Pro Act 72.

The debate for or against property tax relief comes to a climax during the upcoming months.  However, I would encourage members of the community to think carefully about the futility of this issue within the context of Upper Darby's current school board. 

For those people not familiar with the issue, Act 72 utilizes new state run gambling revenue to lower local property taxes. In order to obtain the relief, local school boards need to approve the measure.  Furthermore, they would relinquish the power to raise money through future increases of this same tax.

The most important point to be made is that the debate is moot. The school board has already made up its mind not to approve Act 72 and it will not change its mind.  Citizens may fuss, fume, and rage for change during upcoming public sessions with the board, but nothing will come of it. Democracy in Upper Darby is dead.  It does not exist.  There is rarely debate within the school board because they are secure within the Upper Darby political machine that ensures
their re-election.  The result of this system is apathy, patronage, and worst of all, abandonment of crucial issues which influence the education of all our children.

I believe that democracy is a multiparty effort of systematic debate in an open exchange of ideas.   I believe Act 72 is merely the tip of a very large iceberg of issues that need a forum for public discussion.  Why, for instance, do students in multiple schools have to contend with overcrowding?  A teacher and parent at Bywood Elementary berated the last board meeting with the quote, "We have to have lunches in shifts of 11 minutes!  I have to pack a tiny meal for my own child!"  Why is the funding of an average student in Upper Darby half of that compared to one in Lower Merion?  Only parity of funding for all students in Pennsylvania will begin to stop the embarrassing system of setting up poorly funded schools to fail in comparison to richer ones.  Why must our school lunch program look like an extension of a fast food meal?  Our government should not extend the virtues of a healthy lifestyle while simultaneously serving high fat meals leading to early onset diabetes and heart disease.  

We may be too late to have an effective debate concerning Act 72, but true democracy will bring a new measure of debate to a myriad of issues that influence the education and health of
our children.

Signed,
Samuel Krakow, Upper Darby Candidate for School Board
www.udindependent.tripod.com