Thursday, November 3, 2011

Why Colorado's Prop 103 Failed

Why this year? Colorado had a state-wide ballot issue on an off-year election this year with the hopes of stacking the polls. Most schools hold their school board elections on odd years because, quite frankly, they're not willing to risk asking the bulk of the population to pick their board members. They'd rather have it on years when voter turn-out is low because the teachers unions can more effectively work to keep their union-friendly--or union-intimidated--board members in power. Likewise, if the teacher's union stands to gain a windfall into their feeding trough via a tax increase, like Proposition 103, putting it through on an off-year election is when it's most likely to succeed.

What happened? The upset was apparent in the polls this week. Colorado voters roundly rejected the tax hike by nearly a 2-to-1 margin, even though commercials like this one (note the lack of inspiring Colorado mountains, Colorado homes, or Colorado anything) pulled at the emotions. HuffPo n' Co. stated unequivocally that school budgets have been "decimated." Heavens. It's enough to make a school administrator reconsider that Lexus purchase.

Why did Prop 103 fail? In short, it failed because of mail-in ballots that allowed the public to still voice enough of a general opinion. The Denver Post article addressed a tax hike's chances next year, saying,
"Maybe when this economy turns around, and people feel a little more confident with their personal situations, people will be a little more willing to talk about it," said state Sen. Rollie Heath, D-Boulder, who led the 103 coalition.

Some advocates had even wanted to mount such an effort in 2012, something [Boulder Democrat State Senator, Rollie] Heath said was now unthinkable.

"I don't think there's a snowball's chance in hell," he said. "In a presidential year? To do what we need to do to educate folks? I don't recommend doing anything in 2012."
Glad to see that even liberals believe in hell, by the way.

Seriously however, Heath was saying that it would be too costly, that too many people would turn out to vote next year for them to stack the polls in their favor. My belief is that unless the economy makes a turnaround in 12 months, the polls could turn even more hostile towards government solutions toward any issue, not just the majority that it's failing at.

I'd like to think that the public's perception is that it really doesn't take a lot of money to educate children. After all, if homeschooling families can both support a government funded school system with their tax dollars and still produce students who on average out-score 9 out of 10 public school students. and entrepreneurs, along with the occasional star athlete, there must be more at work than money. Maybe successful students start at home. On the other hand, others may not see it that way. Maybe they're just ignorant and greedy, like Rollie Heath seemed to say. But I hope not.