It's time to dust off a favorite observation from one of my favorite people. Harmon Baldwin, long considered the dean of public school administrators in Indiana, noted in 2010 that it's easy to vote against a school funding referendum. Anyone can find a reason to vote no.
"Too often, however, I believe society has a tendency to focus on things about which we disagree rather than to look at our desired end product," he wrote in a Bloomington Herald-Times guest column.
Bloomington, Indiana, where I live, is very good at focusing on the things about which we disagree. And that may spell trouble for the current school funding referendum, in which the Monroe County Community School Corp. is asking voters to approve a small property-tax increase.
The district is promoting a "family-centered and community-focused" proposal on the Nov. 7 election ballot. The bulk of the referendum funding is intended to provide pre-K programs, free for 3-year-olds and free or at least affordable for 4-year-olds. Additional revenue would relieve parents of the burden of paying for instructional materials, technology costs and testing and career education fees.
The plan and the rationale are laid out in detail on the MCCSC website.
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