With public education budget cuts looming, would you vote in support of a mill tax to help fund local schools for supplies, maintenance and building projects?

The more taxes we pay the more our gov't waste. If they were using what had responsibly, I would be more than happy to pay this.

I agree with AU2009. So much damn waste and I've witnessed it while working at the University. I'm sure it goes on at the public schools as well.

The Education system of the State of Alabama is OLD SCHOOL
Managment, VERY VERY TOP HEAVY WITH SALARY to over educated
people that should back up to get a pay check.
THe class room is where the money should go to, but does not due to
old style management policies.
Throwing MORE MONEY on to BAD Management policy will not help cure
the Education system in Alabama. Better distribution of monies will only help
the issue. Put the money where the WORK IS DONE, and that is not
top management is the public school systems of Alabma, that is where it si wasted.

As a retired educator in Alabama and a current teacher in Georgia, I have witnessed first hand the top heavy salary issues. This problem is not just an issue in Alabama but in most public and private schools throughout the nation. More money needs to be placed IN THE CLASSROOM and TEACHER TRAINING not in the pockets of department heads, superintendents, coordinator of this and that, etc. Public school classroom teachers continue to spend hundreds of dollars from their own pockets to meet the basic needs of the students they are in charge of. This will increase since the state legislature in Alabama will not be giving teachers the basic instructional supply allotment that has been the case for years. Local school districts will have to make up for that loss---basic needs of paper and copying can't be fully eliminated. On the other hand, teachers may decide to forgo supplementing their classrooms with personal funds since those funds may be needed to meet the basic needs of their families in this economy. I wonder how Obama plans to deal with this....he probably hasn't even thought about it ...I will not digress to discuss Obama and his administration.

A ridiculous issue that needs to be addressed is the number of problems with the Alabama Tenure Law. Explain to me how an incompetent superintendent can be moved out of that position/ or a "deal" worked out and because he/she is tenured in administration they are given/or a "job" is created for them and continue to draw a big fat salary (look around- follow the news and you will see that this is certainly true for Lee County and Lanett City--just to name a couple of local systems.) Small town politics play a HUGE part in decisions made by school boards....don't fool yourself to believe anything to the contrary. If more people would become active by attending school board meetings and getting on the agenda to ask questions, school boards could be "cleaned up". Outside of education, if you were a non-performer/incompetent CEO you would be lucky to keep a job within the company but rest assured you would not continue to draw a CEO salary.....again, explain that....only in education. I am sure many have read lately of the teachers in Alabama who have been charged with felonies but due to the tenure law shortcomings, continue to draw their salary and benefits (and may be able to reach retirement status and then draw lifetime retirement benefits) while in prison appealing convictions.

No wonder the public is reluctant to accept a tax increase....I am and I want more for the students but I know that they will not be the receivers....more money means more upper level salaries and newly created positions for "buddies".

There are a lot of differences in K-12 and 2/4 year colleges but two common denominators are upper level administration salaries and lack of funding reaching the students.

I am PROUD of be a PUBLIC SCHOOL educator but I am not proud of the system!