4 May 2016

More school elections with disgracefully low turnouts

Turnout in yesterday’s school trustee and levy elections was disgracefully low: 24 percent in Kalispell, despite a mail ballot; 16 percent in Whitefish and Olney-Bissell.

In Whitefish, building reserve levies for the high school ($300k/yr for seven years) and the elementary school ($400k/yr for seven years) were defeated. The elementary levy lost by just 27 votes, but the high school levy lost by a 43–57 percent margin.

I suspect the Whitefish high school levy may have lost partly because voters were reluctant to approve more spending on the facility after having recently approved a big bond issue for rebuilding. But voters may also be reluctant to approve additional spending given the political uncertainty this election year, and may still have misgivings about the robustness of the economic recovery.

The elementary levy probably will pass on the next try, but the high school levy may be a harder sell.

The low turnout, of course, is by design. Teachers unions and their allies have high turnouts, and thus a disproportionate impact, in an otherwise low turnout election. But voters opposed to tax increases also turnout in disproportionate numbers, and that’s probably part of what happened in Whitefish.

Stand alone school elections allegedly insulate education from politics. Even if that’s true, it comes at the expense of low voter turnout and thus soft public support. Montana should consider placing school elections on the general election ballot in even-numbered years, extending trustee terms to four years.

My congratulations and best wishes to the winners of yesterday’s elections, and my thanks to the also-rans for stepping forward to offer their services.