That was part of the banner headline at the top of the News Trib this morning perched above the main story about the historic election of Barack Obama to the Presidency. The Trib’s editorial support of the School Board has been clear for a long time and the minimal support shown for the operational levy was taken as good news ,perhaps even as vindication, by Superintendent Dixon.
The Trib’s story suggests skepticism about the depth of community anger toward the Red Plan and the School Board. After quoting me on the aftermath of the referendum it explains that: “During the campaign, members of his group had predicted a defeat for all three funding requests because of perceived anger over the schoolboard’s decision not to allow the community to vote on the red plan.”
“Percieved.” Hmmmmm. I perceive that Sarah Horner and I live in very different cities.
Several things seem very clear by the referendum results, among them:
The District’s scare tactics worked. Voters by a two-to-one margin reauthorized the 2003 levy. No one wanted school closed in January.
The scare tactics only went so far. Voters handily voted down the second level which would, according to the District, have avoided cuts all together. The public could live with that.
The resentment manifested itself particularly when the highest spending tier was crushed with a similarly high two-to-one margin.
I take from this that voters were angry but not so angry that they were willing to punish school children or cut off their own noses out of spite. Good for them. Duluth voters made a rational decision.
Even though many Let Duluth Vote supporters had warned that all three levy tiers could fail we would have taken no comfort in such a result. But to get the renewal past the District had to sacrifice a teacher to advertise the dire cuts they anticipated. I don’t know how much money the Vote Yes folks raised but the taxpayers footed the School District’s informational campaign to the tune of about $75,000 the cost of a teacher.
That would more than pay for the Let Duluth Vote suit to stop the Red Plan. Its lucky for the Vote Yes folks that Let Duluth Vote took no stand on the levy and probably discouraged the formation of a Vote No group. In fact, I had been quoted earlier in the Trib as saying that the failure of the levy would cause great harm. For once I agreed with the School Board.
