Reply: School Taxes--comparative rates

["Mike Curley" <curley@turbonet.com>]

Judi:
Mullen, Rockland, and Troy are the districts with higher 
levies.  However, keep in mind that those numbers 
include bonded indebtedness (for building or remodeling 
the schools).  Backing those figures out, Moscow is still 4th 
highest, but the order Rockland drops below us and 
Wallace moves ahead of us.  And, althought I don't want 
to nitpick, the rate is 10.52 per thousand.
By the way, neither our teachers nor our administrators 
have anywhere close to the 4th highest salaries in the 
state.  Not to suggest they should be, but some have 
suggested in other forums that part of our money 
problems is what we pay teachers.  Surely there is a 
correlation between the salary stucture and the size of the 
levy, but it is probably more accurate to say that to the 
extent salary is an issue it is an issue of how many 
teachers and administrators the district rather than the  
pay rates.  More teachers has meant smaller classes and 
more individualized help--special education needs, gifted 
and talented children, English as a second language, and 
so on.
In looking at the very difficult to read website that has the 
district tax rates, what I'd be interested to know is how 
many students are in each district.  Then I'd like the 
calculation done to tell me the "market value per student." 
Take two districts with 2500 students each.  If the (total) 
market value of one district is 750 million and for the 
other it's 999 million, the latter requires a significantly 
lower tax RATE to produce the same number of education 
dollars than the first.  Another way of looking at it: a $10 
per 1000 rate at each place produces 7.5 million for the 
first, 9.99 million for the second.  So, when we compare 
tax rates only, I'm not sure exactly what it's telling us.

Mike Curley



On 26 Mar 02, at 18:35, Judi Thompson wrote:

Date sent:      	Tue, 26 Mar 2002 18:35:09 -0800
From:           	Judi Thompson <FaircoMiniMart@turbonet.com>
To:             	curley@turbonet.com, Moscow2020 <vision2020@moscow.com>
Subject:        	Re: (Fwd) School Taxes

Thanks for the information on the district's tax levy level.
 You raise interesting questions about the Moscow District
being the fourth highest in the state at $10.72.  I was not
able to connect with the state web site, however.  I will
keep trying to find more information.  Do you which
districts are taxes more than Moscow?  

Mike Curley wrote:
> 
> Judi:
> Superintendent Ed Fisk sent back the following
> information: There is a state web site:
> sde.state.id.us/finance/docs/TaxLeviesBooklet01-02.pdf Our
> current rate (01-02) is $10.52, which is the fourth
> highest in Idaho.
> 
> Unfortunately that little bit of comparative data only
> makes me want more. How much per student do the others
> spend and what on? Should we just look at the M&O dollars
> and exclude the plant/facilities bonds from consideration
> of how we are taking care of our kids? How does the total
> property value (on which the tax is computed) compare with
> the number of students (this would get, in part, to the
> issue of the U of I and any other untaxed entities in a
> district). How do standardized test scores correlate
> across the state--and is it an accurate measure--for
> example, our population may be one of the better educated
> in the state on average--so we could (if that's true)
> expect our test scores to be higher in the first place. On
> the other hand, we have a fairly mobile elementary school
> population, and if it is in fact more mobile than other
> districts (again on average), then our teachers/the
> district has less time with a student, so the teast scores
> may be skewed in either direction. I guess that's why
> social scientists insist on replicatable studies based on
> defined criteria, carefully collected data, and rigorous
> scrutiny before drawing a conclusion. Looking at data
> presents interesting questions, but as soon as we get to
> asserting a correlation between two pieces of data, we may
> have stepped into the deep end of the pool. It reminds me
> of the story of the guy who played his flute on the street
> corner in New York City. When someone asked him why he did
> it he said "to keep the elephants away." "Silly you," said
> the other, "there are no elephants in NYC." "Yes, see how
> well my playing works!" said the flutist.
> 
> Mike
> ps. I think this question may be of interest to the v2020
> crowd. I can just give the information and say a(n
> anonymous) writer asked me, so here it is, or I can say
> you asked me, or you can ask the question on v 2020 and I
> will respond. what do you prefer/think about that?
> 
> ------- Forwarded message follows -------
> Date sent: Thu, 21 Mar 2002 09:02:26 -0800
> From: Fairco Mini-Mart
> <faircominimart@turbonet.com> To: Mike Curley
> <curley@turbonet.com> Subject: School Taxes
> 
> I know that Moscow School District has a high tax rate,
> something like $10.75 per thousand. How does that compare
> with other school districts in the state? We don't have
> much of a tax base with the university property except.
> Didn't want to post this on Vision 20/20 and get some
> great debate started.
> 
> Take care and enjoy the sunshine!
> 
> ------- End of forwarded message -------