BILLINGS SCHOOL MILL LEVY SUPPORT GROUP'S EMOTIONAL BLACKMAIL IS AN ATTEMPT TO PICK THE POCKETS
Written by Montana News   
April 18, 2007
BILLINGS SCHOOL MILL LEVY SUPPORT GROUP'S EMOTIONAL BLACKMAIL IS AN ATTEMPT TO PICK THE POCKETS OF BILLINGS TAXPAYERS
by MONTANA NEWS ASSOCIATION

Billings Montana., April 18, 2007--/MNA PRESS/-- There is a movement afoot in Billings, MT that insidiously promotes the idea that more money equals better schools. If we don’t throw more money at our schools, our children will suffer not only academically, but neither their safety, nor their physical health, nor their future expectations of a good and decent life can be guaranteed. Signs are starting to sprout on Billings lawns and commercials are starting to clog the airways: “Vote Yes for Billings Kids, Vote for the School Mill Levy on May 8th.” A vote against the mill levy is a vote against children. Who could be so callous and cruel as not to show they care by casting their vote and committing their money to the cause of the children?

This marketing campaign is emotional extortion at its very worst. Tug at your heartstrings; get at your purse strings.

In an effort to frighten Billings citizens into voting for the school mill levy, Vote Yes for Billings Kids threatens a supposed looming lack of health care options with the following quote at their website: “Qualified physicians have turned down relocating their families to Billings because we have not passed a school levy since 2002.” Really? Is there actually such a dearth of qualified physicians for Billings and is our community’s future healthcare truly doomed?

Deaconess Billings Clinic celebrated the opening of its new Emergency and Trauma Center, less than one month ago. In a press release put out by BDC, it was announced that, “The new Emergency & Trauma Center is part of a multi-million dollar capital expansion project that will help Billings Clinic continue to meet the growing medical needs of Billings and the surrounding region. Billings Clinic physicians and staff will begin treating patients in the new Emergency & Trauma Center beginning March 14th.” It would seem that the lack of passage of a school mill levy hasn’t had any negative impact on the Billings medical community’s ability to thrive and grow. In June, Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, secured a $350,000 appropriation to bolster healthcare for seniors and purchase medical equipment at St. Vincent Hospital in Billings. The funding came as part of $2.5 million in projects for Montana, which Rehberg secured through the 2007 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill. St. Vincent will use some of the funds to start a Geriatric Fellowship program to bring more geriatric specialists to Eastern Montana.



The empirical data does not corroborate the emotional fear mongering.

Vote Yes for Billings Kids professes that a community is only as good as its schools. What about that community’s churches? Or civic groups? Or civil servants? (If that’s the case, Billings is in Big Trouble, as its mayor, Ron Tussing, is one of the most despicably dirty civil servants in the state. Oh yes, don’t forget he is one of those in the commercial…perhaps he’s trying to make up for the $160,000 he stole from Billings taxpayers, himself. Is this really the best role model Billings has to offer our children?) The inference is that more money equals better schools and better schools make for better communities. Is this liberal movement inferring that Billings schools are inferior?

The empirical data does not corroborate the emotional liberal media propaganda.

The truth is that there is no empirical data, whatsoever, to support the “more money equals better schools” thesis. How embarrassing for the “educational” community in Billings.

The American Legislative Exchange Council recently published the findings of its 1983-1984 through 2004-2005 comprehensive study of the condition of American education. In a state-by-state outline, the ALEC analyzed data that shows, despite decades of pumping more and more money into America’s public schools, student achievement remains stagnant. In the foreword, ALEC Executive Director Lori Roman writes, “…I hope lawmakers, educators and parents will recognize the shortsighted thinking behind tired and worn out solutions that have little effect on student achievement – namely per-pupil spending increases, pupil-to-teacher ratio adjustments and across-the-board raises for teachers, to name a few. As this Report Card continues to demonstrate, these efforts – taken together and individually – are not going to make the difference in raising American student achievement to international standards.”

Once again, Vote Yes for Billings Kids professes that a community is only as good as its schools. How good are Montana’s schools? Is there any correlation between the amount of funding these schools receive and the academic performance of Montana students? No.

