For Our Children's Education, It Takes Everything, All the Time

My youngest child graduated from Agoura High School last June, and though I am now an empty nester, I know that the new school year is about to begin. How do I know this?

I went to Staples recently to buy two work-related items, for which I waited on the checkout line 20 minutes. I’m glad my powers of observation were on “keen” that day, otherwise I would have unknowingly cut in front of the man who was at the head of the line that snaked around the store. I’ll assume he put in his 20 minutes or more for the privilege of being next. I don’t even want to think about the potential ugliness that might have occurred had I casually bellied up to the cashier with my two items, while he waited with his shopping cart full of school supplies for his children.

While waiting on line, I was reminded of my days buying new school supplies for my children. Most years, we couldn’t buy anything until just before school started, when the supply lists would be published. At that point, it was a mad race to the store before all the really cool stuff was sold out. The time spent on long lines was a small price to pay to know that my children had everything they needed and most of what they wanted. The one price that wasn’t too small to pay was the cost of the supplies.

Why do we do it? The answer always goes back to our desire as parents to do everything in our power to ensure our children’s success. I would no sooner deny my child the notebook she needs than I would deny her food.

But when we think about our children’s success in school, aren’t we really concerned about a bigger issue? What good is the notebook if my child doesn’t have a teacher? The pencils and pens I bought will be of little use if essay writing is minimized in favor of teaching to a standardized test. The best materials in the world are no substitute for instructional time lost due to furlough days because there isn’t enough money coming from Sacramento to keep our schools open.

Las Virgenes Unified School District will open its doors on August 24, based on a state budget built on the premise of new, as of yet, unrealized revenues. If those revenues do not come to pass by the end of this calendar year, there will most assuredly be mid-year cuts. LVUSD administrators and association leaders have braced for that possibility by identifying five furlough days for the second half of the school year.

That’s a full week of school that our children won’t have.

District officials wisely scheduled the proposed furlough days around weekends, to keep the starting and ending days of the year intact.

Nonetheless, this is not a vacation. This is five days of potential that will be gone for our children, if the most likely scenario is realized.

On August 17, the 43rd annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll revealed that Americans rate their public school teachers more highly now than they have in the past, despite negative perceptions of our schools.

According to the poll, “More than 70 percent of Americans say they have trust and confidence in the men and women who are teaching in public schools. Sixty-nine percent of Americans give public school teachers in their community a letter grade of an A or B, compared to only 50 percent in 1984.”

Welcome news, indeed. Teachers are one of the most influential forces in our children’s lives. We need to be assured that they will be with us and that they will be well prepared to do the job of ensuring our futures through our children’s education. But they can’t do this in a vacuum; no one can. Our public schools need support at a level that may be unprecedented. Clearly our state and federal governments are unable to provide the financial support that is required. What do we do next? How do we tackle these issues and maintain our sanity?

Last week, the Las Virgenes Unified School District Board of Trustees voted in favor of placing a parcel tax on the November ballot. The parcel tax will ask voters in the LVUSD area to add $95 per parcel/per year for 8 years to their tax bill, to support the school district.

The advantage of a parcel tax is that 100% of the funds collected stay in our district; not a single penny is sent to Sacramento. Furthermore, the funds can pay for people and programs, unlike bond measures.

The burden of a parcel tax is that it requires a minimum 66.6% passage rate.

Voters in the LVUSD area have already demonstrated their support of their school district by overwhelmingly approving two previous parcel taxes: Measure E, at $98 for 4 years, and then the Renewal of Measure E in 2007, at $98 for 8 years. We currently have four more years of the Renewed Measure E to go.

Measure E brings in just under $2.3 million; the new parcel tax, if approved by voters, will bring in an additional $2.2 million dollars.

As welcome as this infusion of funds would be, it still isn’t adequate.

Consider that in the last 3-4 years, Sacramento has cut LVUSD’s budget by $10 million, a 20% cut.

Both parcel taxes, paid simultaneously, while a boon to the district, don’t adequately close the gap.

The truth is, where education funding is concerned, it is unrealistic to expect that one tax, one mechanism, one organization will make enough of a difference.

It takes many things, occurring simultaneously, to make a difference.

It takes a parcel tax, or two, and an education foundation, parent booster clubs, municipal support, corporate and private foundation support, etc., to close the gap as much as we can.

It takes Everything, All The Time.

Quality public education is no longer free, for all intent and purposes. If you don’t believe me, take a look at your checkbook register or your credit card statements for all the “suggested, non-refundable donations” you made for your child’s science labs, literature reading material, Music/Reading/Computer/PE specialists, music and theatre programs, sports teams, field trips and transportation, campus improvement, classroom supplies, PFC/A contributions, etc.

We have been tacitly paying for public school for years. It’s time to come out from behind the curtain and confront a stark reality: We are willing to pay for the quality educational experience we want for our children.

The quality education our children receive in LVUSD, even with all the things we pay for, is a bargain compared to the cost of private school.

Parents have taken on these costs as Sacramento has chipped away at public school funding. But we’re at a crossroads now. Sacramento’s funding is now chipping away at our teachers, counselors and staff.

Without these dedicated professionals, none of the science labs and arts programs and field trips can happen. None of it matters.

If we truly want a quality, world-class education for our children, if we want to maintain the advantages that our community provides, if we want our home values to remain robust, then we must recognize that it’s all related to the well-being of our local school district. We live in a different time, requiring a different perception of what it means to support public education. It takes everything, all the time.

Ziona Friedlander is President of T.H.E. Foundation for Las Virgenes Schools: Together Helping Education, a new education foundation whose mission is to provide direct financial support to LVUSD from all sectors of the six communities served by the school district.