Its potential for causing taxation without representation was one reason critics opposed Granger Republican Sen. Linda Rogers’ bill to replace South Bend’s elected school board with a state-appointed one, which she announced today (Thursday) that she’s pulling. The bill also rallied people who say if lawmakers really want to help the corporation they’ll address the city’s systemic poverty.
Before announcing she was pulling the bill altogether this session, Rogers had said she’d learned at the last minute that it also needed to clear the Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee. That’s because it would give an appointed, rather than elected, body the power to set property tax rates. It’s why county councils have to approve library property tax rates.
Criticism along another front came in testimony from Portage Township Trustee Jason Critchlow, who has an up-close, daily look at the financial struggles families face in South Bend.
Critchlow told the committee that 40% of working families are at the ALICE threshold.
”That means that they’re working full-time but they’re not making enough money to meet their basic expenses," Critchlow said. "Now I have not heard any of this mentioned here today and it should be because it’s crucial. We know that these are the conditions that directly correlate with lower proficiency and absenteeism and we’ve heard all of that. So our school metrics reflect these realities, not a failure of local democracy.”
