In these Times

Andy MacDonald and I are in today's Seattle Times with our op-ed on the Families and Education Levy. The Times wrote the headline: "Families and Education Levy earned itself a failing grade ". That refers to this passage:

We read all of the city's own evaluation reports for the programs that were funded by the levies between 1990 and 2003. There were 25 such programs in all. Only three of these demonstrated even slight improvements in grades, test scores or graduation rates. Three out of 25.

If we could hand out letter grades to public officials, the people in charge of the levies would receive F's. A responsible parent would cut off their allowances until they came back with a realistic plan to change their work habits and improve their grades. They certainly wouldn't get a 69 percent increase in their allowances until after those grades started to improve.

This op-ed causes the interesting result that if you go to Google News today and search for "Families and Education Levy", the first thing that comes up is my picture!

Bruce Ramsey's column today also picks at the levy campaign for disingenuously calling the levy a "renewal" instead of the 69% tax increase that it is.

I applaud the Times editorial page for publishing a variety of perspectives about the levy. Now if the Times news desk would only publish an article that looks into our concerns about the levy ... I sat down with a Times reporter for a 90 minute interview nearly two weeks ago, which was then a week after they published a one-sided story about the levy that didn't even quote any of its critics. I'm hopeful they're working on a comprehensive investigative report on how that $138 million was spent over these 14 years and what all that money has accomplished. But time is of the essence. There are only 5 days left before the election and absentee ballots are already being sent in.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at September 08, 2004 12:43 PM | Email This