Op-Ed: August 30th School Vote Fact Sheet
By Bob Shillingstad • August 30, 2022Be an Informed Voter!!
The Coeur d’Alene School District is asking the voters for $80 million over the next 10 years for a variety of projects. Please use these facts as a basis for your vote next Tuesday:
- The vote is scheduled about 10 weeks before the general election in November. The district could have had the vote in conjunction with the general election. This will cost the County a minimum of $60,000 to hold this vote that was designed to avoid having many of the electorate voting on the issue.
- The District has mismanaged the Covid “pandemic” with Zoom calls, mask mandates and lost classroom time. In addition the emphasis on CRT, equity training along with transgender madness has caused parents to pull their kids out of the district. Even though our County has had tremendous growth the District had 10,258 students in 2006-07 they only had 10,242 this last year. The district lost nearly 10% of their students in 2020-21!
- Charter schools increased enrollment by 50% in less than five years. New schools are popping up even as we look around the County. Christ du Coeur, a traditional, classical Catholic school will open this fall. Hillsdale College’s Barney Program will open a traditional, classical school also in the fall of 2023 between Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene. The two best schools in the state for SAT scores were Coeur d’Alene Charter (#1) with an average of 1295 and North Idaho Stem (#2) in Rathdrum was close behind at 1224. Most government schools, including CDA are still recovering from much lower test scores. Where would you send your child for an education other than homeschooling?
- For the record, you can look up expenditure per pupil from the State of Idaho for government schools and charter schools. What you will find is most Charters spend more than a $1,000 less than the so-called “public schools” per student. The State of Idaho supports charter schools but insists that the admission to charters is on a lottery basis. Charter schools do not get to “cherry pick” their students.
Competition works very well in the private sector and education is no different. The parents are getting ready for another school year and many have already voted with their feet. The voters need to exercise their right at the ballot box on August 30th. My wife and I will vote NO on this issue of $80 million. You need to search the facts and make up your own mind but don’t be fooled by the arguments that this “is an investment in educating the kids” or if you don’t vote YES you “hate children, are ignorant and probably are a stupid Idaho redneck.” The IFF has created a web site that allows you to look up important statistics on each district in Idaho. Take a look, this will help as we face the proposition, promoted by leftists to raise more money for “education” and then let us hope the legislature next January passes true choice in education. The education lobby has controlled the outcome long enough. Vote Tuesday!
This Op-Ed was submitted by Bob Shillingstad. Op-Eds do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of those at the Idaho Dispatch.
Tags: Bob Shillingstad, Coeur d'Alene, Education
9 thoughts on “Op-Ed: August 30th School Vote Fact Sheet”
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Great Op-Ed, thank you.
Clear, to the point, straight forward.
Cd’A schools levy fails: 50% of voters approved, but 55% supermajority needed for passage.
Kids won! Congratulations!
Now let’s hope this Backroom, without proper Legislative Action, blindsiding attempt to further corrupt all of Idaho fails tomorrow also.
The Marxist Brothers, AKA: Little/Bedke/Winder must be shut down, shut out and prosecuted for their probable unconstitutional Political Stunt.
Like and agree with your comment.
The education is a crime gang . Too costly and not a value for the money spent. Ridding the state of the unionized government employees will allow a higher quality of employee and a better cost. And there will not be the union lobby money buying the littles of idaho
like the mafia or cartel!
Excellent evaluation, thank you. I cannot believe over 5K people voted for that 80 million dollar tax!!! What were they thinking….guess they weren’t after all…probably still wearing their masks!
Recent studies are now showing we have a generation of children who have been dumbed down because of what the left has done with the mandates. Masks and forced jabs!! It is criminal what the NEA has done. They need to be held accountable!
Beautifully put. There is no room for argument when faced with cold stark facts. Those that scream “MORE MONEY” pointing to Idaho’s statewide scores are beating an old drum. The simple reality is, funding and performance have literally no correlation. NY and CA both spend exponentially more than ID per student, while NY is ranked exactly where ID is nationally in performance, and CA is WELL BELOW Idaho. And as you brilliantly pointed out, the charter schools in the area spend significantly LESS per student, and have the best damned performance record in the state. And that’s under a LOTTERY system, so the “cherry picking” strawman goes up in flames.
That’s how you make and defend a point. Give the enemy no quarter. As always, all the rabid left has left is denial, obfuscation and emotional pleas in the face facts to the contrary.
We weren’t so fortunate in the plumer school tax district vote. It passed primarily because the people affected by it in Kooteani County didn’t even bother going to the polls. Now for the next 5 years their property taxes will increase significantly because the southern half of Kootenai is in the plumber (Benwah County) school tax disrtict. So they pay for their wasteful school spending we see in Plumer. AND I AM PERSONALLY AWARE OF THE SCHOOL BOARD CORRUPTION in that district, which is at MINIMUM 80% Plumer represented. Only one (1) of the five (5) members of the school board are allowed to be a resident of Kootenai County. And don’t even think about attending their meetings because once they have discussed the mundane items they go immediately into executive session to prevent the public from knowing about their schemes. And now you know that I reside near the north end of Benwah County. And it’s not a choice, it’s a necessity.
And remember this. Across the board charter schools CONSISTENTLY spend less per capital than public schools AND always have a better academic records than public schools . And in fact several Idaho charter schools have been noted to be some of the BEST schools (public or private or charter) in the entire nation. They’re successful primarily because they present the students a basic curriculum of reading, writing, math, science, geography, history, and civics. A learning environment and not a socialization environment curriculum. We need to get back to those basic concepts.