Administrative Dishonesty: The L.A. Story

From over in the Los Angeles area, Boi From Troy is telling his readers all about how senior education bureaucrats of the Los Angeles Unified School District mislead voters in the San Fernando Valley in order to get them to support an increase in local property taxes.

What the rascals did was promise that if the voters approved a bond-issue, (tax increase) the money would be spent on constructing more local classrooms in order relieve overcrowded conditions.

In due coarse, the tax increase was passed on election day.

What the electors got was, as they say, altogether different.

It did not take long for the truth to come out. Yes the money is being spent on classroom construction, but not for local schools. It's being spent at school sites that are on the other side of the valley.

We here at the 'Wonks can't say that we are surprised. This is the sort of "bait and switch" that happens often. Promise the voters something "for the kids" to get them to increase their own tax burden, and then spend the money on something else.

In our own Southern California school district, the voters were promised a junior high school gym and "modernization" at several school campuses. All of this would happen if the voters would only impose upon themselves another tax increase "for the children." The district even published photos showing the terribly neglected condition of the old gym. The horror!

In November of 2003, the voters voted, and the tax increase passed. What did we get? A few handicapped accessible bathrooms (That were needed, but never announced in the pro-election propaganda.) and a new administrative office block at one of our eleven school sites.

And the gym? The official line is that it will be built in, "A few years."