Normally we haven’t run endorsements for school levies, as they are less an option and more a requirement to fully fund some of our most important public institutions. In a longstanding arrangement, public education requires local support for as much as a quarter of its funds. Keeping our public schools strong has never been controversial, but times have changed. Not only are more people engaged as we have moved to voting by mail, but there’s also the matter of those billboards.
Once anti-levy billboards went up with messages about taxes being bad for homeowners and seniors, this levy-replacement election was put into the larger national political context. Beyond the patent absurdity of the billboards (taxes do maintain homeowners’ property values in a variety of direct ways, and taxes do support seniors via all kinds of programs), they announced that this is now but one front in the war on government.
Nobody wants to pay taxes — that’s just human nature. But outside of fantasyland, grownups have to do what’s right, like investing in the future. Besides, federal taxes are as low as they’ve been for much of the last century, according to IRS statistics. Nonetheless, there are those who would like to see them lower still — like Somalia low.
The harangue against funding public services has been growing louder — first from grassroots groups like the Tea Party, then from big-money co-opting those movements. Any tax is a bad tax, in these circles, and in a man-bites-dog twist, teachers have been cast as villains. In places like Wisconsin and Idaho, some have blamed teachers for our ills while corporate raiders, Wall Street gamblers and job outsourcers are treated like apple pie. These are crazy times.
So before one of those billboards prompts you to grab a pitchfork and join the mob, think: Who’s behind this?
While state Public Disclosure Commission names only two donors to Citizens for Responsible Taxation (the group behind the billboards), other contributors remain unnamed. The address listed in the ads is all for show, too; it’s the South Regal Post Office. This kind of subterfuge is a cowardly, un- American way to make public decisions. An unwillingness to say things without showing your face speaks volumes.
But we learned plenty from their website, taxfacs.com, where you’ll see this anti-levy campaign is about a lot more than schools.
Under the “Who We Are” tab, you’ll find nuggets like this: “We are religious and moral people who are against the immorality that is being taught to our nation’s children in tax-subsidized government schools.”
Under the “Blog” tab, the site links to a video that starts as a diatribe against gay marriage, suggests our public education system is akin to The Communist Manifesto and concludes that if public education can be defunded, “In one generation, the Left will be no more and Christian civilization will be able to move forward.”
Anyone who is pondering a no vote on any of the 13 local school levies this week should consider the sad company they will be keeping.
Of course our schools aren’t perfect — there are big problems we have written about and will continue to explore. But instead of cutting 25 percent of the local schools’ budgets in some kind of selfish “send-a-message” fit, there are lots of ways to help — volunteer in a classroom, be active at school board meetings. Our local teachers work the front lines of social progress, turning today’s kids into tomorrow’s well-adjusted, productive adults — often against long odds. It’s vital, even heroic, work.
Local districts have already cut back — $50 million in Spokane Public Schools alone. Without the levy, kids will get hit again — even less attention from fewer teachers.
It’s also a jobs question, as education is one of our top employment sectors. And it would cripple one of the Spokane area’s most competitive features — the quality of our K-12 education.
Most people understand what’s at stake here, as proven by support for levy replacements going back decades.
So what are you going to do when these faceless, nameless anti-government marauders come for your school district? You defend the common good, especially in your own neighborhood. You let them know this blame-the-teachers nonsense will not fly here. You remind them America is at its best when we work together — building roads, winning wars, educating children. And you can do all that by voting yes for the no-new-taxes replacement levy.
"...faceless, nameless anti-government marauders..."???
"...defend the common good..."
"...this blame-the-teachers nonsense..."
"...You remind them America is at its best when we work together — building roads, winning wars, educating children. And you can do all that by voting yes for the no-new-taxes replacement levy."
... sigh ...
Not when you´re a newspaper, Mr. McGregor. When you work for a newspaper, you do what you´re supposed to be doing, which is informing the people -- even when you´re an entertainment weekly like The Inlander. What you don´t do, when you work for a newspaper, is make your reporting all about the people and not at all about the issue.
So, voting yes to the levy gets us new roads, wars won, and properly educated children? Wow, nice. Except none of that is true, not even the properly educated children part (not unless the levy will somehow change how math and grammar are approached in this district, which appears to be unlikely).
And I don´t know anyone who blames the teachers, other than the superintendent and many of her administrators.
On my blog "Betrayed," I´m doing what the media are supposed to be doing. I´m asking questions of the district, trying to determine whether their claims are factual and the presentations truthful and appropriate. (Your comments about subterfuge are decidedly one-sided.)
I´m doing that solely because you aren´t. Instead of informing the people about the district and its levy, you wrote this non-factual, promotional, drama-laden piece in support of the levy.
You don´t, by any chance, get a salary from the district, do you?
