By: Diane Benjamin
https://www.unit5.org/domain/3810
Unit 5 is busy posting lots of fear porn, the above is one of two pages. This one is my favorite though:
Must be Common Core Math.
(anybody else see four things?)
Keep what going? Is this English?
35% of students going on the college need remedial education, I think this shows why!
Here’s a link to another propaganda page: https://www.unit5.org/Page/17040
Your property taxes are likely already going up because EAV increased. VOTE NO AGAIN
Note the wording on both pages, read between the lines. Passing the referendum doesn’t guarantee any cuts will be restored.
.
Nothing in those 4 bullet points is innacurate. The building bonds are coming off the books (for most homeowners a savings of about $800 per year). Unit 5 is just asking, through the referendum, if taxpayers would be willing to continue paying $500 of those savings to keep our schools strong. You’ll still see a reduction from your current tax rate if it passes.
I’d also point out that our ed fund tax rate is lower than virtually every surrounding district (Tri-Valley, 87, Olympia, etc.). This rederendum is just putting us on par with those districts. I personally don’t want our kids to be at a disadvantage to those districts, educationally speaking.
*Also, your original post has the word “the” where you should have the word “to.” *
🤣😂😁 Which one of the four needs ignored? Did you notice the CIRCLED THREE?
No way! A typo! Epic!
Which college are they going on? How will they get on the college? Will they climb the building, helicopter in, or parachute?
Inaccurate? You are correct in your ‘no’. Purposely Misleading? That would be a YES.
Truly Accurate version below:
– The Unit 5 taxpayer community came together in 2008 to pass a Temporary tax increase to fund things like new buildings.
– Part of that tax will expire soon.
– Unit 5 school board and administration are threatening your children’s educational experience to get you to make most of that ‘temporary’ tax permanent. But that’s not extortion, it’s electioneering, because you get to vote.
– They are not asking to add additional tax dollars, but if you vote No, your taxes will go down by a lot More than the scenario they’re advertising. And even if you vote Yes, if they ever need new buildings in the future, that will still be an Additional ‘temporary’ tax on top of this permanent tax.
1000 fewer students !
But state laws that have mandated a higher starting teacher pay, higher minimum wage, and new classes (like the requirement for a Civics class in HS). Also, not only have they not helped provide more funding to meet those rquirements, they’ve shortchanged us what they owe us.
How is that mismanagement? Over the past 10 years, the district’s teachers have taken both full and partial pay freezes, administrative (both building and district-level) have been cut, and teachers have been laid off (and class sizes have increased considerably as a result).
Add to that the cost of technology and laptops (which you’ve said are important to prepare kids for the 21st century).
And now, with the teacher shortage, we face a VERY competitive environment to attract the best teachers. If we don’t offer attractive pay, benefits, and working conditions those ISU grads will just look elsewhere. It’s Adam Smith’s “Invisible Hand” at work.
And finally- those opposed to the referendum have offered zero in the way of solutions to the deficit in the ed fund.
1000 fewer students!
There is more than just student population involved in funding. If your so angry why don’t you ask for an interview with the school board or a board member about these cuts and the referendum. There are no quotes or reliable sources. Only links. Thats pretty bad journalism.
Good thing I’m not a journalist!
So this isn’t news, its a blog
Journalists are don’t do news
Vote Yes people had a table set up recently at Kingsley Jr High during a solo/ensemble competition. I’m not in Unit 5 so I have not followed the issue closely. I was angered they took away from a great event for our children with their politicking though. There was a flyer lying around and I looked it over. The flyer had a countdown of all the things that Unit 5 will eliminate if the referendum does not pass. By 2025 no extracurricular activities and no Friday night football games. That is straight up fear-mongering. Every post I see from someone posting about the issue on Unit 5 paints the most dystopian outcome if they don’t get more taxpayer money.
