School Beat: Yes on Prop. A and Prop. 1D !

Another excellent School Beat article, this week focusing on Prop A, which has received surprisingly little press.

Refurbish our Schools -- Yes on Prop. A and Prop. 1D !:

The need [for facilities upgrades] is obvious but the timing requirements, which are imperative, may not be. We need to make these upgrades now or risk being forced to turn over our district, and the education of our children, to a federal facilities master. The charge of that individual would be narrowly and explicitly scoped to cover only the repairs of the facilities listed in the Lopez Settlement.

To accomplish that single goal, the federal master would be required to use all available resources--in other words, general education resources--to meet the monetary need. That means classroom and school site dollars, money to pay teachers, buy materials, and more would go to repairing buildings. Schools could be closed at will, in order to meet the financial need. Community input, school board input, district staff input, local government input would be meaningless. The educational requirements of our children, the concerns of equity and community would all be erased in the eyes of the federal master.

I'm sure I'm not the only one to find this line of argument objectionable. I don't want to vote for this bond because there is a court holding a gun to our heads. But they do.

Luckily, the work covered by this bond is urgently needed, important improvements to a wide range of school sites. I will vote for this bond based on the merits of the work and not because of the threat of a court's intervention. Yet, there sits Lopez, lurking in the background, with gun in hand...