“Should the city give the district more money? Why or why not?” Here are your responses: ■ “I would like to see an audit of how many children and adults who attend the Santa Monica-Malibu School District actually live in those geographical areas. Not all I bet.” ■ “I am completely in support of the city giving the school district more money. I think that Santa Monica is being a sustainable city when it comes to education, life-long learning. If it’s the homeless, if it’s the college or the seniors, we everyday need to learn something new and I think that understanding and appreciating life-long learning starts in the early grades. That is my reason for wanting to fund the district.” ■ “Yes. The city should definitely contribute additional dollars to help the school district. This distinction between city funding and district funding is really arbitrary. The fact of the matter is that we are a community and as a community we need to pull together to do everything we can to protect the quality of life for all of our citizens during this difficult time. No one would ask the city to go bankrupt trying to help the school district. But through some creative financing and an ability to shift the money we can accomplish what the school district is powerless to do. That is to help generate additional revenues.” ■ “Absolutely yes. Reason number one: The money that we currently give the school district is for pre-school and after-school activities, not for the K-12 program. The city should do so. Reason number two: Instead of spending the money on their social engineering projects, which the city likes to do, they should be funding the school district. The city does have the money, it’s just a matter of priority. Instead of the low income SMRR vote housing or some of the other services, they could give the money to our schools.” ■ “I think the City Council and the City of Santa Monica should give the schools as much money as they possibly can. Strong schools are one of the foundations of a community. The especially strong schools in Santa Monica are one of the reasons that property values are so high and the city attracts so many families with children. Not all of these families with children are homeowners, a lot are renters. The state’s not going to do it. That leaves individual parents to make a choice — do they give the money to the schools or do they send their child to private school? A lot of them will send their children to private schools and that leaves the poor, the minorities, and children of renters who can’t afford to send their kids to school.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 7, 2003. Read the original PDF.