The Saga Continues

....on the front page of yesterdays Star Tribune.

There are two takes on Chris Lind in the Prior Lake-Savage school district.
To detractors, Lind is a man who made a vindictive and successful run for the school board after he was fired for proselytizing to students on campus -- and the cause of last week's resignation of popular Superintendent Tom Westerhaus.
To supporters, Lind is a man of faith and integrity who provided a welcoming ear for students in trouble, someone whose love for children led him to seek a position on the board that fired him.

Now I have said all I have to say on Chris' firing before - I see no need to restate any of it.

For all of it's faults, the Star Tribune South Metro reporters have done a very fair job of reporting the issue. Except for this quote:

Jackie Underferth of Prior Lake was more outspoken. "I wouldn't trade one Tom
Westerhaus for 10,000 Chris Linds," she said.

What you do not get in the story or the quote above is Ms. Underferth's bias toward the board and to the Superintendent. You see, Ms. Underferth is one of the founders of the levy advocacy "Stand by Me" Committee. Ms. Underferth has long been an active advocate for the school district. Don't get me wrong...I see nothing wrong in her activity. I actually applaud her involvement. I think if everyone in the community spent HALF as much time actively involved as Ms. Underferth has, this would be a much better place. However, if we are going to report the biases on one side (Pastor Jim Barringer who spoke on Chris' behalf) we really should report the biases of the other!

Of course there is another explaination on why Ms. Underferth's relationship to the board and the Superintendent was not reported. It could be that she did not disclose that relationship to the reporter. I think it is a question that needs to be asked.

In the interest of my own full disclosure. I know Ms. Underferth and Mr. Lind. I admire both of them for their dedication to the children of our school district and I think they should both be commended for putting their beliefs into action. Heaven knows that there are many in the district that love to complain about how things are going but they do not do anything about it (and before you say anything - YES I am involved in the community - more in the city and county than the school board but...).

Having said all that, I would never say what Ms. Underferth said about someone that I disagree with. I can appreciate that we need to hear from as many voices in our community as possible. To completely dismiss someone as unworthy because they do not agree with your point of view on an issue (in this case school funding) is one reason why there is so much bitterness about school funding.

Education Open Thread

WOW! I think I tapped into something this weekend with my post Levy Fall Out. Since I am going to be very busy today and will have little time to blog, I am going to leave you with this Education Open Thread. Call your friends and neighbors and let's start an open, respectful discussion on what ISD 719 can do, moving forward, to solve their current budget crisis. I will be inviting members of C-A-G to the comment thread and I will issue an open invitation to anyone from the school district or the Stand by Me Committee to comment as well. The ONLY thing that I ask is that comments are respectful. Random snark and insults do nothing to further dialog and will be deleted!

Have a great day and a great discussion. I will check in with you all later!

Levy Fall-Out

I got an email from a friend of mine asking if I had heard the latest School Board news. Apparently, stung by the defeat of the twin referendums, ISD 719 Superintendent Tom Westerhaus has decided to resign when his contract ends in June of 2008. In his "Dear Colleagues" letter he lays out the reasons.

I am also being criticized for what I did and did not do to ensure passage of the referendum. While I'm not exactly sure what else I could have done, if in any way I contributed to the failure of this referendum, I am truly sorry and apologize to you for that. Perhaps I am most guilty of providing too much information, something that I always believed was more important to do than not providing enough information. Rest assured that we are reviewing what was done in this election to learn for future elections.

So letting the voters know what they are voting for is a problem and the district is "reviewing what was done in this election"?

The process of budget-cutting will soon unfold, and I know for certain that process will not be easy. Please bear with us as we address the difficult task of balancing a budget with less general fund support from the state than a majority of Minnesota districts.

Emphasis mine. The Superintendent still doesn't get it! It is not the state's fault that the district is in the straits that it is in! The problem lies with a school board that builds monuments instead of schools. It lies with a school district that is more concerned with hiring administrative staff as opposed to hiring teachers! It is not the state's fault that the spending priorities of this school district are out of whack.

I can only hope that the new superintendent is smart enough to "get it". We have an aging population that can not afford the continued "cost of living" increases that the school district and the county seem to think that they are entitiled to! Never mind the fact that we do not get a cost of living increase....

The attitude of entitlement that comes out of the school district is what the voters rejected. Will the board learn?

