Refusal To Fund Schools Hurts Kids

The Coeur d’Alene School District became whole again at the beginning of the 1989-90 school year when it ended double shifting at the high school.

For four years, double shifting had disrupted family life, upset teachers and deflated school pride. Youngsters were left alone for hours in families in which both parents worked. Extracurricular activities created a scheduling nightmare. Said Superintendent Doug Cresswell: “It was an unpleasant, even destructive, experience.”

Unfortunately, now the Post Falls School District is being squeezed by increasing enrollments and stubborn taxpayers. Last week, Post Falls trustees were forced by three straight bond failures to approve double shifting in grades six through eight next year to alleviate overcrowding.

Post Falls is not alone. North Idaho’s property tax rebellion is taking a heavy toll on education.

In Boundary County, school officials say they will cut 15 employees and close a school if a levy for about $600,000 isn’t approved this spring. A similar levy failed three times last year. Now, school officials promise to run the levy only once and live with the wishes of school patrons - even if they’re shortsighted.

In Bonner County, voters twice rejected levies last year before approving a $1 million levy to repair buildings. By that time, some buildings were in such bad shape that water damage had forced administrators to close six classrooms at Priest River Elementary.

Meanwhile in Post Falls, a hard-core minority has used every excuse and Idaho’s Draconian supermajority rule to knock down building plans three straight times. Although a proposal for a new high school received an impressive 63 percent rate of approval, it still fell short of the two-thirds vote needed for passage.

Naysayers, such as the Kootenai County Property Owners Association, have been able to attract enough negative votes to block the majority will.

So, 11- to 13-year-olds will be forced to walk to school or catch a bus in the dark. They will be left unattended for hours each morning or afternoon in homes in which both parents work. They will be forced to listen to teachers and understand material presented to them before 7 a.m. when many of them are barely awake.

High schoolers will avoid double shifts because the district feared shorter days would affect accreditation and, therefore, their ability to go to college.

Children suffer when adults shirk their responsibility to provide them with a basic education.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = D.F. Oliveria/For the editorial board