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16 January 2012

Making bad arguments on behalf of a good cause

Is a vote against the Whitefish school bond a vote against education? Whitefish High School Principal Dave Carlson sure thinks so. Attempting to make a case for approving a new high school for Whitefish, Carlson told the Daily InterLake:

If it [bond] doesn’t pass this is going to be a whole different community. If it doesn’t pass we’ve sent a signal that education doesn’t matter, but the thing about saying it that way people see it as a threat, but you will see people leave.

That statement — a classic example of the “disagreeing with me is proof of your lack of patriotism” genre of argument — won’t help get the bond passed. Quite the opposite. It will anger voters, pushing some now on the fence over to the “I vote NO!” side.

Citizens do not need a permission slip from the school district to vote against a school bond or levy. Somehow, more than a few educators and other good people promoting school bonds find that extraordinarily difficult to understand and acknowledge. But there’s no excuse for disparaging the community spirit of voters, or predicting an apocalypse if the bond fails.

We’re in a deep recession (I would say depression) with high unemployment. Money is tight. If the bond goes down, those will be the reasons for its defeat. One can agree a new high school is needed, agree that the bond issue is a good one, but still vote against the measure because of one’s economic predicament.