Give 'em all A's, and they'll shut up

During my years as a teacher, I occasionally ran into situations where the majority of my students did not perform well on a test. Varying factors led to these situations, including lack of study, difficulty of material, confusion of test questions, etc. It was tempting at times to inflate all the grades just to fend off the wrath that was sure to occur when students learned their test scores.

I don't recall ever succumbing to that temptation because I knew that grade inflation was not going to erase the problems encountered with the test. If the kids didn't study, maybe they'd work harder the next time to learn the material. If the material was difficult, maybe we could review the problems and try another test over that material. If I had erred in the way I constructed the test, maybe I could eliminate the problem questions and refigure the grades.

Whatever the situation, I always worked for the solution that was best for my students to learn their material rather than finding a way to gloss over the problem. Indeed, it would have been easier on me and easier for all concerned for the short term if I'd taken the easy fix and simply inflated all those bad grades. For the long term, however, I found that such denial of reality does not translate into learning. Instead, it teaches a clear lesson. Gripe and the problem will go away. It may not be fixed, but it will go away for the time being.

Occasionally, as an educator, I even saw situations where students and parents, unsatisfied with a teacher's grading approach went to higher authority bypassing the teacher when little Johnny didn't get the desired grade. And, on rare occasions, I saw higher authorities buckle to the demands of said students and parents, allowing the grade to be changed and totally undermining the teacher's role in the matter.

I'm looking at yesterday's move by the Bonner County Commissioners as a similar situation to what I faced occasionally in the classroom. Bad grades---the masses are gonna be mad, and they're gonna inflict their ire on me. In the county's dilemma, high tax assessments for 2006, and the masses are gonna be mad. Certainly, our county assessor knew that when she and her staff calculated tax assessments this year.

She could have said, "Ah, Hell, let's make it easy on everyone and pretend that demand for Bonner County's piece of Heaven really hasn't happened. Let's pretend land owners have not been selling property for exhorbitant prices, driving up the valuation of similar properties. Let's just stick with the status quo and keep those assessments intact and keep those folks who are gonna have to pay high taxes happy."

Judie Conlan and her staff could have done that to save themselves a lot of grief. Instead, Judie, a lifelong Bonner County resident, did her job to the best of her ability and the very best she could with the resources available. In spite of the stifling criticism she has weathered over the past several weeks, she has stuck by the assessments, remaining true to her word. She has continued to explain to the public that the assessments do not necessarily reflect what the tax payments will be, adding that the county budget determines what tax payments will be.

Yesterday, the county commissioners took a bold public move, and, according to what I read in the paper, neglected to inform Judie of their intentions before calling a meeting to announce that all tax assessments would be rolled back to the 2005 level. Of course, that made big headlines and inspired big smiles on the part of anyone who has to pay taxes in Bonner County.

I hope, for the commissioners' sake (two of whom will not be in office come January) that they have made the right decision. Just like anyone else who pays taxes, I'd like to avoid the discomfort of paying through the nose because of inflated land prices. The move yesterday will keep the masses from revolting. It will save inordinate amounts of time for the commissioners who faced long hours of board of equalization review.

I wonder, however, after reading about the possible state reaction to this move, what the next chapter in this ongoing property tax dilemma will be. Like my students who really needed to learn the material, Bonner County is really going to need extra tax monies to support the infrastructure necessary for the influx of new residents who want decent roads, good schools, and adequate utilities.

Let's hope the right decision has been made and that this wide swath of tax relief does not come back to haunt us all.