Curmudgeon's Corner

Even though I am not suprise with the outcome of the petition request, I am still angry about the fact that talking about the tax implications to the citizens of GTown was off limits but that was the main focus of MATC's arguement!

They are a greedy money hungry board who are out of controll! How these

State goverment officials, that allow this type of non elected board to exist continue to get re-elected by the taxpayers baffles

me! Also why taxation without representation continues to be allowed is truely puzzeling to me.

12-0 - shows you what chance we had.

But Al - I respectfully disagree with you. We don't wait 20 years, we wait one year and we do it again and again and again. When they finally get sick of us - they vote for it. Don't give up! Lower taxes are a possibility.

Isn't there some kind of leagle action that can be taken?? It is taxation without representation

The arguments made by MATC and the State Tech College Board were weak, at best.  They were almost entirely focused on the number of Village of Germantown "students" at MATC.  Personally, I don't know anyone who takes classes at any of the tech schools, but intuitively I imagine most "students" think that they are restricted to MATC because that's "our district", much like the K-12 public schools.

I would note that Moraine Park never courted the Germantown School District, and as far as we know, MPTC never lobbied the state board to make the change.  All of the discussions ignored the number of students from Village of Richfield and the Towns of Polk and Jackson which attend one or the other tech colleges.  There are some sizeable portions of those municipalities in the Germantown School District, but the larger portions are in the MPTC tech college district.  It seems to me that MATC and the state board put a greater headlock on Richfield and Jackson than they put on G'town.

The time has probably come for Richfield and Jackson and Polk to secede from the Germantown School District.  Personally, I support that idea, and it's apparent when I talk to friends in Richfield that it's not an unpopular idea at all. I feel confident that the local school board wouldn't stand in their way, either, if that's what the people want.  That attitude is unlike the State Tech College Board and their "government knows what's best for you, in spite of a law that lets you think you have a choice" attitudes.

It's truly amazing that we can't be allowed to decide our own fate.  This whole process appeared to be an exercise in futility, as there was no way they were going to let us take our own tax dollars away from MATC.

Their argument using the number of students is pretty weak in a number of ways.  Had our affiliation been allowed to change, I imagine there would be a dramatic increase in the number of students from the district attending MPTC.  Additionally, look at how much money Germantown sends to MATC in exchange for them educating a handful of district students, who happen to pay tuition also.

"we wait one year and we do it again and again and again" - Just one question:  Isn't this the approach the school board was chastized about regarding the new school referendum?  I believe the words were something to the effect of, "..keep shoving it down our throats..."  Yet it is okay to 'go back to the well' in this instance?   Just a thought.....

Good observation, there, Goldenboy.

Here's another spin on this:  The State Tech College Board just took away the tax dollars which might have otherwise paid for (a) providing  Kindergarten choices to Germantown 5 year olds, (b) security needs in the other six schools, (c) modernizing the schools' technology resources, (d) alieviating the crowded and in some cases deteriorated classrooms for children 6-10 years old.

Apparently the message sent from MATC is clear:  we think you're snobs and don't deserve to be better than MPS.  Well, I have a message for Dr. Darnell Cole and his goonsquad:   Nuts!

Dave,

I appreciate and agree with your thoughts on this. It was simply spinning our wheels.

But I have to ask you, were were you and the other school board members durint the hearing last week? I would have thought that all of you would have made it a point to attend and express your support of the request. It was very dissapointing not to see anyone from this board or the village board speak up at that hearing!

There was one Village Board member that went to the hearing and spoke in favor of the change, Trustee Al Vanderheiden. He spoke at the first hearing and I spoke at the second. Not a very big turnout for Germantown taxpayers.