By Lauren Faberman
Staff Writer
The Manhattan Beach Unified School District is the only top distinguished unified school district in California without a parcel tax system to supplement state funding, as stated by mbef.org. MBUSD should have a parcel tax system in place to alleviate the reliance on Manhattan Beach Education Foundation funds so they can work to improve the quality of education overall.
The parcel tax system originated in California in 1983 to fund public education. Unlike MBEF funding, parcel tax dollars come from a tax placed on the district’s real estate owners, who pay property tariffs. This steady stream of income is not similar to MBEF funds where the money is accumulated entirely through donations from families of students in the school district.
A positive area of using a parcel tax system is that the money can be used however the district pleases. According to MBUSD Superintendent Dr. Mike Matthews, MBEF strives to evenly allocate their funds. Despite evenly dividing these funds, certain areas will not receive extra financial support if needed.
Since there is no parcel tax system in place in MBUSD, there is a heavy reliance on generous donations from MBEF, according to mbef.org. This reliance on MBEF, in which funds fluctuate every year, could be alleviated through steady funds from a parcel tax. If there were less reliance on obtaining donations from MBEF, the administration could better allocate additional funds to more pressing matters.
According to the MBEF, other school districts in California receive just as much money through donations while also having a parcel tax system to generate additional funds. To receive the benefits of both systems, MBUSD should create a system of receiving parcel tax revenue and donations. This would benefit the district as there would be more funds available to the schools.
Since MBUSD currently relies on funding from MBEF, it puts stress on families to donate by recommending that for each child who attends a MBUSD school, the child’s family donate a minimum of $1,500. The district should not assume that every family is in the financial situation to donate that amount, but a parcel tax system could provide abundant funding while eliminating the pressure for every single family to donate large amounts of money to MBEF.
Even though MBEF is currently providing enough funds to support MBUSD, there is no way to ensure the same amount of funds through yearly donations. Implementing this system in MBUSD would alleviate the reliance on MBEF funds and provide consistent abundant funding to MBUSD as well as to continue exceptional education in all the various MBUSD schools.
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