Darcy Burner Endorses Simple Majority for School Levies
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - OCTOBER 29, 2007
Contact: Sandeep Kaushik, (425) 443-2564
Darcy Burner Endorses Simple Majority for School Levies
Bellevue (Oct. 29) – Democrat Darcy Burner, a strong supporter of education who is challenging Republican Congressman Dave Reichert in the 8th Congressional District, today offered her enthusiastic backing for the People for Our Public Schools’ simple majority campaign. Taking time from the busy schedule for her own campaign, she will join other young pro-education supporters and student leaders tonight to phone bank in support of the measure.
If approved by the voters next week, Engrossed House Resolution 4204 will change current requirements that critically important school levies win a 60 percent supermajority, instead allowing such levies to pass with a majority vote.
Burner said she saw the measure as an important test going forward in ensuring that schools across the 8th Congressional District (and the rest of the state) have adequate resources, and in allowing education advocates to put their focus where it belongs – on the classroom – rather than in costly and time-consuming efforts to win repeat levy votes.
“My family went through tough times when I was growing up and education was my ticket to a better life,” Burner said. “I know from personal experience how important it is to make sure our schools are providing a solid foundation for our kids to build their lives upon, and this measure will help to accomplish that.
“It is also a question of basic fairness,” Burner added. “If we can pass a stadium vote or a parks levy vote with a simple majority, why would we place the bar higher for our schools, which depend on these levies for 17 percent of their funding? That just isn’t right, especially when you realize how much of a negative impact these levy failures can have on our school districts.”
There have been at least 11 school district levy failures that won more than 50 percent of the vote since 2000 in the 8th Congressional District, with three of those levies failing with more than 59 percent of the vote. The costs of rerunning those levies alone cost the districts in question more than $325,000, funds that could have gone towards educating children.
Within the 8th CD, South King County and Pierce County have been hit particularly hard by the failures. Since 2000, levies have failed with more than 50 percent of the vote in the Orting (twice), Franklin Pierce, Tahoma (twice), Puyallup, Sumner, and White River school districts.
The Bethel district has been the most affected, with eight levy failures out of the last 16 put forward since the mid-1980s, including two since 2002. People for Our Public Schools’ video story of the impact levy failures have had in Bethel is available here <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz5Ksgr_rL4> .
Statewide, 148 levies have failed with more than 50 percent of the vote since 1999, at a cost to taxpayers of $2.7 million for new levy votes.
The simple majority campaign effort is running more than 100 nightly phone banks across the state and has already made more than 150,000 calls asking voters to support the simple majority proposal.
Burner will phone bank tonight at the Seattle Labor Temple with young pro-education activists and student leaders, one of the dozens of phone banks the simple majority campaign has organized around the state.
“This is an incredible grassroots effort with neighbors talking to neighbors across Washington State about the importance of standing up for our schools,” Burner said. “I am proud to join with the thousands of volunteer phone bankers who are sacrificing so much of their time for this important effort. They are the true unsung heroes of this election season.”
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