Bond Passes, Education Won't Get Better, We Lose

by Nick Coons

Last month, I published an article about the details of this bond election, the waste surrounding the educational system, and provided information that shows how this money will not help improve the quality of education in the least. Sure, the proponents will say that it helps patch up old buildings or fix things that need fixing. While it may accomplish those goals, it will ultimately be funneled in to the pockets of a small number of people. Have we lost sight of the purpose education is? It's not to build buildings, or to give jobs to teachers and administrators. The purpose of education is... drum roll please... Education!

But the fact that these sorts of proposals keep passing as the rule is quite simple. It has nothing to do with education. It has to do with the economics of supporting a proposal versus opposing it. The Tempe bond, for instance, was for $77 million. Ultimately, that money will be paid out to specific people who are involved in whatever projects where the money will be spent. Proportionately, each person who receives proceeds from this will receive more money than each taxpayers pays to fund it. Your property taxes might go up $40/year because of this. How much of your time is it worth hitting the streets to convince people not to vote for this in order to save yourself $40/year? You can guarantee that the benefactors of this proposal will receive exponentially larger amounts, and so their incentive to push for its passage are enormous.

If you follow education at all, you know that money is not the answer. Other (non-public) schools with the same demographics perform much better with much less. Given that this should be obvious to the casual observer, it's difficult to think that those involved as deeply as a committee to increasing funding at the expense of taxpayers are so naive that they are unaware of this. A serious questioning of motives is in order.