Public needs more information from Queen Creek Unified
Posted
By David Ellet
This article (Finding a fix to Arizona's school repairs) certainly lends substantial credibility to Queen Creek Unified School District’s request to continue the 15% maintenance and operations override. Too bad QCUSD does not believe in true citizen accountability or we could have passed the override at the very least.
Citizens are responsible for holding government accountable and yet we do not truly have that ability.
QCUSD’s request in the voting pamphlet was so nebulous and general that they were basically saying, “It’s for education. Trust us!” There is no possible way, as things now exist, for individual citizens to hold QCUSD accountable for their current expenditures or even what they allege the override and bonds will be spent on.
Numerous people on Nextdoor and two school board members responded to me that it’s easy and it’s online. I try to point out to them that, even if we had accounting degrees, we still could not hold them accountable based on the information available because it is not even close to the level needed. Then they respond that we should call, or write, do a FOIA, or come in, etc.
That is not what tens of thousands of people should need to do in the year 2023 and nor will we. And that is assuming, likely falsely, that the info is even available then. It must be online so that all of us have the ability to to reasonably see our expenditures.
QCUSD cannot even include their upcoming monthly school board meeting info under upcoming events online. Or is that – will not?
Thankfully, the bond and override NO votes exceeded the YES votes. However, I think there were still too many YES votes for the QCUSD board to get the message that we want accountability first.
The huge majority of people will support an override if we can actually see how our money is spent. When they ignore us or refuse to give us what we are entitled to, then we can only conclude that they do not believe we would agree with how they are spending our money and possibly wasting it too.
So now it appears to be a game of chicken. How bad do schools need to get before either the voters give up on their rights and responsibilities or the QCUSD board gives in to them?
