Schools Get Lesson From Voters No To Science Center, Library Measure Color Thinking About Computer Tax Vote

Fear of voters’ anti-tax mood may stop Spokane School District from running a computer tax next year.

The school board will decide Wednesday whether to put such a measure before voters next spring, when it would run with the maintenance and operations levy.

The money is needed, some say, to beef up technology throughout the district. Some classrooms, like Nancy Wolfrum’s at Moran Prairie Elementary, are loaded with computers, while others are decidedly low-tech.

“The question isn’t whether it should be asked, but when it should be asked,” Superintendent Gary Livingston said of the computer tax question.

In August, the district tailored a $10 million computer proposal - a scaled-back version of a $30 million levy that failed in 1994.

The intent was to take the new plan to the spring ballot.

Then Spokane voters said no to the science center in Riverfront Park. Spokane County voters turned down a library district measure.

School employees wondered whether a failure on the computer tax could sink the M&O levy, which would mean lost jobs.

“We’re not sure the timing is right,” Livingston said. “We’re weighing the clear need for more technology with the climate in the community.”

Some parents and teachers worry that without the tax, Spokane may eat other districts’ electronic dust.

Puget Sound school districts raised $100 million during the past five years in technology bonds and levies. Bellingham School District passed a $6 million technology tax last year. This year, the district finished connecting 1,400 new computers with 113 miles of cable.

Every Bellingham classroom now has at least one computer and a telephone. Teachers, principals, even custodians, have telephone voice mail, making it easier for parents to contact school employees.

Bellingham’s next step is to give every student, third grade and older, an electronic-mail address, which would allow them to consult researchers and college professors on the Internet. Students would take a short ethics class and get parents’ permission before getting their e-mail address.

The Bellingham district, about one-third the size of Spokane School District, has 10,000 students and 18 schools.

Bellingham’s bond issue, which also included money for a new high school, passed on a second try with 79 percent approval. It would have passed the first time, but not enough voters went to the polls and the election was declared invalid.

“Selling technology these days is not all that hard,” said Bellingham Superintendent Dale Kinsley. Voters believe schools need technology, but they want to be sure school officials will spend wisely.

There may be one advantage to waiting, if that is what the school board decides to do Wednesday.

Moore’s Law, penned by Intel chairman Gordon Moore in 1965, states that the number of components on a microchip doubles every year. Computers keep getting faster, smaller - and cheaper.

Moore’s Law may help the school board justify waiting a year or two.

But it won’t get educational technology to the 2,000 Spokane students who graduate every year.

, DataTimes