Well It Is Done, For Now

According to the Scott County website, the Prior Lake/Savage ISD 719 levy referendum will go down to defeat. Because the levy did not pass, the bonding referendum will also not pass. Now that the taxpayers of the district have spoken, it is my fervent hope that they a) open the books for the residents to see and b) they go back to the budget with a sharper pencil so that the next time they come to us (and trust me, they will be back) it will be a more realistic number that the citizens of the district will be comfortable with. In addition, it appears (according to Channel 9 News) that the Lakeville, Stillwater, Inver Grove and Robbinsdale levy referendums will go down to defeat as well.

While this is a victory for the beleaguered taxpayer, we should not celebrate. The school districts ARE facing challenges - rising fuel prices, growing unfunded state and federal mandates are just the tip of the iceberg. However, if the school boards want the taxpayer to pony up for the rising costs, they boards are going to have to start showing a good faith effort to do what the average Joe and Jane Taxpayer are doing...they need to start making serious cuts in overhead. Cutting teaching staff is not cutting overhead! Cutting administrative budgets is! Cutting paraprofessional staff is not responsible budgeting...turning down the thermostat and turning off lights is!

Show us that you are sharing the pain and we will be more than happy to work with you. Threatening our children is a sure fire way to alienate the parents!

Time for the school boards to wake up and realize that the taxpayer is not an endless ATM that they can tap at will.

It's already getting ugly

All across the cities, the levy referendums abound. From Anoka down to the Savage Lands, schools are asking for more money from the ever burdened taxpayers. However, things are already starting to get ugly in Stillwater.

An already contentious school levy debate took an ugly turn late last week
when several people involved with two popular anti-levy Web sites learned that
information about them and their families had been anonymously posted on another
site by someone calling themselves "Stillwater Infidel."The information -
including home addresses, tax statements, license plate numbers, and the
identities of children and other family members - was published between July 18
and Sept. 8 on HeavyLevy834.blogspot.com, a Web log that takes its name from the
citizens group that actively opposed last fall's failed District 834 levy
referenda.

The discovery of the blog prompted a flurry of e-mails, phone calls and
blog posts that started Friday and continued through the weekend between people
on both sides of the levy debate and school officials.

By Friday night, some posts had been changed to remove children's names. By
late Saturday, the offending posts had been removed from the site completely and
replaced with a new post titled "Point made."

Now I remember back (in late 2005/early 2006) when Michael Brodkorb was being harassed and sued by Democrats who were intent on "exposing" the Exposer. Many comments were left by anonymous commenters (don't you just love that irony?) with pictures of Michael's house, the address, phone numbers....the whole nine yards. A lot of honest folks from both parties were equally indignant at the treatment some anonymous punk was posting. I had long discussions with the Logical Husband over how I should handle a similar situation should the time arise. Thankfully I never had to worry about that. However, I know how worried and upset I would have been if it were my family that was being treated in such a manner which is why the actions of "stillwater infidel" are so repugnant.

Jason Lewis is it a quest to reveal the identity of "stillwater infidel". Given what he/she did to people behind the "Citizens for Responsible Spending" (the people behind the heavylevy834 blog it certainly would be a karmic payback. However, I again go back to what Michael and the Lovely Mrs. MDE went through 2 years ago and I cringe.These levies are already loaded with heated rhetoric. The Anoka Hennepin School district (the largest in the state) has been accused by parents of engaging in emotional blackmail by talking about the schools that will be closed and the programs that will be cut should their levy not be passed. While things have not gotten that heated yet here in the Savage Lands, I know that it is coming...I have talked to proponents on both sides and the emotions are running that high.

Rather than dealing with emotions why don't we try to deal with fact. No one will deny that educating the children is a very important thing. However, personal responsibility is a lesson well taught. We do not teach that lesson when we chose to act in an irresponsible manner and I do not think that anyone would deny the actions of "stillwater infidel" are anything but irresponsible.

One reason why I hate polls.

The "public opinion poll" is one of those modern facts of life that I can do without. Largely that is due to what I learned in college about the methodology of polling. The pollster that tells you that they are not looking for a predetermined answer is lying to you. HERE is proof.

KSTP (our local ABC affiliate) published the results of a public opinion poll that they commissioned Survey USA to conduct. The poll asked three questions on taxes that I will address in this post and three questions on gay marriage that I will address in another.

The first tax question was as follows:

"QUESTION: A bill in the state legislature would increase income taxes on those with more than $226,000 in taxable income, and on couples with about twice that, in order to raise money for property tax relief. Do you support? Or do you oppose? This bill?"

