Vote Tuesday! Will your voice be heard?

The Artdog Quote(s) of the Week
In many parts of the USA, Tuesday is Election Day. Do you know who (or what) is on the ballot? Have you done your research? Maybe even already voted, in places that allow advance voting? Good for you! When a 53.4% voter turnout is a record year, a lot of people's voices aren't being heard. Will your voice be heard this year?

For those of you asking, "Wait! There's an election?" shame on you! But it's still (just barely) not too late. Vote Tuesday! Will your voice be heard? Or will you be one of those who roll over with a yawn and fail to show up, then complain that your voice isn't heard?

Excuses aren't hard to find. Will your voice be heard?
Yeah, it's an off-year. No big marquee names (at least, none are marquee names now. Political careers begin with elections like the one we're facing this week). But local elections matter precisely because things that happen locally impact us immediately. But they also are the launch-pad for larger careers.

Case in point: who knew, ten years ago, that anyone outside of South Bend, IN would care who its mayor was? Trust me: Small elections matter. And there's no other place where your vote counts more.

As one-time Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill famously said, "All politics is local." Engrave it on your heart and believe it. Small, local elections matter tremendously. So let your voice be heard!

So. What's on your ballot?
In Johnson County, Kansas, it's an ongoing saga. As you may recall, in August, we voted in a primary to narrow the field of candidates for local races (in Westwood, only the Johnson County Community College Board of Trustees, but it was a battle of progressives versus conservatives, and quite an interesting contest). Tuesday we make the final cuts in that race.

But wait! There's more! We're voting for a Mayor and two City Council Members in Westwood, and the local Shawnee Mission School Board has some hotly-contested races. But possibly the most contentious race is for Water District One.

I'm not kidding: the Water District. Climate change and concerns raised by failures in Flint, MI and Newark, NJ have ignited a very active ballot. Think water isn't important? Try doing without! Yes, Local elections make a big difference to local quality of life. Will you vote? Let your voice be heard!

IMAGE CREDITS: Many thanks to Country Living and "15 Voting Quotes that will Make you Proud to be an American" for the quotes from Thomas Jefferson, Susan B. Anthony, George Jean Nathan, and George Carlin. The quote from Tip O'Neill is courtesy of Jacobs Media Strategy. Thank you very much, to both!

Why we voted Tuesday in Johnson County, Kansas

We voted Tuesday in Johnson County, Kansas.

Well, a few of us did. We only met a handful of neighbors at the polls, and the poll workers almost seemed startled to see us. After all, it was a pretty tiny ballot. We had just three votes to cast, in an obscure little election to narrow down the number of our local community college's Board of Trustees. Really, a very tiny election.

Each voter is offered a sticker. (Johnson County Post)

But we voted Tuesday in Johnson County, Kansas.

My whole family voted (except for the one who's in the hospital unexpectedly). In spite of the heat ("feels like" 95° F/35° C), and really heavy humidity. In spite of being tired and too busy. In spite of having to stop work and make a special trip. In spite of the fact that we had to wade through a lotta names, most of which we'd never heard before. Do a bit of digging to find out anything about the candidates.

But we made sure we voted Tuesday in Johnson County, Kansas.

A lot of people act as if primaries are not important. Those tiny little ballots, those obscure little elections, those trifling local races--what do those matter? Better to wait for the big, headliner elections, when your vote really matters. Right?

Why on Earth should we make sure we voted Tuesday in Johnson County, Kansas? It's silly. Right?

Johnson County voting machines create a paper ballot voters can check. (Tammy Ljungblad/Kansas City Star)

Wrong. Primaries are where political careers get their start. Primaries are where major policy decisions are made. And primaries, being small-scale elections, are where each and every vote counts more than anywhere else. You get more "bang for your vote" in a primary than you ever could in a general election.

I learned it's important to make certain we vote in elections like Tuesday, in Johnson County, Kansas.

For most of my adult life, I have voted with an official "R" for Republican by my name, for two reasons. First, in Kansas we have closed primaries. Only voters who have declared a party affiliation may vote in that party's primary. Second, for most of my adult life, in Johnson County (and much of Kansas), the Republican candidate ran unopposed in the general election. I declared myself to be a Republican (If you read this blog, you'll realize I'm therefore beyond RINO), because I was determined to vote in the elections where the decisions were made.

That's what set the pattern, and made made sure we voted Tuesday in Johnson County, Kansas.

The entrance to our local Johnson County Community College. (file photo/Kansas City Star)

By the way, that teeny-tiny little primary for our local community college? It was contest to chart the of our local educational institution. Would they take a conservative approach and keep the incumbents, or would they try a more progressive approach?

