Every race is important on a ballot. I believe that. But next to the presidential race the one that really spoke to me and got me passionate about voting this year was a sales tax increase for Champaign county that would provide funds for building maintenance and infrastructure for the entire county. Every school district would benefit. And although I know several people find altruism to be some kind of character flaw, I think overt expressions of support and compassion for the betterment of community are a positive step toward peace. While I was talking to KTDID I was sad to see that the sales tax measure was razor close, but it was losing.
Never mind the fact that I live in Savoy and wanted a neighborhood school for my child and the other couple hundred kids that currently ride buses all over town to get to elementary school. I wanted it to pass to restructure the buildings to provide better access to technology for students, to make the buildings more ecologically friendly to the environment and to make sure that the schools in the area have enough seats for anticipated growth in each of the districts. I would have voted for it even if there wasn't the promise of an elementary school in my neighborhood on the ballot because I believe all kids deserve a safe, kind place to learn.
My trouble is that I also know people are losing their jobs and new ones aren't immediately available. I know that when you have trouble putting food on the table and making rent or house payments 1% sales tax doesn't seem possible. And I understand people who had to vote with their families' empty bellies and cold rooms in mind.
But for the last few weeks as I talked to people about the proposition, I was astounded at how many answers I received from other parents as to why they didn't think they were voting for the proposition. Reasons like:
"My kids will almost be done by the time the changes take place, why would I spend extra money -- no one spent it on my kids."
"Washington and Garden Hills don't need those extra seats. Besides we only need to LOOK like we're trying to meet the court decree requirements."
"I don't want them to close Carrie Busey. I don't care how many schools I have a Priority A chance of getting into. That's my kid's school."
It became clear to me that I was running into many voters who believed that they would only vote for something if it benefitted their sheep, rather than the whole flock. It depressed me, but I held out hope. And then last night in his acceptance speech, Barack Obama said this:
"Let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other. Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything, it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers - in this country, we rise or fall as one nation; as one people."
In the coming years, I hope to see more spirit of patriotism in our community as well as in our country and in the world. We need to remember that it takes a village... and our responsibilities to better the world don't stop at our front doors.
6 comments:
Well said.
I was also totally bummed that the sales tax thing lost by such a narrow margin...if only I had talked to more people about it...if only there had been more (any?) fliers distributed...But you're right, the bottom line is people need to see that we are in this together regardless of whether or not "I" directly benefit from it. But I think I might watch Obama's speech last night every day for a few weeks. It was so inspiring and just made me feel good about where we're headed.
I agree, I was really sad when it didn't pass. Of course, I know, personally, plenty of kids it would benefit, my own included so I had a personal stake in it's passing.
However, I can't say I disagree completely with this statement. "Washington and Garden Hills don't need those extra seats. Besides we only need to LOOK like we're trying to meet the court decree requirements"
Not the part about on needing to look like we are meeting the concent decree, of course, but about those school not really needing those seats. Those are the schools in the district that HAVE seats available. Many of the others are over chosen and if you don't get into one of your 3 choices, those are the schools you are sent to because they have space. Personally, I wouldn't send my kids to either of those schools for any reason. If I was assigned them, I would pull them and homeschool. I'm that serious about it. Obviously, better infra-structure would help some of the problems but not all of them. If you look at Stratton that is nearly brand new, they have a lot of the same problems. The problems need to be addressed but building them new seats isn't the end all answer. You have to look at schools like Westview that are old and too small. They have no art room, they have a gym that doubles as a cafeteria which causes them to not have enough space for each class to have PE everyday (as mandated by law, supposedly) so they only have it ever 3rd day. They have kids having classes in closets because they simply don't have space for anything else. Even with all that, they have managed to fill their seats to the point that they have one seat available in the whole school, in fourth grade. They manage to meet or exceed AYP, despite having a very high ESL population, they manage to retain teachers, they manage to overcome all the issues of having a terrible building. What is going wrong at these other schools that they can't? Something way more than their building.
Also, to some degree, I understand the concerns of the CB parents. I have at least 4 prox A schools to my house that I could have picked (including CB) but I picked the school that I picked for a reason. It wasn't simply that it was close to my house. It was the teachers, the administration and the involvement of the PTA. If I just wanted a "close by school" I could have picked one of the other schools but I didn't want my kids going there. Would I be willing to drive further to have my kids go to this school? Probably, unless I'm already driving halfway across town to get to that school. And even if I was willing, switiching schools isn't always easy. See the Westview example above. If you had 2 kids, they couldn't both go to the same school because the seats just aren't there.
Savoy needs a school. It is a simple fact but I'm not sure that moving CB out there was the way to go about it.
Another mom and I were talking at school today and she pointed out that we needed to have the elections when the students were gone. They have no investment, for the most part, in the community but they have an investment in not paying an additional 1% on everything they buy.
People to have an illness called "itsnotmyproblem." Unfortunately, it takes a lot for this illness to go away!
According to the N-G this morning, students supported the tax... people in Unit 7, St. Joe and Mahomet did not.
Schools sales-tax plan defeated by voters outside C-U
By Jodi Heckel, News-Gazette
Thursday, November 6, 2008 7:04 AM CDT
Proponents of the 1-cent sales tax for school facilities used the property-tax relief promised by most school districts in the county as a selling point.
So they and school officials were surprised – very surprised – to see the proposal voted down in nearly every precinct outside Champaign-Urbana, including those offering the largest tax abatements in the county.
Mahomet residents voted it down in all five precincts. It lost in the Unit 7 school district as well, and in St. Joseph. The owner of a $150,000 house in those districts would have saved an estimated $125, $352 and $134 (in the St. Joseph grade-school district), respectively, in property taxes.
Meanwhile, the tax passed in nearly every precinct in Urbana and most in Champaign, where the property-tax savings would be less – $67 in Urbana and $45 in Champaign for a $150,000 house. Even the student precincts passed it, despite opposition from the University of Illinois Student Senate.
"I'm just astounded that apparently people didn't understand" the amount of property-tax relief, said Urbana school board member John Dimit. "We obviously did not communicate that effectively. Our campaign was quick."
The sales tax was defeated by 300 votes of the more then 76,000 cast.
Very interesting! Darn those St Joe people. I always knew they were trouble makers LOL
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