S.D. School Districts Turn To Parcel Tax To Offset Education Cuts
March 31, 2010
SAN DIEGO — Public school districts up and down California are turning to a parcel tax as way to offset deep budget cuts. It's also a way to get around Proposition 13, which capped property taxes that help fund education 32 years ago.
Above: Danielle Zdunich, a teacher at McKinley Elementary School, reads a book to her students, March 2010.
Above: Megan Caluza is a special education teacher in the San Francisco Unified School District. The district’s parcel tax helps boost her overall salary every year.
Danielle Zdunich is a first grade teacher at McKinley Elementary in San Diego. She says this year her class size has nearly doubled.
“Last year I had 12 kids in my class so I was able to space them out a little more and give them a bit more distance between one another,” Zdunich said. “This year they're crammed in there.”
Deep budget cuts have forced the district to add more students to almost every class, in every grade. Teachers say they can't give students individualized attention and the crowded classrooms create too many distractions.
Sandy Mattson's 8-year-old daughter goes to McKinley. She says teachers are really struggling.
“More and more of their energy goes into that classroom management and I hear my daughter talking more about who got in trouble today versus what they were learning that day,” Mattson said.
San Diego district officials say a parcel tax could help.
A parcel tax levies a flat fee for every parcel of land a resident owns