Our ANTI public education friends, have a new cherry picked fact that they are using to further their constant themes of lazy overpaid union teachers bankrupting the Vista Unified School District. The facts are just the opposite but our ANTI friends never let facts get in the way of what they "feel" is true.
Here is their genuine fact: More than 80% of VUSD funds go to salary and benefits of employees of VUSD.
What the ANTI public education crowd tries to hide from the public is that this is the same amount that all school districts budgets in California on average use for salaries and benefits. VUSD is no different than any other school district in the North County or in California in this regard.
Further they do not tell you that of this more than 80% figure, less than 40% goes to teacher salaries.
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:JsXblPb8XT0J:www.cbp.org/pdfs/2008/080506_HowDistrictsSpendtheirFunds.pdf+Percentage+California+school+district+funds+salaries+and+benefits&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESh-nQGRyqfK5LEkJ-bL_JZwegAG-wxwT5shb7oP-uueG64xrWWEPvQr4gNa0dTTDYrrXU9JSKa09yg5SeV2derhzD2o7EjOSTgdeFsQWhVe2qYmOmxIxxyVAXqhTMa3i3MUZK7j&sig=AHIEtbQ7TnabL-Bm9-CHIBnnE1MIV3ZbgA
They also do not tell you that the legislature of the State of California could set all teacher salaries, making them uniform across the state and paying these salaries directly. This is the system in other states(e.g. Iowa and Missouri).
Here in California our state legislature decided that teacher salaries should come from the same funds that are used to buy student supplies, etc and that each school district in California should set its own salaries.
Was this bowing to the push for local control? No, the rather Machiavellian idea was that salaries could be kept down if teachers were forced to compete against student needs for funds and if every time a teacher changed districts they lost all (or most) of their years of experience on the salary schedule.
Our ANTI friends pretend that teachers in VUSD take more than their fair share because of "the union thugs that run the district."
Actually VUSD is now FIFTH FROM THE BOTTOM in average salary in San Diego County.* The good teachers and the union that represents them have unselfishly worked to pass school bonds to build new schools in our district. We provided thousands of hours of volunteer work to get a school bond passed knowing that a bond never covers the complete cost of a new school. We knew we would take a bit of a salary hit.
Sadly the hit became huge when two stubborn ANTI supported school board members blocked the purchase of the last 50+ acre, cheap, level piece of agricultural land in our district, the Kawano site behind Strawberry Hill. This site was identified in the Spring of 2002 as the best site for our third high school. Had Guffanti and Gibson allowed the acquisition of that land in the summer of 2002, the third high school would have been finished for th 2005 school year for a projected cost of between 50 and 54 million dollars.
Today on at an inferior, hilly, boundary-disputed site (Melrose) in Oceanside (not Vista) the third high school is projected to cost 100 million--double what if might have cost in 2002. The City of Vista stood ready to help the district build quickly at the kawano site. The City of Oceanside Council obstructed the building to the third high school. They increased cost by rezoning the site for housing. They added increased road construction costs and grading work. VUSD educates one third of all the children in Oceanside but the City Council of Oceanside did not care and did not make building the third high school cheap or easy.
As a result of this incredible increase in cost due to the expense of the zoned for housing and very hilly land at Melrose school bond money ran out. The VUSD board was forced to borrow money against our general fund (remember 80% of it is used for salaries and benefits). The technique used to borrow the money is called Certificates of Participation--COPs. These COPs must be paid first before money is spent on salaries or benefits. Hence salaries in VUSD could not keep up with inflation or with salary increases in other San Diego County school districts. Thanks to Dr. Stephen Guffanti and Jim Gibson, VUSD teachers are now some of the lowest paid in San Diego County.
*Here is a website that lists all San Diego County average teacher salaries:
http://www.sacbee.com/1098/story/995141.html?appSession=091137069432442
Here is ANTI public education blogger, Dorothy's quote and my tongue in cheek respose:
con no more said on: February 13, 2010, 12:04 pm
Dorothy at 8:40am wins the ANTI award for "Best Deception" today with the following comment, "Remember that over 80% of the budget is salaries!"
As Dorothy is well aware, school district salaries and benefits statewide average is about 83% of the general fund of each of those school districts. VUSD is no different in this regard than any other North County district nor any other school district in the state. By the way teacher salaries make up only 39.5% of that that 83%.
To confirm my comment and Dorothy's deception, just google: "How California Districts Spend Their Money, California Budget Project, School Finance Facts, May 2008
Sorry." I cannot put the URL here as this comment section rejects it for some reason.
It seems that our ANTI friend, Dorothy's intention is to imply that VUSD is unique in having 80+% of its General Fund going to salaries and benefits for various employees. Further she seems to want to blame the teachers who get less than half this amount in salaries. For that disingenuous attempt she gets today's "Deceptive ANTI Comment of the Morning Award". Congrats, Dorothy!
Why is it when the facts are not in favor of our ANTI friends, they feel morally and ethically justified in cherry picking facts to lead folks to conclusions that are incorrect?
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