Trust in the Children
March 24, 2010 
10 Comments
Education has always been a hot topic in state politics, but now the issue is starting to blow up locally as people become aware of an alarming fact: One in three high school students dropout in Spokane. The percentage of local students who graduate from high school in four years is only 60 percent, as compared to 72 percent statewide. Diverging paths are laid out for kids early on. By the time middle school is reached, socioeconomic disparities are often too great to overcome all in the same classroom setting.
Spokane recently lost two grants of more than $4 million that provided after school, mental health, and substance abuse services for elementary and middle school children, forcing our city to become increasingly complacent to the shortcomings of local public schools. Dropouts are 63 times more likely to be institutionalized and ill-equipped to compete in today’s world as unemployment awaits.
Enter the Children’s Investment Fund, a definite game changer. This potential levy proposes to raise $5 million a year to support early childhood learning, abuse and neglect prevention, treatment and mentoring programs, and before- and after-school activities through earmarking 35 cents per $1,000.00 of assessed property value (or about $65 a year for a median home valued at $197,000). The money would be made available through a competitive granting process to supplement proven programs that are currently administered by nonprofit organizations in the area. No new city department or agency would be created.
Our Children First says these types of programs could improve Spokane’s graduation rate by up to 20 percent. Some will inevitably cry over taxation while neglecting to acknowledge that a school loses $7,291 for each dropout, and hundreds of thousands more can be exacted on taxpayers in the form of emergency social services. The levy will have a built-in sunset date, which means in a number of years the program will go back to voters so they can decide whether or not they would like it to continue.
Many other cities have already opted to establish such funds. Some examples are the Portland Children’s Levy and Seattle’s Families and Education Levy. When asked why Communities In Schools decided to help lead the Children’s Investment Fund campaign, Executive Director Ben Stuckart had this to say:
I’ve seen the need directly. Our job is to connect community resources to schools, and I’ve seen the number of services available to our kids in schools through nonprofits has shrunk. I understand the dropout rate, and I think it’s a huge social and economic issue that we need to address. Our organization can’t address it alone. I think there’s a need for something larger here in our community.
Since City Council wasn’t able to deliver on their individual promises to help put this proposal on the ballot directly, a broad coalition of community advocates has formed to gather a hefty 12,000 signatures by April 16th. To learn how you can help, please visit the Our Children First website.
- A 2009 Report on Spokane’s Dropout Rate.
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Great article! I will forward this information to my friends!
Before voters throw more money at misguided solutions to an ill-posed problem at the urging of enterprising do-gooders hoping for sinecures, they should read this:
http://www.freespokane.net/?p=263
Then they should give some thought to some solutions which might work, such as repealing the minimum wage (so that people whose skills can’t command $8/hour can find work), and replacing the public schools with voucher-supported private schools with diverse curricula, diverse educational philosophies, and which focus on different demographic niches, so that parents have an opportunity to find a school appropriate for their kids, given their backgrounds, interests and abilities.
Clarification: City Council didn’t put it on the ballot because charter will not let them place more than one item for public vote every six months. Instead the EMS Levy was placed on the ballot. Fortunately, citizen initiatives are not limited that way.
However, City Council is looking at the removal of the six month limitation so something like the Children’s Investment Fund will get straight there.
@Contrarian: Repeal the minimum wage? Life here is barely affordable as it is for people earning the present minimum wage. Inflation has been ravaging the US for every single product and service not imported from overseas (a form of inflation in itself). If anything, the minimum wage should go up so more people have some spending power which will boost the local economy.
Sam,
“If anything, the minimum wage should go up so more people have some spending power which will boost the local economy.”
Economic boosts do not come from increasing anyone’s “spending power.” They come from increasing their productive power. If someone’s spending power is increased without an increase in his productive power, then the increase can only come via a reduction in someone else’s spending power. It is a zero-sum game. Indeed, it is negative sum, since the person whose spending was reduced was (by hypothesis) more productive, and his incentive to produce is now reduced. That is why productive capital is moving overseas.
You seem to think taking wealth from A’s pocket and putting it in B’s produces new wealth, like magic. All it does is discourage B from producing any more wealth.
Somone might have noticed that “spending power” of the employers may have just taken a hit with the new Federal spending. This recently generated financial climate might preclude even the minmum wage. The well is running dry.
I wonder why anyone would be agree to pay minimum wage AND fund the new health care approach. It’ll cripple spending on new hires. Legislators should think before they try to gather votes at the expense of the job produing sector…unless it’s their (legislators) plan all along.
I liked the link about Spokane dropouts. Very clear and informative.
Did the schools loose $4 million of Obama money granted? Possibly because of all the strings attached?
For example, without a merit pay plan tied to test scores, forget about qualifying for any Obama “race to the top” funds.
ellensee said “Did the schools loose $4 million of Obama money granted? Possibly because of all the strings attached?”
Dazzeetrader said “The well is running dry.
I wonder why anyone would agree to pay minimum wage AND fund the new health care approach.”
When someone asks if we lost “Obama money” I am sure that they realize it is not his money to give out but taxpayers money. This money has been siphoned off of the local economy, funneled through the federal budget, and then used as leverage by politicians to buy votes. Could you imagine the problem solving power of local communities if we didn’t have to launder all those dollars through a federal bureaucracy? People who call themselves Conservatives might be more apt to pay higher taxes on a local level because they can see the effects and if they don’t like it they can move. So yes the “well is running dry” and it hurts most at the local level. During the holidays people tell the bell ringer at the grocery store they gave at the office. During an election cycle you can tell the local signature gatherer you gave at the federal level. The United States Constitution was set up to prevent this type of abuse of power, and the 17th amendment is one of the leading contributors to the consolidation of federal power. It truly is a modern day taxation without representation. You would think with all her “localize it” grandstanding the Spovangelist would get behind the idea of smaller federal government in order to be more flexible at the city and state level.