The response was 64% in favor of the bill and 31% opposed to the bill (with 6% not sure - yes I am aware that adds up to 101% - these ARE the Survey USA figures not mine!)

The second question was:

"QUESTION: Another bill would increase income taxes on those with more than $141,000 in taxable income, and on couples with about twice that, in order to raise money for education. Do you support? Or do you oppose? This bill?"

Again, the majority overwhelmingly supported taxing someone else in order to pay for their goodies (64% for, 34% against and 2% not sure).

Then came the question that I know surprised all involved.

"QUESTION: Governor Tim Pawlenty proposes to balance the budget by increasing spending by about 10 percent over two years using surplus revenue and no tax increases. Do you support? Or do you oppose? This proposal? "

65% of the respondents supported the Governor's budget, as opposed to the 27% who opposed the proposal (8% did not know).

Now the methodology of this survey was fairly straight up. The first two questions were a little loaded, but I have seen worse and I know some will argue that Survey USA undersampled Republicans and over sampled Democrats, but this is Minnesota after all. You are not going to get much different than that. I do think that this state is a little less moderate than Survey USA polled (51% of all respondents) though. I would say that there should have been a couple more percentage points from both Conservative and Liberal Ideologies though.

I will say that I was surprised that the support for restraint came more from the "Twin Cities" demographic. The most support for the Governor and the most opposition for tax increases came from the metro area. That does lay to rest the idea that the "Cities" are hopelessly liberal.

Depending on who you talk to, some see this poll as good news and some see it as bad. While I agree with Gary (at Let Freedom Ring) that the answer for the third question is good, I'm not too sure that the first two questions were that loaded....as I said when I started this post, I have seen and been asked more blatently loaded questions in the past. I also agree with AAA (at Residual Forces) that we conservatives need to do a better job of getting the message across. I don't agree that this is a horribly bad poll though. It just shows us where the work needs to be done.

I guess the bottom line is, to me, that there is work to be done. The poll shows that the people of Minnesota don't want the budget balanced on the backs of the taxpayer. Conservatives just need to make sure that they keep telling the story about what they are about. It will happen....as long as they persevere.

School Daze

A couple of interesting school related stories in the news this week.

First, the City of Minneapolis is closing 6 schools at the end of this school year.

"The closings are due to budget issues that the district if facing, as well as declining enrollment.

Enrollment is down 23 percent overall in the district compared to five years ago – and down 50 percent on the North Side."

This story doesn't tell you what they told in the 10pm news last night. The fact that the students that left the district went to charter schools, private schools and suburban schools! No mention of this in the Strib...just on the 10pm news broadcast. WCCO reports that many of the students went to Harvet Prep, a new charter school.

"The things we're providing, parents value and they feel a need for it," said Callie Lalugba, Harvest Prep's principal."

Parents value the things we are providing says Harvest Prep's principal....HELLOOOOO Minneapolis School Board....HELLOOOOOOO MEA...HELLOOOOO St Paul......are you listening??????

They also report the cold hard numbers....6000+ student lost to charter schools and over 2000 to suburban schools! KMSP talked to one Harvest Prep parent who said that the public schools just were not teaching the kids at all. That is astonishing.

In our own school district (here in the Savage lands) we are discussing cutting staff and instructional time because of an "erosion" of state support - according to one school board member. However, a quick peek at the Department of Education numbers shows a 4.4% average annual increase over the last 7 years! THAT is an erosion? If these people can not tell the difference between a 4% increase and a decrease - how can parents expect them to teach little Johnny that 1+1=2?

What is not so surprising is that we knew this was coming. The school districts have been crying poor for the last couple of years. It was a major issue for the DFLers on the campaign trail last fall. So you would expect, given the spending spree that the DFL led legislature is on that they would have out spent Governor Pawlenty in the way of education funding, right? WRONG!

"The bill introduced by the DFL-dominated Senate allocates $498 million more in funds over the next two years for early childhood education and K-12 schools. Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty has proposed more than $700 million in new spending for schools. "

While I do hate to chide the Dems for being fiscally responsible (for once) I do find it amusing that they spent all last fall telling their friends at Education Minnesota how they would make up for the "cuts" that the evil Republicans made and yet when time comes to put up, they don't.

This is one of the few things that the state SHOULD be providing. Not health care for everyone, not an income for everyone, not housing for everyone....an education! With a decent education, people can get their own income and health care and car and housing and.....