Letters

Edmonds school levy

This is a bad time to ask for more money

I am beginning to understand more clearly why children in the public schools are having so much difficulty learning much of anything. The teachers and administrators are apparently ignorant or apathetic about what goes on in the real world.

In the midst a a very real recession, layoffs and one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, they propose to again raise our property taxes. This time by 19 percent!

What planet do they live on? Do they read the papers or listen to the news at all? In the current economic reality, my household income has dropped precipitously and there doesn’t appear to be any relief in sight for us – at least in the near future. Yet they want another $270 a year from my already strained budget. Where do they propose I find this extra money? Would they like for my family to simply shut up and eat more Top Ramen?

The audacity is breathtaking. If you will recall, just three months ago the voters of this state made it clear they were sick and tired of spiraling increases in their property taxes. So, in the absence of someone from the Edmonds School District coming to my house and showing me exactly where that box of money is buried in my back yard, they can just forget it. Boy, makes you really glad that there is a 60 percent super majority required for their wish lists. Check back with me when things get better – and make a really good argument when you do.

MARK S. WILLIAMS

Lynnwood

Edmonds Alliance

Reader had it wrong on column’s meaning

Mr. Ray Martin wrote a letter to the editor last week asking, “Why doesn’t the mayor state a ‘useful’ purpose that the Alliance has ‘served’?” I assume his question is a result of the headline over my monthly column that read “Alliance has served a useful purpose in the city.”

He goes on to say I don’t state any useful purposes because there haven’t been any. The actual reason I don’t state any is because I never intended to. I just write the column, I don’t write the headline; that job, I assume, is the editor’s. Nowhere in my column do I state the Alliance has served a useful purpose.

Mr. Martin goes on to state that my persistent loyalty to the Alliance puts me in conflict with my oath of office. For the last two years, I have attempted to cut funding by 50 percent to the Alliance. This year I was successful. At the Alliance Board retreat last summer, I was the first to speak up about the lack of success of the Alliance and urged the Board to study economic development in other cities and make a recommendation on better ways to do it.

He questions the fact that many Board members don’t live in Edmonds. This city is blessed to have many volunteers who don’t live in the city. I am thankful for their participation.

The Alliance is not a special interest group. Its goal is to further economic development in Edmonds. This will result in lower taxes to Edmonds residents. Whether its goal has been achieved is another story.

Mr. Martin asks readers to contact the State Auditor’s office to audit the situation. The state audits the city of Edmonds every year. They do a very thorough job, at taxpayers’ expense, I might add. Year in and year out, they have pronounced the city to be doing an outstanding job of handling taxpayers’ dollars. They have investigated the Alliance and the city’s participation in it and have found no wrongdoing.

With all due respect to Mr. Martin, what is “very wrong these days” are his facts.

GARY HAAKENSON

Mayor of Edmonds

Education

Charter schools merit serious consideration

On Jan. 28, at 3:30 p.m., the State Senate Education Committee in Olympia will be hearing an important education issue, SB 5012. This legislation is to consider charter schools here in Washington state.

Charter schools are independent public schools but they operate on a charter as sponsored by a school district. They are free of many state regulations yet uphold the new high academic standards.

This may be new in Washington but in Minnesota where charter schools were started a decade ago to encourage innovative alternatives to traditional public schools, educators, parents and other recent studies continue to highlight their success. Especially with children who were failing in co-called “regular” schools.

As an example, consider the New Visions School in Minneapolis. In a recent three-year controlgroup study, youngsters in New Visions programs advanced far more rapidly than those not enrolled. Some hyperactive students, for example, were able to stop taking medication. Kindergarten and first-grade students were recognizing more words and beginning to read at faster rates.

We in Washington state should consider charter schools as a reasonable alternative for more innovative, independent public schools because they can provide legitimate school options. All those who support charter schools and innovations in public education please call your legislators and support SB 5012.

MICHAEL PLUNKETT

Edmonds