BALANCE: Ignore scare tactics

In support of its liberal school board candidates (Christa Hazel, Dave Eubanks and Tom Hearn) Balance North Idaho is circulating an email to voters raising red herring questions and making false claims against the current school board.

Red Herring Question/False Claim #1: Should Boosters be able to control their own funds? Boosters have always controlled their own funds. Who doesn’t want trustees who fulfill their statutory duty to decide whether and how money is to be spent on school issues? Somebody has to be in charge of steering the ship, and that’s the board of trustees.

Red Herring Question/False Claim #2: Do you want Sorensen Magnet School’s successful, creative curriculum offering to stay? This question contains the false claim that the current board of trustees does not support Sorensen and its curriculum program. This is utterly false. The current board has always supported Sorensen and has assured the public that it will continue to do so.

Red Herring Question/False Claim #3: Should our kids learn beyond just Rote Memorization? Again, the question implies a claim about the board that is not true, i.e., that the board wants all education to be by rote memorization.

Why is Balance North Idaho using scare tactics? Why didn’t their candidates raise these issues at the two candidate forums if they are real concerns?

AILEEN KOLER

Dalton Gardens