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Barely six months have passed since LPOSD ran a $55 million plant facilities levy, and then immediately geared up for the supplemental levy vote this March.

True, supplemental levies have been run every two years for 17 years now and have always passed. People value education and LPOSD tells them that without these levies it’s not possible, but do the outsized levies yield commensurate academic results? Idaho Education News reports that Idaho charter schools, which receive no levy funds, consistently outperform Idaho public schools in SAT scores, and that includes LPOSD. So money is obviously not the key to a sterling college-ready education.

A while ago LPOSD’s chief financial officer told a citizen that the district’s needs will always exceed its revenues. So that would explain why we are asked for these levies every two years. Citizens don’t have the option to access a never-ending funding source when their needs exceed their income; they adjust their expenditures. They have been adjusting them a lot over these 17 years, especially during the years of recession when LPOSD significantly boosted its levy amounts. Many are now looking at doubled and tripled school taxes since 2007.

So we’re levy-weary of the recurring Armageddon scenarios put before us to vote for levies. If they at least left this levy at the same level as the one in 2015, I’d say yes. But that apparently qualifies as Armageddon, too.

I’m voting no this time. Enough is enough.

BETTY RECORD

Sandpoint