But IMO the proper way to address these concerns is to review the big picture, at the state level, of how taxes are raised and spent, the appropriate balance among types of taxes (income, property, sales, …), which tax investments are wise and which are frills, what infrastructure we want for ourselves and our kids, etc. Taking out one’s frustrations on the schools — and by extension the kids — makes little sense to me.

Like Barbara, I’d strongly prefer smaller classes and I’m willing to help pay for them. (Whether they’d significantly reduce the need for special ed is less clear to me, but that’s worth trying to find out.)

But let’s be clear: reducing class sizes to something like 18 is an expensive proposition. So help me understand: can lower taxes really coexist with smaller classes?

One of the significant problems I saw in educational settings was “building the bureaucracy”…every time the state or federal government gave an “unfunded mandate” people were hired to deal with it. Burnsville
and Edina schools had so many people in the administrative office a staff person didn’t know where to go. And
salaries for these “administrators”
were in the 80’s, 90’s, over 100,000 dollars. Not bad if the district had 3-4 administrators…but 23? 29?
And what do all these people do? Here we go back to “rent seeking”which I found very helpful. It explains much of my frustration with lawyers, developers, bankers, and of course politicians. Ah, another day.

Funny you should mention class size. I’m typing this at a coffeehouse on Monday morning and friend who I’d not seen for a while came in. When I asked him what his wife was up to, he said “Homeschooling our son. We pulled him out of Bridgewater Elementary because class size was over 30.”

I’m not sure to what extent reducing class size would reduce the need for Special Ed services, though. Do you have examples or can you point to research where this has been done successfully?

I NEVER thought I would vote against any funding for schools…but I am now. My reasons are similar to Larry DeBoer’s and Griff’s concerns.

I began a service busines (Care Tenders) almost 8 years ago to address transportation and home support needs. I built a building as there was no building in Northfield that accommodated the needs the business had. I was told by Ray Cox, the builder, that taxes would be approximately $4,000 per year; similar to his. SURPRISE!

Every year they have increased and this year are over $11,000. With the figures given out in the ‘”Levy Guide” they will increase $810. A shuttle ride to MSP is approximately $43…or 287 shuttle rides just to pay property taxes. I don’t think so. I have spoken with city council members, the assessor, and our elected representatives. They all say…”Yes, commercial property taxes are terrible but there is no ‘public will’ to do anything about them”. But I can do something …vote no. I look at the 2 palatial new schools.

I agree with Kathy Galotti; my daughters had problems with a particular teacher and nothing has ever been done about i.

Consultants pitch a 9 million dollar library. I’m certain we could build a new pool for less than 2.4 million. I agree with Larry, “we want everything in Northfield”.

I told Dr. Kyte years ago that after my experience in Burnsville & Edina schools, the only levy I will support is greatly reduced class size. If classes are reduced we won’t need all these “special services”. 70.2% of Northfield’s budget is spent on classroom instruction…do we think that is good?? We ought to spend 90% or more.

There is a limit to the fare I can charge and stay in business. It is time for the city council, the school board, the county commissioners to recognize that they can’t always come to the pubic for more. Sometimes, we don;t have it.

Your wish-list is a little misleading, though, since the YMCA and new theater won’t likely involve public money. And to my knowledge, there’s no local tax assessment of citizens for anything related to the bike trail or Cannon River.

But I think you can make your point without those and just use the local property tax increase for the city, the swimming pool, and now the school referenda.

But, we want everything in Northfield. We want a larger library, we want a new swimming pool, we want a new YMCA, we want improved streets, we want clean water, we want to preserve the Cannon River, we want a new theater, we want bike trails and hopefully we want new businesses to bring in more jobs.

The want list is much greater than the taxation base. The City Council just approved a budget that will increase the property tax levy by 12.5% over the 2006 amount.

Inflation is not increasing by that amount. Most incomes are not increasing by that amount, nor the amount the school district is proposing. Some things have to be put in proper priority over a much longer time frame. I cannot support the school levy, nor the city budget increase, until I can see evidence that management has seriously studied more options.