$60M School Referendum Proposal
From:
Karen Cooper
Date:
May 15 21:45 UTC
Short link
At 3:20 PM -0500 5/15/08, Constance Sullivan wrote:
>Connie here: What bothers me here is that the $60 million figure is
>based on a telephone survey of randomly-selected people, rather than
>on a rational, data-based assessment by the District of what is
>needed to fund what.
>
>I'm unimpressed. I hope the School Board anticipates questions about
>that and has better answers the next time.
The survey outlined in incredible detail (I believe I was on the
phone for 45 minutes) a large number of options, some much more
expensive than the referendum under discussion, and some much less
expensive. I was asked to consider how much value could be got for
how much of a property tax increase, and I was asked this in many
different ways, with many variables added or subtracted from the
scenarios I was asekd to consider. The survey included questions
about my impressions of past referenda, and about accountability and
this one.
Because the survey asked me questions that seemed to get at a set of
central questions from various directions, I believe that my answers,
collated with the rest of the respondents, were a statistically
accurate representation of our opinions.
And I have spent years volunteering in the public schools, for
political campaigns, and in the local arts scene, as well as having
been a member of this list. Since the data set of known respondents
at this moment is, um, me, I think there no basis to your claim that
the survey respondents were randomly selected. They might have been.
We don't know. The only example we have suggests otherwise.
I do know that the school board got the answer their survey appeared
to be designed to get: What is the will of the people about a school
referendum?
.