School elections get failing grade
What happens if they hold an election and no one comes? That’s increasingly the case in school elections, which cedes policy control to a tiny fraction of the population.
In Oklahoma City, where an important race for school board chair was on the ballot this week, only 6,583 people voted, roughly 5 percent of those eligible. Turnout in other school districts was also abysmal: Deer Creek (6 percent), Edmond (5 percent), and only 3 percent in both Putnam City and Western Heights. Turnout in February school elections typically ranges from just 8 percent to 15 percent.
Turnout in the Harrah School District reached 20 percent, but it’s a real indictment that such a “good” turnout means just one in five voters showed up. Given that many people don’t register to vote, low turnout means some school board elections and multimillion-dollar bond issues are potentially being decided by as few as one in 50 adults.
That’s a recipe for fringe groups to take over the process, and also illustrates the problems created by holding school elections in February, separate from major elections. The races are so low key, many voters don’t even know they’re occurring.
One solution previously suggested by state Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax is to hold local elections, including school board and city elections, in November of odd-numbered years, and move school districts from annual elections to every other year. That still seems a good idea to us. The benefits of democracy are lost when no one participates.
Where’s the concern?
The Obama administration this week unveiled a system that’s designed to make it easier for students and parents to compare colleges.
President Obama mentioned the College Scorecard during his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, and rolled it out the next day. It lets prospective college students compare such things as graduation rates, average costs and employment prospects upon graduation.
The scorecard doesn’t provide a ranking for schools, only a broad idea of where they fall in various categories. For example, it says the University of Oklahoma’s net price is low to medium compared with peer schools. OSU’s net price is at the low end.
The system isn’t perfect but the idea has merit. The same is true of Oklahoma’s A-F grading system for public schools, which has been heavily criticized by the education establishment. Why no such howling over the president’s plan?
Ethics nonsense
Patience O’Dowd of Placitas, N.M., and Jerilyn Davis of Norman have filed an ethics complaint against state Rep. Skye McNiel, R-Bristow. They claim McNeil would financially benefit from legislation she filed to legalize horse slaughter because her family owns a livestock auction.
Yet McNiel’s bill does not require horses to go to auction before slaughter, and her family’s business is not favored over any other auction site. Furthermore, there’s not much money in horse slaughter.
In California, news reports revealed such horses sold for as little as $50 at auction. That’s hardly a road to riches, and McNiel says the bill is merely designed to prevent the dumping and starvation of old horses.
If attorneys serving in the Oklahoma Legislature can vote on bills impacting lawsuits or workers’ compensation, can’t McNiel file one loosely related to auctions?
This complaint appears a harassment tactic and should be tossed.
Politics of drought
The ongoing drought has generated similar proposals in Oklahoma and Texas.
Locally, legislation creating a $10 million Emergency Drought Relief Fund has gained House committee approval. The fund could pay for cleaning or building ponds, water conservation, water for livestock, rural fire suppression, getting rid of Eastern red cedar trees and other drought-relief activities identified by the governor.
In Texas, Gov. Rick Perry has called for tapping the state’s Rainy Day Fund to pay for water conservation projects. His plan may draw opposition from some tea party elements on the political right while also needing Democratic support on the left to get the two-thirds vote required — no sure thing.
So far, the Oklahoma proposal has received unanimous bipartisan support. Here’s hoping Oklahoma discussions remain centered on policy. This proposal should live or die based on merit and careful analysis, not the political version of inside baseball.
A school board campaign nadir
One of the low points of the Oklahoma City Board of Education chairmanship election was the incumbent’s default to class envy and race-baiting strategies. This didn’t result in another term for Angela Monson, but it does add to the sorry history of Democratic politicians taking this approach.
Monson criticized her opponent for being so successful that “she does not have to work” and thus “spends much of her time volunteering.” She let voters know that students in the district are predominantly non-white and low-income. Imagine a campaign in a suburban district waged on the basis of a candidate being non-white or making too little money to understand the students’ needs.
Monson also blasted her opponent for sending a child to a private school. Bill and Hillary Clinton did that. So do the Obamas. So what?
Monson was ousted by Lynne Hardin, a product of public schools who wants to see them brought closer to the standard of excellence they once enjoyed. Monson? As the Black Chronicle put it, she “neither has the ability nor the ideas required” to improve the district. Hardin narrowly won the election.
School patrons make tough choices
Oklahoma has more than 500 school districts, far more than most states our size. But consolidation is an emotional issue; change never comes easily. Too often, that means students are effectively robbed of educational opportunities in the name of local civic pride.
So it’s encouraging that citizens in two districts voted this week to improve student services by consolidating the Dustin and Graham districts. The plan doesn’t require either community to close its school. Instead, the Dustin site will house prekindergarten through fourth-grade students, and the Graham school will be home to fifth- through 12th-graders.
One of the major resulting changes is that each school will now have just one grade per classroom and per teacher, instead of two, and students will have more electives.
By looking ahead instead of clinging to nostalgia, voters in these districts have truly put students first.
My achin’ knee
Tulsa County Sheriff Stanley Glanz has a sore knee that only a big paycheck can cure.
Glanz is suing Walmart for as much as $74,999 as the result of a fall he took in a store in Tulsa in October 2011. Settlement talks with Walmart weren’t successful, according to Glanz’s attorney. So now it’s on to court.
Glanz says he has had the knee operated on twice and “it’s still not right.” The lawsuit says he has suffered damages including bodily injuries, mental pain and suffering and loss of income, past and future. Yet county records show Glanz hasn’t missed out on any salary since getting hurt.
His attorney says the loss of income language was included in the lawsuit to preserve Glanz’s right to make that claim, and if the claim isn’t supported, they won’t pursue it. That’s awfully good of them.
Doak on target this time
Oklahomans who obey the law by purchasing auto insurance should cheer Insurance Commissioner John Doak’s support for an effort to punish those who don’t.
Doak, a Republican, is backing legislation by Rep. Mike Christian and Sen. David Holt, both Oklahoma City Republicans, that could cost drivers their license plates if they don’t have liability insurance. Drivers would be given a temporary sticker for their vehicle and be fined each day until insurance is bought and verified. The bills also would increase fines for driving while uninsured and create administrative fees for uninsured drivers. Revenue from the fees would go to law enforcement and to pay for the state temporary insurance plan.
Doak’s agency estimates there are about 560,000 uninsured drivers in Oklahoma. They cost the state nearly $9 million in unpaid insurance premium taxes each year, but “those millions of dollars are just the beginning,” he said.
We’re among those who’ve criticized Doak for hiring practices and for spending $170,000 to outfit his anti-fraud unit with shotguns, body armor and police-style vehicles. He’s on target, though, in trying to reduce the number of uninsured drivers in Oklahoma. This is a long-standing problem, one that’s understandably frustrating for the many who do follow the law.
The wrong approach to help vets
The state’s Quality Jobs Act provides tax rebates to companies that build or expand in Oklahoma, provided they meet certain payroll, wage and benefit criteria. State Rep. Eric Proctor wants to add a quota system to the mix.
A bill by Proctor, D-Tulsa, would require that military veterans comprise at least 10 percent of a company’s new hires if it wants to get Quality Jobs Act benefits. “It is my sincere hope that the Legislature will be able to put our troops and their families before politics and any special-interest groups who stand in the way of jobs for our veterans,” Proctor proclaimed this week.
We’re all for helping the men and women who have gone off to war. But mandating that a company hire X amount of any class is wrong. And in this case, it suggests that new or expanding companies are actively working not to hire veterans.
This bill should be shelved.
