At the time I right this, 60% of 348 votes want the opposition kept secret. The fear of the spotlight of truth is telling. Sooooo, what is the hidden agenda?

I will tell you what the hidden agenda is. I know several small business and property owners that are against this issue. However publicly they are for it, and the reason why is many do business with the SJSD and Heartland Hospital and their livelihoods would be adversely effected if it were made public who they are.

The "Politically Correct" carry a big stick on this issue and the "Silent Majority" should remain anonymous out of fears of retribution. I will quote what one person that I know is working BOTH sides said to me. "I have no problem putting the Our Children,Our Future,Our Decision signs in my yard. The sign does not say what that decision is and my decision is to vote NO!!!!!"

I love the "Put Children First" attitude in the advertising. Although, when I read what Janet Pullen said (couple of days ago in the paper) about the levy passing or not, she said so far they have made no decision as far as what cuts they'll make this time if it doesn't pass. If it does pass, one of the first things they'll do is make sure the teachers and staff get raised since they didn't get them for this year. Children first??? Teachers first, then stand in line kids. Teachers need raises on top of their % adjustment. Too bad our seniors can't get a raise next year...or the year after that. And who knows, maybe not even the year after that. But the people who are want the levy to pass expect the senior community to keep on putting out when it isn't coming in.

I see the ping results so far and comments above and all I can say is, how disappointing is it to live in St. Joseph. I am going to leave the News-Press site and go to www.realtor.com. It's time try to figure out how to move my family to Parkville or Liberty. It's not a bad commute to work and I just don't see a positive future for my children in this community.

If you are that fickle AVM goodbye Parkville has 252 listings and Liberty has 298. If you are so closed minded that the world is going to end because this issue might not pass that might be best.

The ignorance in this community is appalling. We rank below average for income, education, housing starts and above average for age of population and number of citizens incarcerated. This all starts with our education system. We continually loose quality teachers to other districts on pay issues. Our best and brightest students leave our community for better jobs. We loose the brightest new teachers because of our non-competitive starting wage scale. To develop the best and brightest students you must have the best and brightest teachers. Unfortunately for St. Joseph other communities are willing to sacrifice and make sure their educational system is the best it can be by fully funding their district. I truly feel for the seniors, but we need to break the cycle of our aging population that relies solely on the government for income, to do this we need to keep our students in this city and provide a community that attracts not repels new businesses to provide quality jobs.

Let’s break the poverty cycle, how – fully fund and fully support our schools. By doing this you are fully supporting our community and our future.

Fantome, Don't worry about the commute, there are Jobs down there TOO !!!!!!!!!

I have alwsys wondered about the support (or lack thereof) from the business community and thanks to Rabble_Rouser, I believe I got my answer. The business community just does not want to pay any more salaries or taxes. So just what is the motivation of a good student to stay here? A comment was made about senior citizens and government checks. If this town, in general, ever lost out on the federal grant dollar, it would just blow away. St. Joseph IS a welfare state and since business is not willing to do their part to improve our community, then they really should stop complaining about the schools because the success of both of these entities is intertwined.

Everybody is all fired up about the CAFT group and wanting to know who all of their local members are how about telling us who all of the OCOFOD members are.Because the list they put out several months ago is not correct some sare not even members of this group.This is a 2 way street.

Do you people really think that by giving teachers a raise that its going to increase your childrens IQ ? I mean seriously I guarentee that whether the teachers get a raise or not, they are going to teach the same way they always have. Really this a no brainer for most of us in the community to vote no. With Unemployment in our city hovering around 10% really the teachers should just be happy they have jobs. Really if you think your child is getting a poor education it would be better for you to move your child to a new area or make a formal complaint to the local school board about their teacher selection process. Jobs are kind of like real estate its all about location, and here in Saint Joseph I am sure that most people are currently working for less than the national average for the job they do. I am a certified medical assistant here in Saint Joseph, and my annual salary is just over $15k thats a far cry from the national average of $28k for a CMA. dont get me wrong I would agree the cost of living is less than the national average here in our wonderful city. But I would place the blame of our kids leaving on the fact that there are not many jobs here, and the jobs that are here are crap. I went to school here in Saint Joseph, and really dont feel that the education that are city has to offer is as bad as some of you make it out to be. Just thought I would give some clarity on the truth as to why the younger generations are leaving. Saint Joseph has been a retirement town for many decades, and I really dont forsee that changing any time soon.

I don't believe that throwing money at this situation is what is needed. The United States in general continually expends more on education than any other industrialized nation. According to the IES in 1992(None of the G-7 countries devoted a larger share of their public budget to primary and secondary school education than did the United States). In 2001 (The United States spent the most on education in 2001 at roughly $500 billion, followed by Japan, Germany and France at $139 billion, $89 billion and $82 billion respectively.) In 2004, 2006, and 2008 the sum continued to increase yet no significant improvements in education are seen. The Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, shows that American 15-year-olds fell below the international average in mathematics literacy and problem-solving.

At the same time one of the greatest problems we face is the number of people held within our prison systems. Rank Countries Amount
# 1 United States: 715 per 100,000 people
# 2 Russia: 584 per 100,000 people
# 3 Belarus: 554 per 100,000 people
# 4 Palau: 523 per 100,000 people
# 5 Belize: 459 per 100,000 people
# 6 Suriname: 437 per 100,000 people
# 7 Dominica: 420 per 100,000 people
# 8 Ukraine: 416 per 100,000 people
# 9 Bahamas, The: 410 per 100,000 people
# 10 South Africa: 402 per 100,000 people

Why do we rank the way we do in both of these studies? I believe it can be attributed to two things. Number 1 is the fact that no matter how educated our youth are there is a lack of jobs in our work force. We have people who have degrees and are working at McDonalds. Our government has allowed the dumping of foreign products at an alarming rate with no import taxes at all. Thank you NAFTA. These products are being produced in countries that subsidize manufacturing rather than unemployment. Until we once again become a leading manufacturing nation and have the promise of betterment for not just a few but large portions of our youth we will continue to have a problem. 2nd is that we have no structure of family empowerment. I do not believe in beating a child but NO-ONE should fear reprisal of disciplining their children. When I was young and had the fear that if I did not put forth an effort on my schooling my Dad would put forth an effort to make me see the error of my ways, believe me it helps you keep things in perspective.

I worked for the school system and I don't care how much you pay teachers, they're going to teach the same. If they don't like it, they move on, but if you look back several years to see who's moved out of St. Joe and gone North it's the people in administrative positions. I've talked to several kids in the past and now and some of them just stay in school because they have to until they turn 16. Their goal? Draw welfare and stay on Medicaid like their parents and grandparents. No matter how much money the district is going to get it's really not going to benefit all the students nor will it keep them in St. Joe for jobs. The ones who want good jobs are going to move out of here, the rest will stay either because they love this town or their family is here. Like any other job, if your're getting into it for the money than get a better education. Otherwise, keep quiet and be glad you have a job or take night classes so that you can improve your education and position. Read the paper folks, their raisng the utilities -- gas and water, along with fuel for our cars. People can't afford to pay for teachers raises. By the way, check with the district to find out how many of the administratice staff and the teachers live out of town; those folks are for the levy, but lucky them, they don't have to pay those extra taxes!!