Montana ranks among the highest - fourth in the nation - for academic achievement, as measured by several standardized tests. Montana fourth-graders rank 18th and 8th in Reading and Mathematics, respectively. Montana eighth-graders rank even higher – 5th in Reading and 6th in Mathematics. All categories show Montana students well above required proficiency levels.

Conversely, Montana ranks among the lowest in the nation for financial input. Montana ranks 35th for expenditures per pupil; Montana ranks 29th in percentage changes for pupil/teacher ratio; Montana ranks 47th in average salary of instruction staff. Clearly, there is no immediately evident correlation between conventional measures of education inputs, such as expenditures per pupil and teacher salaries, and educational outputs, such as average scores on standardized tests. Neither is there any immediately evident correlation between staffing and infrastructure inputs and educational outputs.

This is true, not only of Montana, but across the nation. Washington, Iowa and Wisconsin rank below the top ten in each of these measures, and yet have achieved the highest average test scores in the nation. Meanwhile, several states, including the District of Columbia, spend a relatively high amount of resources as measured per pupil and receive significant support from the federal government, yet do not demonstrate high levels of student achievement. In other words, more schools, more school districts, a low pupil-to-teacher ratio, high expenditures per students, high teacher salaries, federal involvement in primary and secondary education together do not improve student performance as measured by average standardized test scores.

Vote Yes for Billings Kids also boasts that Billings teachers are “top notch, highly qualified, motivated, and helping kids achieve.” This may be true of some teachers at the elementary and middle school level – test scores would indicate it – but certainly cannot be said broadly of teachers at the local high school level.

What about the high school science teacher who recently threw one of the school’s scientific calculators at a student, in order to get the student to quiet down and behave? The student dodged the flying calculator and the calculator hit the wall, exploding on impact. Is this an accepted and approved behavior modification technique for Billings high school teachers? Was this a “wise use” of school resources and was this teacher acting in the best interest of the student?

What about another high school science teacher who accidentally allowed, through his inattention to what his students were doing, two students to choose the same topic for their term project? When the student who was told to choose another topic chose Creation vs. Evolution, the science teacher told him, “No.” When the parents got involved, this teacher tried to tell them that the topic was just “too controversial” and would “upset” too many people. When the parents reminded the science teacher of their child’s constitutional rights, the teacher backed down and instructed the student to stay with his original topic. The teacher either was not competent to handle spirited discussion of the two theories, or he simply was too repressive to allow discussion of a theory, with which he obviously disagreed, to occur in his classroom.

What about the English high school teacher who told a parent that she had overheard two other teachers saying they “wanted to strangle” that parent’s daughter, for talking in class? Do these teachers really have that student’s best interest in mind?

What about the two high school teachers who were caught having sex with each other (both of them married to other people) on school grounds, during school hours? They got away with a slap on the wrist and an attempted sweep under the rug, by their school principal, Bob Whalen, and then-Superintendent Rod Svee.

Perhaps this kind of behavior on the part of some of Billings high school teachers and staff is why Montana high school student dropout rates are up, and SAT and ACT scores are down. Over the past ten years, Montana high school students have suffered a .46% drop in ACT scores and an alarming 5.28% drop in SAT scores. Montana ranks 44th in the nation for ACT scores and dead last, 50th, for SAT scores.

The empirical data does not corroborate the emotional hype that Billings teachers are the best that they can be.

The liberal members of Vote Yes for Billings Kids are hoping that Billings taxpayers will fall for the marketing gambit that will cause them to buy in emotional haste and repent at logical leisure. This liberal group wants to pick the pockets of Billings taxpayers to the tune of $4.35 million. All to offer a “basic education”- a made up term for which there is no statutory definition - that has no guarantee of living up to these liberals’ promise of higher academic output on the part of Billings students. Perhaps it is the members of this liberal group, who should, themselves, go back to school and learn that money – particularly money that belongs to other people - is not always the solution to a problem. Picking other people's pockets to line your own is unethical, but typically predictable, of the liberal agenda.
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BILLINGS SCHOOL MILL LEVY SUPPORT GROUP'S EMOTIONAL BLACKMAIL IS AN ATTEMPT TO PICK THE POCKETS OF BILLINGS TAXPAYERS


 
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