Here come the taxes! Not one red half-cent

In our local area they want a half-cent sales surtax for 10 years. Of course, it's "for the children." It always is.

But here are some facts regarding the "capital shortfalls" that the school system here is currently "suffering under":

A few years ago a new addition was put on Bluewater Elementary. The addition was needed. The $30,000 "smart boards" were not, nor were the plasma televisions in the corner of each new classroom that display the school clock for nearly all of the day. A $5 clock would perform the latter job just as well, and an old-fashioned chalkboard works fine for presenting concepts to kids.

Last year, Ruckel Middle School spent over $10,000 on video games — Nintendo Wiis and again, big flat-screen TVs  — to play "DDR," a dance game. This qualifies as "physical education." While playing DDR certainly is physical exercise, so is that which one obtains from a half-dozen dodgeballs, and they don't cost $10,000.

There are dozens of other examples. The school's response is always that "these expenditures were planned in advance" or "that money came from surplus funds."

But my question as a taxpayer remains: If these funds were "surplus," why were they spent on video games instead of chillers, roofs, and other mechanical repairs? If capital expenditures were planned in advance, why weren’t those unnecessary but nice things like smartboards shelved in favor of something more basic,  like a new roof?

My daughter has a web design class this fall. I noted in the syllabus that they're using Adobe CS5. That's very nice. It's the "current release," of course, and first shipped in April. 

What was wrong with CS4? I own it, incidentally, having been the last time I bothered to upgrade. Where did the money come from to "keep current" for everyone in that class? Does web design somehow become better if one has a photo editing package, or the absolute newest version of Dreamweaver?

I'll answer that for you as a more-than-20-year professional in the IT industry: No.

The schools always tell us how they're broke and need more. But all of us are making do with less.  We're tightening our belts and spending only what we need to, coming off a sugar high of excessive credit and consumption.

Somehow, when it comes to schools, that bright shiny $30,000 smartboard just can't be shelved and the funds redirected to something more important, like a working refrigeration unit for the cafeteria.

Instead, the school board proposes to pick our pockets — again.

Vote no to fiscal irresponsibility.

Karl Denninger is a Niceville resident.