School district has earned levy support

It would be entirely too easy to throw Bonner County students under the bus on Tuesday.

By all accounts, Lake Pend Oreille School District students excel and our kids are receiving a quality education.

In each of the past six years, local students have continued to show an improvement in the Idaho State Assessment that measures math and reading. Last year the district finished with one of the highest rates in the state.

Sandpoint High School had the highest SAT scores in the state in both math and reading.

Clark Fork High School was recognized as a National Blue Ribbon School because of the way the students achieve despite having a high poverty level.

The list of accomplishments goes on and the closer a person is to the day-to-day operations of our schools, the more likely they are impressed with what really gets done.

So if the system isn’t broken, why spend money to fix it?

This is a huge misconception.

The fact is that even if this replacement levy passes on Tuesday, the district will have to cut $1.2 million from the budget.

We don’t have to remind you what will be cut if the measure fails on Tuesday.

Idaho continues to underfund public education and because it does so, every two years districts like ours have to go to the public to receive supplemental funding to make up for the shortfall from the state.

This is not the kids’ fault. This is not the teachers’ fault.

Many of the anti-levy letters and ads in the Bee cite unfair property assessments, a perception of wasteful spending and the fact that our teachers are not getting the job done.

We would submit that being an educator right now has never been harder or more scrutinized. We would also suggest that your elected state representatives have more to do with educational funding that anyone local does.

It’s not our kids’ fault they are being educated in a state that doesn’t economically value education.

Let’s not punish our students because Idaho chooses to embrace a funding system that should be considered illegal and is definitely immoral.

Our job as adults is to see to it that our educational system does the best job it can with the resources it is given.

Time and time again, LPOSD administrators, teachers and students have proven they can rise above the challenges.

With state funding reduced yet again, the pressure is back on those of us who relied on others to fund our education to do our civic duty and vote to replace funds that are going away.

There is a time and a place to decide if giving up a night out once a month is worth it to continue educating our students.

That place is the ballot box on Tuesday.

We urge you to vote to support the replacement levy on Tuesday.

DAVID KEYES

Daily Bee publisher