TABLE 1 -AVERAGE STARTING SALARIES OF CLASSROOM TEACHERS COMPARED WITH THOSE IN PRIVATE INDUSTRY, 1964-65 THROUGH 1970-71 aFor school systems enrolling 6,000 or more pupils. bFrom annual reports of Frank S. Endicott, Director of Placement, Northwestern University. Salaries are based on offers made to graduates by approximately 200 companies located throughout the United States. 1970-71 salaries are based on offers made in November 1970 to men who will graduate in June 1971. ERS InformationAid * NO. 10, AUGUST 1971 * Operated Jointly by the American Association, of School Administrators SCHOOL BOND AND BUDGET OR TAX RATE A taxpayers' revolt, long heralded by the news media and in widely-read periodicals, is fast becoming a reality. Nowhere is this better evidenced than in the growing number of school bond issues and tax levies being defeated at the polls. The plight of the small school district with an inadequate property base has been pointed out over the years, but only recently has attention been focused on school closings and other emergency measures forced upon the larger school systems as the result of unsuccessful appeals to the voters for approval of bond issues, increased tax levies, or school budgets. Since no recent system-by-system data on bond and tax referendums in larger school districts have been published, the Educational Research Service included the following questions on a questionnaire distributed in January 1971 to all school systems enrolling 12,000 or more pupils: Are school bond referendums authorized in your school district? YES General election in November School board election Special election Other (please specify) NO If YES, did you have a school bond referendum during the calendar year 1970 ? - 2 Are referendums involving an increase in the school budget or tax rate authorized in your school district? If YES, did you have a referendum involving an increase in the school budget or tax rate during the calendar year 1970? Replies were received from 343 systems, distributed by enrollment group as The following sections on School Bond Referendums and School Budget or Tax Rate Referendums summarize and discuss the data submitted by the responding school systems. The replies of the individual systems are tabulated in the table beginning on page 6. SCHOOL BOND REFERENDUMS The replies of 342 school systems (one system did not answer this question) to the inquiry, "Are school bond referendums authorized in your school district?" are reported in Column 2 of system-by-system table. A summary of these replies follows: In examining the replies of the various school systems, it should be remembered that, due to special and class legislation in some states, replies from systems within a given state may not show uniform practice. Although. Alabama, Hawaii, and Indiana do not require school bond issues to be submitted to the voters for approval, most systems in Alabama must submit to a referendum the tax levy 3 required to pay off the bond; this would account for the affirmative replies among Alabama systems. It should be remembered that a fiscally dependent school system, such as Baltimore City, does not actually issue school bonds but that in some of these cities the City Council or other agency does so for school projects; thus school bond referendums are authorized in the district. The systems which answered "Yes" to the above question were asked to indicate whether or not a school bond referendum was held during the calendar year 1970. The following figures summarize the replies to this question, which are reported for the individual systems in Column 4 of the table beginning on page 6: Stratum 1 Stratum 2 Stratum 3 Stratum 4 Totals As can be seen above, only 62 of the 274 systems submitted a school bond issue to the voters last year. Thirty-three (53.2 percent) of these issues received voter approval, while 24 (38.7 percent) were rejected. Five systems (8.1 percent) did not report the outcome of the bond election. Since only one system reported otherwise, it is assumed that the 61 other systems each had no more than one bond referendum during 1970. The 53.2 percent approval rate reported among the 62 systems corresponds exactly to the percentage of school bond referendums approved for the entire country during the school year 1969-70.a/ Thus it would seem that the larger school systems are experiencing a degree of success similar to that of the small school systems. The school districts which must submit school bond issues to public referendum were queried about the types of elections in which bond issues may be placed before the voters. This inquiry was answered by 269 of the 274 where voter-approval is required (see Column 3 of the table). In 140 of the 269, the referendum may be included in only one of the three types of elections specifically listed on the questionnaire, as follows: a/ Barr, Richard H., and King, Irene A. Bond Sales for Public School Purposes, 1969-70. U. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1971. Table 1, p. 4. - 4 Special election only ..... ....... 112 (41.7%) 18 (6.7%) 10 (3.7%) 140 (52.1%) Another 99 respondents checked more than one of the above types of election, accounting for another 36.7 percent of the 269: In The remaining 30 systems (11.2 percent) reported a variety of practices. some cases, primary and/or municipal elections were added to one or more of the three elections listed. In at least six districts, it appears that bond referendums may be included in any convenient election. Several respondents noted that the decision is up to the school board. One stated that bond referendums are placed on the ballot "by petition." SCHOOL BUDGET OR TAX RATE REFERENDUMS The replies of 342 systems (again, one system did not respond) to the question, "Are referendums involving an increase in the school budget or tax rate authorized in your school district?" are reported in Column 6 of the system-bysystem table and summarized below: Totals 215 (62.9%) 127 (37.1%) NO 13 (65.0%) 10 (22.2%) 30 (46.2%) 74 (34.9%) As can be seen from the table below, school budget or tax rate referendums fared about the same as school bond referendums in the responding cities--52.1 percent of the 73 systems which submitted the school budget or tax rate to the public received approval. Three systems tabulated in Stratum 4 as receiving approval on a referendum during 1970 experienced voter rejection of other referendums during the same year. A Michigan system reported two approvals and one rejection; one Oregon district had three rejections and one approval in 1970; and another Oregon school system got its school tax approved on the second attempt. More than half (57.7 percent) of the 215 responding systems in which such referendums are authorized did not even have a referendum during calendar 1970. |