Education: Give control back to the state

Recently I’ve spoken with candidates running for the legislature about their solutions to the education funding problem and not one of them understands the real problem. The system to ensure that each student in our state receives a quality education is broken. No amount of tinkering is going to fix it. It must be completely changed.

There are 295 districts in our state. School boards in many districts, in concert with local education associations, have used local Maintenance & Operation bond levies to circumvent state law to create inequitable and unsustainable spending levels. Students in each district must be afforded the same exact education opportunity. Simply spending more money or moving dollars from one district to another in a levy-swap, won’t fix it. No more “rich” and “poor” school districts.

The state must have total control of all salary and benefits and be able to move resources to where the needs are. Local M&O bond levies must be outlawed. One size fits all class sizes that fail to take into consideration actual student needs are a sick joke.

We need a new system; we need it now, and its design cannot be dictated by those with vested interests.

This story was originally published October 27, 2016 at 9:08 AM with the headline "Education: Give control back to the state."