I am so over the hijacking of Unit 5 events by the Yes group. According to my son, there are still Yes to Unit 5 and school board member campaign signs in teacher’s classrooms at Kingsley, but electioneering isn’t worth reporting since NPD won’t enforce.
I need pics!
Need to delete comment with my name, please. I will repost .
It isn’t fear-mongering if it’s accurate. I have yet to hear anyone with an alternative solution to those cuts if the referendum doesn’t pass. The current school board has proposed cuts to start eating into that deficit in case the referendum doesn’t pass. The four candidates opposed to the referendum haven’t proposed any realistic solutions.
They (1) falsely claimed the district wasn’t taking into account increased revenue due to rising property values or TIFs in Uptown expiring. Marty Hickman confirmed that indeed the district is indeed taking those factors into account in their budget projections.
They then (2) claimed that moving kids to e-learning would save the district 11.3 million dollars. A very specific number- but no details on how it would save that money. Only explanation was on WGLT when Wurth said it would allow them to fire teachers. 11.3 million dollars would equate to about 250ish teachers, which is half of all k-12 teachers. That isn’t a feasible option.
And (3) in the failure of these ideas, they have offered zero in terms of substantive cuts to close the 11 million dollar gap. If you want to oppose the referendum that’s fine. But you can’t get mad at people for calling you out if you have no plan.
As someone said in one of your earlier posts, the four anti-referendum candidates would probably just keep the high-interest borrowing to avoid having to make any painful cuts. Seems like their MO to take the easy way out that creates more fiscal insecurity long-term.
Vote for the other 4, your taxes will skyrocket since the union plans to cash in big.
How will our taxes skyrocket? Even if the referendum passes, the overall rate of our property taxes will go DOWN, they’d just go down even farther without the referendum. Honestly, of that $800 in savings I’m going to get when the building bonds expire, Im fine giving up $500 of that yearly savings for the district continue to offer reasonable class sizes and programs. It isn’t their fault the State increased the minimum wage, raised starting teacher pay to $40,000 (which is honestly a surprisingly low amount anyway), or that the State failed to give the district over 21 million in recent years.
The huge deficits predicted are union demands
Is it fear-monger it that they eliminated non-core expenses? If this was the Town of Normal eliminating non-core spending, wouldn’t that be championed?
I am still waiting to hear any solution the “Vote No” group has that 1.) Has any viable details or 2.) is legal. Every time that is asked, the argument pivots to what is perceived the Yes group would do. To get voters to support them, the No group has to have policies backed with facts. Without that, they will continue to be questioned.
Watch their website or just vote for the 4 backed by the union. It will cost you big!
Their website has NO details. That’s part of their problem and why they’re getting so much blowback.
Who to vote for isn’t tough. 4 represent the union and taxpayers will have zero representation. 4 are the opposite. Simple choice
Do you support voting against Nalefski anf Baker since they each received $6,000 from the police Union? By your logic we should vote against them because they will represent the Public Union rather than taxpayers.
At the end of the day, we could go around on this all day, but I think we all have an idea of about where this race stands. There are considerably more pro-referendum signs than last November, many of those signs and letters to the editor are from establishment Republicans. The “No” camp and candidates are losing the argument when they’re fighting to hang onto those voters. I haven’t seen any of the more moderate dems or centrists jump ship to oppose the referendum.
Like it or not, the “Yes” folks have done a much better job framing this debate than last November (especially w/ Unit 5 having to start making cuts). Meanwhile, Wurth, Jada, Emery, and Frank have done little to nothing to convince people to oppose the referendum. And to stake your campaign on e-learning (whatever they might mean by that) has just inflicted even more damage to their campaigns.
In an election that’s turned in favor of the referendum, to have so adamantly opposed the referendum has placed an anchor around them. Add to that their e-learning proposition, and they’re in really rough shape.
Your opinion, nothing else
I would love to know your thoughts on Nalefski and Baker accepting police union funds means people should vote against them. I hope their accepting union funds doesn’t mean people should support the untrustworthy Danenburger.
