Perryville schools face a cricital decision

The news hit Perry County students like a linebacker on fourth down.

If their parents and other voters don't pass a 50-cent levy increase in November, there won't be any football at Perryville High School next year.

Or basketball. Or volleyball. Or drama club. Or anything else that costs money and takes place after the school day.

This was decided at a school board meeting last week by a group of frustrated public servants who have been operating the district on a shoestring and dipping into the reserves for the past couple of years.

The anti-tax movement already is gearing up, claiming that the district has the money and just isn't using it correctly.

But even the most cursory glance at the facts reveals the district has been making do for too long.

Perry County School District voters haven't voted for a tax increase since 1974, when they approved a bond issue for a new high school. A list of the failed ballot issues after that is nothing short of depressing.

Year after year, voters refused to say yes to anything but funding shifts that didn't cost them a dime. But year after year, the enrollment grew, and parents expected more from the district in the way of technology and course offerings.

Yes, the tax base grew, but not enough to make up for the lack of a tax increase. With its levy of $2.70 for each $100 of assessed valuation, Perry County is one of only five counties in the state with a levy under $2.75. Cape Girardeau School District's levy, by comparison, is $3.99 after a tax increase voters passed in August.

Certainly, nobody believes that a school district can do the same today with $2.70 that it could in 1974. And no thinking parent in this time of advanced technology wants his or her child educated in the same way learning took place in 1974.

School board members and interim superintendent Beverly Schonhoff are assuring voters that cutting football and other sports and clubs isn't just a threat. It's a promise. The district simply can't continue to offer extracurricular activities at the current funding level.

And even if the tax increase is passed, some cuts already have been decided upon: No alternative school for nearly 30 kids who need special attention. Six jobs will be gone. No more career center power engine class.

Yes, education can be done without extracurricular activities. But such a move would cut the heart out of Perryville High School. Concerned students already are thinking about how they can mobilize in support of the tax increase.

It's vital they do so and show their elders how important these activities are to them.