Written by The Big Stink | 16 January 2008

One of the options Stan Mack, superintendent of District 281, wants to keep on the table during the painful process of negotiating $5 million in budget cuts is a mail-in referendum.  You read me right.  According to the Sun-Post, Mack has said that a mail-in referendum is an available, if seldom-used, option – one never used in an “urban” situation in Minnesota.

     The cost?  About $90,000.  The expense is about triple what a normal referendum costs because the ballots must, by law, be sent by first-class mail to every household in the District.   Mack said “the board has not discussed this, but it is among the possibilities.  We are prepared to cooperate if a citizen groundswell (comes forward).  We will deal with whatever it takes.”

     Translation:  Will some of you public school parents please raise a visible public stink?  The voters don’t trust the board to do what’s right.  We need some righteous indignation demonstrated by parents!  If we all hold our collective breath long enough, maybe the voters will take pity on us.  If we let voters rule the day – what’s next?  Vouchers?  Tuition tax credits?  Then where will the teacher’s unions be?

     Oh, the humanity…….

     Prediction:  If they go to the mail-in option, CARE 281 will re-mobilize.  The District will also suffer an embarrassing defeat because of the transparency of their arrogance.  A mail-in would be an utter waste of taxpayer resources.  (Having said that, don't be surprised).  I have read the proposed $5 million in cuts and while some of it may be unfortunate, none of it is life-altering.  They sell a school, consolidate another, cut some arts classes, increase user fees for sports (as it should be – instead of asking the taxpayers to fund Suzie or Billy’s recreation).  There is nothing in the proposed cuts that can be called cataclysmic.

     Point of curiosity:  There is a provision to cut five full-time employees who are labeled as “chemical health specialists.”  Chem/dep counselors?  Excuse me?  Is that a District function?  These specialists suck $300,000 out of the classrooms annually.  (I know chem./dep counselors and a $50K salary is ‘to die for.’)  Sorry, but if a kid has a chemical problem, that’s not the district’s business.  It is either the parent’s business or, eventually, a court issue.

     The answer, of course, is to inject competition into the public school process by allowing parents to vote with their feet which school they want to send their kids to – public or private.  Until voters reach a consensus on this, nothing will change except the size of the 800-pound gorilla’s appetite.

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