Recently, the Osceola Sentinel-Tribune printed a copy of The Fry Times relating to education. It was titled, “Your tax dollars and education funding.”
Since I spent 22 years as a superintendent of schools, education funding caught my attention. About a third of the way through the article, Joel Fry makes the statement, “According to data from the state’s department of education, public funding for education provided an average amount of $9,892 per student from taxpayers during the 2013-14 school year.”
Because of some recent discussions, I knew that the money generated by the state aid formula was close to $6,000. I called the state’s department of education and found out that for this year, 2014-15, the money generated by the state aid formula is $6,366.
This is a far cry from almost $10,000 stated by our current representative, Joel Fry.
Money generated by the state aid formula pays for salaries, services and purchase of most materials.
We are facing an important election. We ask, no, we must demand, that candidates for office are completely open and honest about any writing or spoken comments, whether in campaign advertising or in reports to voters as an elected official. If misleading statements are made on one issue, does it mean misleading statements will be made on other issues?
So I am challenging others to do what I am doing. I am calling out Rep. Joel Fry to identify the more than $3,800 per student that he has written about in The Fry Times.