Magic Valley Schools Have Fat Bank Accounts
Next time a local school district cries poverty you should start asking questions. I didn’t get to this until this week but first learned about it on-air well over a week ago. Several Idaho school districts are socking away money in some very large bank accounts. Please, keep in mind schools don’t make any money on their own. It comes from you.
Idaho Education News offers a sample of the districts pocketing your money at this link. It can run into the tens of millions of dollars. Many districts see it as a rainy day fund, although. If a tornado blows a roof off a gym I’m quite sure insurance will cover repairs. Does rainy day mean they’ll spend the money after the public rejects a spending request?
if you have millions of dollars as some schools have, then why ask voters and legislators for more?
A spokesperson for one school system tells Idaho Education News the district has money “that is not available for general use”. Talk about bureaucratic double-speak! The question is, if you have millions of dollars as some schools have, then why ask voters and legislators for more?
I asked State Representative Lance Clow if state colleges do the same and he’s not aware higher education is storing taxpayer money. He also reminds us endowments are separate matters. Those are often collected through generous contributions from alumni and philanthropists.
These school bank accounts now greatly outweigh supplemental levies (and there has been at least one legislative proposal to end the supplemental requests).
Twin Falls set aside a cool one and a half million in 2019. It was small potatoes compared to some districts. Buhl and Filer packed away even more. Kimberly just over half that amount.