Opinion

Editorial: 'Stockholders' have spoken -- for now

11/5/2009 7:40:02 AM

Comments (51)

On Tuesday, Byron and Austin voters decided to make ends meet

On the day after an election, it's tempting and perfectly appropriate to sort things out in terms of winners and losers, especially when we're talking about mayoral candidates or people who are vying for a city council seat. The person with the most votes is, in fact, the winner.

But we'd argue that the outcome of a school levy referendum defies such easy characterization. Voters in such elections don't cast ballots for people; rather, they vote according to their vision of where a school district is and where they want it to go. Therefore, the results of such referenda shouldn't be seen as victories or defeats. Instead, they are the equivalent of corporate meetings in which stockholders decide how much of their money they want to invest in the company.

In the Blooming Prairie, Zumbrota-Mazeppa and Rushford-Peterson school districts, shareholders took a long, hard look at their infrastructure, personnel and technology and decided that more investment was needed to continue production of a quality education. It's their money, and this is how they've chosen to spend it.

In Byron and Austin, a majority of the shareholders concluded that for now, the "company" should make ends meet by reducing costs, preferably without sacrificing educational quality.

Of course, hundreds of voters in Byron and Austin would argue that their students are losers in this decision, but that remains to be seen. We expect that the school boards and administrators in both communities will move heaven and earth to minimize the impact of any budget cuts. That's their job, after all -- to deliver maximum educational opportunities with the resources they've been given.

But if history is any indication, we have a fairly good idea what will happen next. If state funding for education remains flat, both Byron and Austin will go back to the voters at their earliest opportunity, and this time the message will be different. Residents will be told that a specific number of teachers' jobs are at stake, and that specific academic and extra-curricular programs will be cut if voters say "No." That's when we'll really find out what vision these communities have for their students and their schools.

What happened Tuesday was merely a warm-up for the main event.

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Gopher
Rochester, MN

Posted on 11/5/2009 at 9:07:48 AM

Here is what is amazing: Taxes can be raised to fund improvements in County government and in City government without going to the voters. School districts have to ask permission...so we hold our children hostage, so to speak. When voters are tired of a variety of tax increases they have no control over, they finally get a chance to say “NO!” and it is said to the schools.

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Editorial: 'Stockholders' have spoken -- for now

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