SCHOOL LEVY: Failure points to bigger issues

Now that the public has narrowly and negatively spoken, it’s time to consider why. I suggest that the key lies in the voting public’s inability to understand why a funding deferral exists in the first place. To my memory, this was addressed by the superintendent in singular fashion: money budgeted for Maintenance and Safety was spent on other things. This excuse without much greater detail, was, and forever likely will be, a dagger in the heart of further levy requests for maintenance and safety, or whatever, as it should be.

Decisions to defer funding for “…other things…,” places the importance of maintenance and safety way down the budget ladder. This voter supposes several things drove negative votes, among them: the Idaho school districts have been sipping from the levy cup for way too long and have become drunk and reliant there upon; the entire state school budgeting system, apparently designed for a simpler time, is terminally broken; school district budget management expertise is seriously lacking throughout the state system, including here and in the state legislature, and raises the specter of malfeasance. The voters are due a proper explanation, not an excuse.

JT STRONG

Hayden