For some facts and questions that actually are about the levy, please visit my blog, "Betrayed," at: http://betrayed-whyeducationisfailing.blogspot.com/
Laurie Rogers
Feb 09, 2012 | Reply to this comment
Been there, done that. Volunteer lots, been to the school board a number of times. No change available there because the public has no hammer with the school board. The public can´t overcome the board-union-adminitration trinity.
"SELFISH SEND-A-MESSAGE FIT" - Sending a message requires a sender and a receiver. Lots of senders - NO receivers at the board or adminitration.
"Without the levy, kids will get hit again — even less attention from fewer teachers."
Party line Pro-levy LIE! That is one possible outcome of a levy failure. Other possible outcomes include cutting the salary of the overpaid ideolouges on the adminitrative staff, redundant staff positions like area coordinators and the entire Department of Teaching and Learning, opting out of the Common Core Standards madness - all for a savings of MILLIONS - and not one teacher affected.
Stick to infotainment and entertainment. News is obviously NOT your paper´s strong area...
Feb 09, 2012 | Reply to this comment
Where, pray tell, am I wrong? Specifically, where are I wrong, and what about the previous person´s post was "wrong"? Please - be specific.
I think you will have a hard time doing that. It appears that all you´ve got are emotional appeals and generalizations.
You state that "Yes a failing levy would dramatically change how children are educated and how they are taught." But you follow that up with language that indicates you believe that outcome would be a negative for the children.
You wonder why administrative salaries are even a point of discussion. Here´s a question for you - If the Superintendent were being paid $250 million dollars, half the budget, and the board was saying "Pass this levy or the children will suffer, would you decide that administrator pay was suddenly an issue worth consideration?
Of course you would. Any rational person would. But, because we are not talking about half the budget - you think it is not worth discussing. So, what is the level of money being spent on adults, instead of directly on education of children, that merits pay becoming part of the discussion?
What is the level of failure, for you personally, that merits outcomes becoming part of the discussion on whether we continue to fund that failure rate?
This levy is NOT for the children. The levy money is not in a "box" that is restricted to being spent ONLY on the kids. It is being misspent, along with large portions of the rest of the money the district spends, on failed curricula, failed teaching methodology (or pedagogy, as the education wonks like to call it), Common Core alignment - a black hole of dollars and a loss of local control - and administrators that are grossly overpaid.
A vote of NO on this levy is a vote FOR THE KIDS. Failure of this levy is the last chance this community will have, for some time, to bring the board to the table and demand changes. Changes that are critical to reversing the poor outcomes this district produces; high remediation rates for our graduates in English composition and math at colleges, dropout rates that must now be calculated from middle school, the list goes on...
You are correct; the kids don´t get a redo. Shouldn´t you be advocating for them to get it right the first time? The available evidence, overwhelming evidence, indicates that they are not getting it right the first time. Shouldn´t you be working to change that?
And if you are working to change that, and you run into the brick wall that is the SPS board and administration, and you try everything possible to get the system to re-chart the course it is following - all to no avail, is it then time to use the one lever you have - the MONEY - to bring that board to the table, FOR THE KIDS?
.
“I encourage you to be more informed and do a little more research on school budgets before you vote no."
I assure you that I am quite informed; I´ve done hours of research on the Spokane Public Schools budget. I am networked with people that do nothing but research school budgets. Each of them shakes their heads at the SPS budget and its lack of clarity. They opine, and I´m inclined to agree, that to be that unclear must be a conscious choice - like the CIA budget - so that no sunshine can penetrate its dark recesses.
You have likely voted already. I encourage you to get a little more informed and then find someone that has not yet voted - ask them to please vote NO on the SPS levy, for the kids. Feb 11, 2012 | Reply to this comment
Reading: 17th (above average but behind Estonia)
Math: 31st (below average and behind the Czech Republic)
Science: 23rd (barely above average...and behind Estonia again)
If we´re paying for results....we´re overpaying. There are many teachers that believe the same.
Like many of our public institutions, the public education system has bureaucracied itself into ineffectuality. It´s what happens when the is no competition or performance requirements.
When you have no competition, you get North Korea. When competition is fierce, you get South Korea (ahead of the US in every category).
There are a few teachers I know (some of them Union reps) that would love to get a shot at having their pay tied to student performance. But that will never happen under the existing system. The current system dis-incentivises individual teacher´s results and incentivizes the "collective".....never a successful recipe for performance and it basically guarantees the results listed above.
Blindly funding and re-funding schools does not solve this problem, it only extends it by supporting the inefficiencies of the status quo.
Writers like Mr. McGregor are very good at using illustrations like "pitchforks" to describe who he thinks to be the enemy...but those generalizations normally work the best on those who deplore critical thinking and embrace the colletive....which is really the point...isn´t it?
Why think for yourself when you´ve got great guys like Ted McGregor telling you what to think? Feb 11, 2012 | Reply to this comment