur) the planning efforts that we undertake now will be more responsible and efficient."

Remember the results of the school referenda. Not even close. Blowout. Mandate. We are taxed enough. Forget any call for new Taj Mahal facilities, no matter what your survey says come September.

Careful, taxpayers, careful answering those survey questions.

(By the way, I’d love to link to Patz’s “message” but the communication wizards have not made it available online)