I’m sure they don’t want to reimagine policing. Likely why they got police support instead of the other two.
So, in the case of Nalefski and Baker, you’re saying that receiving an endorsement and $6,000 doesn’t make someone beholden to a public Union (police in this case).
So, why then should we assume that the candidates endorsed by the teacher’s union will be beholden to that public Union. What about that situation makes it different to you?
History!
I asked for pics, too. They aren’t allowed to have their phones on them during the day, so that might be tough. I will see what I can do, as I am curious myself.
My daughter’s teacher told her class if their parents cared about their children’s education they will vote yes. I removed my vote no sign from our yard because her friends started giving my daughter a hard time about it.
I’m most upset that our children are being taught to ridicule and shame people who think differently.
BN is beyond a joke in every way. Reading the stories and comments are pure entertainment. I have a daughter-in- law that’s a teacher here in Indiana for ten years. She doesn’t make close to what a teacher makes in District 87 or Unit Five and yet all the schools are larger and offer more educational and extra curricular opportunities than anywhere in McLean County. The tax bills for education are half compared to BN and the kids have everything they need and more. If they don’t, the parents get together and finance it on their own. The referendums are few and far between and if one fails, it can’t be allowed on the ballot again for at least three local election cycles which usually translates to at least three years. Money must be spent on what it is intended for and can’t be used for another line item in the budget. Indianapolis inner city schools that are run by corrupt superintendents and principals are an exception but still metro schools with high minority populations perform better than BN schools by and large and have better graduation rates. Sounds like a management, discipline, and a failure of priorities from here. By the way, two of my kids are NCHS graduates who took it upon themselves to apply themselves.
As the citizens have already voted against this referendum, the demonrats continue to run the same referendum again, hoping that they’ll win the second time. It’s akin to cheating (as that is the demonrat way) as they hope not enough voters will bother to go vote (thinking they’ve already defeated this). Can’t win on bare facts. Deceit must be the order through chaos.
@non-marxist rational thinking – so if a tax cut doesn’t pass in Congress, they should never vote on it again? There is plenty of legislation that has come back up for a vote, at the federal level, state level, and yes, local level.
None of the pages were propaganda, they were all factual and the list was clearly just a typo. Not really worth a whole ‘article’
All of us see what we want to see. You are obviously voting Yes. Must have tons of money for the property taxes!
Check your facts.
What facts?
In your supposed ‘articles’
Bye
And for all the talk about taxes going up, that is not the real issue IMO.
The US recently had its second on third biggest bank failures ever in the space of a few days, with talk of others to come. At least one of them was because the bank focused on wokeness with actual banking being a secondary concern. The obvious eventual result – major failure.
The Yes Crowd (at the top levels where it matters) are also focusing on wokeness with actual education being a secondary concern. They’ve cut foreign language, teacher headcount, our award-winning music program, sports, and other valuable enrichment programs before wokeness was even considered for cuts, and they’re asking for 20M to cover a 12M shortfall, in part so they can add more wokeness with the extra money.
And they’ve shown a clear lack of ethics and transparency with their scare tactics and deceptions in pushing the tax increase.
Is a tax increase truly inevitable? Are cuts really unavoidable without one? Perhaps on both – I haven’t crunched the numbers to know for sure. But one thing I Do know is we do not want This tax increase under This leadership, unless your vision for our children’s future is more major failure.
DEI wasn’t cut, speaks volumes
Do you get news from anywhere besides Fox? Any financial news points to rising interest rates as the issue for the bank failure. We get it, you’re an ideologue who can only toe the propaganda line.
The WOKE part was probably not from FOX. Maybe you need more diverse news.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/woke-companies-going-fail-former-ceo-warns-svb-collapse-perfect-storm
Here’s your proof.
We’ve said this for at least a year! Fox is finally on board!