Schools should not lose with 57% of the vote
Thursday, February 5, 2004 8:16 AM PST
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E-mail this articleTuesday's defeat of the Longview School District's replacement maintenance and operations levy is a wreck that few saw coming.
Every other year for more than three decades, voters in this district have supported their schools. There were no indications that this time voters would abandon the schools, essentially calling for the withdrawal of all local support.
Most voters wanted to continue the levy support, we know. But the majority does not rule on school issues. It takes a 60-percent supermajority, which is wrong that Washington lawmakers should have put right long ago.
Fifty-seven percent of the ballots cast in Tuesday's election were "yes" votes --- a landslide victory in a race for political office. School officials and teachers can take some comfort in knowing they have the backing of the overwhelming majority of voters in the district. But they can't take it to the bank.
Unless this outcome is reversed in another levy election in the spring, Longview schools will suffer serious consequences next fall.
Local support accounts for 17 percent of school revenues. Slashing that amount from the budget --- even for just a single school year --- would be devastating. Technology upgrades, maintenance projects, staff training, school sports and a whole range of student activities all would be under the budget ax.
It takes years for schools to recover from a levy failure. And recovery is possible only with the quick and consistent return of that local support.
We're reasonably confident that voters will reverse this week's disappointing election result before the next school year. An unusually low turnout probably had most to do with the failure to reach that supermajority threshold. A second levy election, with everything at stake, could be expected generate a higher turnout of supporters.
In the meantime, it's our hope that this and other levy failures around the state Tuesday make an impression in Olympia. School levies shouldn't fail when they receive well over 50 percent of the vote. A simple majority of voters should decide these elections. We're increasingly frustrated by the Legislature's failure to make it so.
It's too bad we can't require those lawmakers who insist on the supermajority rule to meet the same standard if and when they seek re-election. That would likely solve the schools' dilemma, one way or another.
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