LEVY: Opinion clear misinformation

As I started reading the recent Guest Opinion, “The education answer isn’t more money,” I didn’t have to wade far in to be overwhelmed by the distinct scent of misinformation and a purposeful attempt to mislead the reader.

The first few paragraphs left me with no desire to further consider the “facts” presented or to consider this opinion as valid. To an open critical mind, being misleading doesn’t strengthen an argument, it destroys it.

In the list of reasons explaining why budgets are out of control is the statement “providing translators for dozens of foreign languages” (excuse me, your innuendo is showing). I checked the school district’s budget and gave them a phone call to find out that they do not allocate funds to provide translators. I contacted people with direct experience to confirm this and found that the best resource non-English speaking students had were caring teachers and Google Translate, not translators.

The opinion piece later states that “Also true is that of the 100 highest paid Idaho state employees, 90 of them work in education administration.” I knew right away this was misleading in a very deliberate way. A quick Google check shows that the highest paid “education administrators” in Idaho are college coaches and university administrators.

These misleading statements and all of the others in this opinion piece are intentionally used to lead readers to inaccurate assumptions about public schools and our community’s need to pass the school levy.

NICK ARAMBARRI

Coeur d’Alene