A penny for your future

I don't often go public with my political leanings. In fact, sometimes folks get downright mad at me when I refuse to sign petitions. As a columnist and freelance journalist, I still believe in old-school principles which advocate public neutrality on debatable topics. Therefore, my personal views on politics and many hot-button issues often remain inside my house or with a very close circle of family and friends.

When it comes to the issue of education, however, I see no risk in letting the world know that the rest of my functional years will be devoted to supporting any sensible strategies that can enhance a consistent positive environment for our students and their teachers. As a retired educator, it comes as a no-brainer to me that the investment we make in our kids' future training--be it academic or vocational--is money well-spent.

With that in mind, I'd like to encourage all friends of education to seek out and sign a petition which is currently circulating and which will eventually be sent to the Honorable Ben T. Ysuras, Secretary of State of the State of Idaho. The wording is long---as we usually see on such documents.

It's an Initiative Petition advocating "adequate and stable funding for local K-12 public schools; adding one percent (1%) sales tax rate, effective July 1, 2007, or requiring legislature to develop alternative revenue stream for this component for K-12 local public school funding; creating the Idaho Local Public Schools Investment Fund which, along with other revenue sources, will be used exclusively for K-12 public education, and which must be used for supporting students in the classroom and improving local schools; requiring that increased revenues in the Idaho Local Public Schools Investment Fund augment, not replace, current K-12 public school support revenue; establishing the method to compute each year's general fund appropriation for public schools; providing distribution of increased revenues through the current K-12 public schools funding mechanism; requiring advisory revote on Act in year 2020; and containing a severability clause."

There's more, but essentially this advocates re-establishing Idaho's sales tax from 5 percent to 6 percent. We went back to 5 percent in July, 2005, and I've been told a lot of folks didn't even realize this. So, what more painless way could we employ to help our young people and their teachers? The petition says these additional monies gleaned from the extra sale tax percent will go exclusively for education, will add to the existing education funding avenues, and will continue to do so until a review of the funding in 2020.

Yesterday, my sister and former student Barbara Tibbs, who's a dedicated English/media teacher at Sandpoint High School, gave me a petition to circulate. She told me that Brian Smith, another of my former students, is in charge of circulating the petitions at the high school. I suggested to her that she encourage him to make them available at the school office for folks to sign during the next week or so. My instructions are to have my petition back to Barbara by Feb. 23, so I'll be doing my assignment.

If you believe in the importance of providing consistent funding for our education programs, I strongly encourage you to seek out a petition and sign it. Just make sure you sign only once because we all know what happens when there's fraud. I'm sure any teacher in the area would be happy to provide you a petition to sign, or you can check at the area schools during the next week.

If successful, the petition drive will put this measure on the ballot in this fall's general election. So, signing the petition is the first step. You can make up your mind later on how you would officially vote on this measure.

As a former educator who kinda keeps track of 33 years worth of students and the wonderful vocations they're following to make this world a better place, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of continuing and improving our financial support of education. Granted, this support helps young people find their way in this world, but it also provides an investment on how they will be able to ensure a secure future for folks of all ages.

Thanks for taking the time to do this. I'll be carrying my petition with me, and if you'd like to sign, I'll do my best to make it available to anyone who believes in this vital cause for our youth and our state.

Those pennies will add up fast and will mean thousands of dollars funneled into our school district for at least 13 more years.