Thursday, December 20, 2007

TPS levies

Today Toledo Public School Board members voted to put a renewal levy on the March 4th primary ballot.

As a renewal, it will collect the same amount in taxes as it currently does. It's 6.5 mills (effective rate of 3.8 mills) and would expire at the end of this year with collections ending at the end of 2008. It provides about $16 million per year to TPS and costs a $100,000 home about $117 per year.

We'll be discussing this tonight on Eye On Toledo, so I thought you'd like to see all the TPS levies that you currently pay:

Total TPS levies: 63.50 mills voted (28.08 effective rate)
* 44.80 mills is a continuous levy and is not voted upon
* 6.50 mills General (this is the one they voted to renew in March)
* 4.90 mills General (emergency levy approved in November 2004 - expires in 2008 and will stop being collected in 2009)
* 2.50 mills Permanent Improvement (defeated May 2005 as a substitute levy, passed in November 2005 - expires in 2009 and will stop being collected in 2010)
* 4.30 mills Construction Bonds (expires in 2029 with collections ending in 2030)
* 0.50 mills Classrooms (expires in 2024 with collections ending in 2025)

(cross posted on Eye On Toledo blog)

6 comments:

Thomas said...

I wonder how much TPS spends per student and what the exact success rate is compared to other private schools.

Is the answer throw more money or are their deeper problems to the failure known as the public skrool system?

Maggie said...

Thomas - I don't have the most current figures for this school year, but the last numbers I saw showed that TPS was second highest in per pupil spending (only Ottawa Hills spends more) and was at the bottom in all measurables (test scores, performance, etc.)

This website (http://www.eiaonline.com/districts/Ohio.pdf) has comparisons from 2000-01 to 2004-05 school year and it shows that per pupil spending was $10,190 - an increase of 30.74% over those 4 years.

Interestingly, this website also calculates how much of that $10,190 is compensation: $9,010 (88%).

For comparison, this website lists Ottawa Hills per pupil spending as $11,094 which is a 24.22% increase in the time frame. Of that, $8,353 is for compensation (75%).

Thomas said...

So really, these levies aren't "for the kids" with levels of compensation that high.

Maggie said...

guess not...but I'd really like to see how much of that 'compensation' is teacher salaries versus administration, benefits, etc...

Timothy W Higgins said...

Maggie,

Even if we grant the teachers their money, how much of this is spent on administrators whose only job is to fill out, submit, and file paperwork on the endless regulation that we have saddled the education with.

Like many other government run programs, education has become more about the bureaucracy than about producing a product - education.

Hooda Thunkit (Dave Zawodny) said...

I am heartened by the polls currently on Swampbubbles.

Maybe, just maybe, people are beginning to wake up and smell the waste/corruption/bloat.

Except for that Ohio Supreme Court ruling property taxes unconstitutional FOUR TIMES NOW!...

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