Crucial Millage Vote - Saturday July 19th

As many of y'all may know, I have a number of interests and projects at any one given time. I'm kept abreast of them all by many people who know what to filter to me and this has been one of the most important to come to me lately. Please take the time to read the following email I have received and consider re-posting it or using it as information for an issue that is vital to keeping a healthy public school system. Sure, I'm aware of the school board's past, but that should by no means be an excuse to cut funding to our students in an already suffering system. Thanks for reading...ReX

Michael:

I appreciate your support spreading the word on this critical upcoming election on Saturday, July 19.

On Saturday July 19, voters will have the opportunity to vote to renew the current millage that pays for textbooks, classroom materials, teacher salaries and facilities maintenance for the children enrolled in public schools in Orleans parish (Charter, NOPS, Algiers and RSD). The renewal of the millage will not raise taxes, but will assure critical needs for the children in our public schools. The four tax renewals up for vote are as follows:

Purpose A Instructional Materials
(Textbooks, software, computers and vocational education materials are examples of eligible instructional materials.)
$114 per child
Purpose B Dropout Prevention
(Early childhood development funding for Pre-K, target programs for failing students, dropout prevention)
$114 per child
Purpose C Purpose Salaries/Benefits
(Salaries, benefits)
$535 per child
Purpose D Facility Improvements
(facility improvements such as air conditioning, asbestos removal and renovations.)
$171 per child
Total: $29,966,423
$934 per child

This aforementioned is a crucial existing local revenue stream. Withdrawing an established source of recurring revenue would enormously compound the difficulties our schools face. It would complicate the day-to-day operation of schools and threaten to undermine the school reform movement a whole.

I personally urge you to vote YES on A, B, C, D on Saturday July, 19th.

For an in depth look at each done by the independent non-profit and non-partisan organization BGR see:
http://www.bgr.org/BGR%20Reports/On%20the%20Ballot%2008%20-%20Schools/On_the_Ballot-Schools.pdf

Warmest Regards,

AJ