That's why we made sure we voted Tuesday in Johnson County, Kansas.

IMAGE CREDITS: Many thanks to the Shawnee Mission Post, for the photo of the "I Voted in Johnson County" sticker. And thanks also to the Kansas City Star, for the photos of Johnson County's voting machines in action (photographed by Tammy Ljungblad), and the JCCC entrance.

Who Should Control School Funding?

Throughout the United States, a battle has been raging over school funding and reform for decades—but the Great Recession has opened a new dimension in the struggle.

Cash-strapped states have been slashing school funding year after year, continuing an effort begun by “small government” forces, now joined by “deficit hawks.” Recently, every new legislative session brings another epic battle, in which it seems the best a district can hope for is not to lose as much ground as last year.

Blue Valley West High School is in an affluent suburb of
Johnson County, KS, where school patrons are willing to tax
themselves sacrificially if necessary, to fund their schools.

All the same, some localities—such as Johnson County, KS, where I live—have resisted this trend as fiercely as they can. Johnson Countians have a long history of repeatedly raising their own taxes—even during the current economic situation—to strengthen funding for our schools. We’re lucky we can afford to do this, because not all districts are able.

We understandably resent and resist any effort to hold us back from more fully funding our schools—yet this is exactly how funding disparities widen between “have” and “have not” schools. When public schools were being set up in the 19^th century, the norms of the day and primitive communications led to the natural outcome that schools were funded by local property taxes, and governed locally. And it has stayed that way.

Unfortunately, we now have such an inequitable system that it probably should be ruled unconstitutional. 

Yet Heaven help anyone today who dares to suggest that US school funding should not be sourced and controlled locally! That is especially true in a relatively affluent area where parents clearly understand the value of a good education, but don’t necessarily trust centralized government to make good school decisions!

Educational innovations such as those practiced at this
school for 7-to-16-year-olds in Espoo, Finland, are proving
difficult to "transfer" to the United States.

This presents a real conundrum for reformers, because pretty much all of the countries with students scoring better than ours seem to be run on centralized systems. 

In top-rated Finland, for example, a central government agency controls the schools, mandates a centralized curriculum and educational approach; funds all schools, regardless of neighborhood, at relatively generous and equitable levels; and pays (not to mention respects) teachers more highly than in the US. How do we apply successful methods from the rest of the world, without changing this "central" aspect?

Indeed, for jealously protective parents who don’t want “outside bureaucrats” meddling with their kids’ schools, the reaction has often been the exact opposite of greater centralization. 

Instead, the cry of “school choice!” has gone up in various districts. This has led to an explosion in the number of homeschoolers, charter schools, and an assortment of voucher systems since the early 1990s. More recently, it also has led to a rise in “virtual” school districts offering courses online.

This water-damaged school in Newark, NJ--with no funds for
repairs--provides a cautionary lesson about too much austerity. 

Some parents who seek greater school choice want to flee crumbling inner city districts, which they—often with justification—see as dangerous places with more focus on crowd control than on nurturing children’s learning. 

Some religiously observant parents fear secular influences may alienate their children from their faith. 

Others resist integration, or disagree with curriculum mandates, or dislike placing their children in a “class-based” system that demands all children must learn the same things, at the same ages, and on the same timetable, no matter what their gifting or challenges may be.

Not all motivations are equally high-minded, but nearly all of those listed above spring from parental concern over what, how, and under what conditions their children are being taught. Parental concerns and a deep American respect for individuality are part of the forces that keep the "centralizers" at bay.

They are not the only interests that must be considered in reform efforts, however. 

Also influential in decisions made at all levels are the business interests of large companies in what has come to be called the "education-industrial complex" (test publishers and scorers, textbook and educational materials publishers, for-profit school management corporations, and many others have increasingly profited from contracts to provide school products and services).

Add to them the extremely well-funded ideologues who have begun to play such a massive role in US politics, and the politicians who depend on them for never-ending campaign financing needs. 

There also are numerous philanthropic foundations, academics, writers, think-tanks, teachers' unions, teacher-education institutions, and other voices. 

All have points to make, concerns to protect, and all too often axes to grind, because the one who controls the funding gets to have the final say—and in the clearly-failing US schools, a perilous future for all of us is riding in the balance.

PHOTO CREDITS: I took the photo of Blue Valley South High School in southern Johnson County, KS, in February 2007. It is © 2007 by Jan S. Gephardt, and may be used with attribution, but no alterations. The second photo shows a school in Espoo, Finland; 2012 photo by Tuomas Uusheimofor the book, Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland? By Pasi Sahlberg. The 2011 photo of the New Jersey school is by Tony Kurdzuk of the New Jersey Star-Ledger.