We’re getting set to try to pass a local tax levy to build a new public school. As you know, I am a public school enthusiast but I also have a child in the local school system and we need a new school.
Because this is a majority Republican county and city I will be working with mostly Republicans to pass a tax levy. Obviously, these aren’t the Tea Party “base” of the GOP. These Republicans support “government schools” and also are mindful of the fact that tangible things like “schools” and “parks” and “libraries” don’t just form like Fruit On the Tree of Liberty and then drop to the ground to be gathered, but have to be paid for with taxes and then built. I think you would all call the levy people Chamber of Commerce Republicans, and that would be exactly what they are except they’re all in Rotary here, not the Chamber.
I have worked with some of them once before on a library levy, in 2006. In that campaign, we did what is called a “stealth levy.” A stealth levy is where one puts the tax increase on the ballot in a low-turnout election cycle and then targets supporters rather than do a big general push because the theory is a big general push only fires up the anti-tax people. The stealth levy worked, BTW, so don’t come crying to me with your “ethical” concerns on stealth. We won’t be using that this time out because there’s already been public meetings and such on finalizing the building proposal and now funding for that specific building plan will go on the ballot.
I’ll do GOTV which I like to think I am quite good at and don’t need any help with but I also will have to make some sort of “pitch” for the tax to local Democrats and, also, people who generally don’t vote. I know what I’ll say to (current) school parents, but what’s the best selling point for people who 1. no longer have children in the system, and 2. never had or never will have children in the system?
A practical hard-nosed explanation of why we need a new school? Property values? For The Children? Civic duty?
The tax isn’t that much so quit being such Dickensian misers? I voted for the senior center levy and I’m not a senior?
The general lay of the land is the public school is a big part of the town. Sporting events, music, social lives of parents, etc. It’s a rural school in a solidly working class/middle class area, so it’s not ultra-fabulous or state of the art or anything, but the (probably dicey and perhaps completely invalid) “grade” of the school is “excellent.” Also, all the employees live here and teachers (although they are union thugs) are not reviled and loathed. All three local judges are married to teachers and the mayor was a teacher before he was a mayor. Political environment would thus be: generally favorable toward public school system BUT read my lips no new taxes (knee-jerk default position).
Matt McIrvin
Some variation on “freedom isn’t free”?
aimai
You sound like you know what you are doing so I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you. I think, like everything political in this country, if you can keep people focused on what is real and local you can get what you need. If they start attaching larger emotional/national issues to it you won’t. So instead of appealing to people’s generic love of education or fairness or the future or any abstraction that might trigger their anti tax/anti obama hysteria I’d just keep it simple. To the extent you need a slogan it would be something like:
Ours Schools. For Us. For Our Kids. Then people can fill in the blanks emotionally with their own memories and their own assumptions. The repeated “our” implicitly reminds them that they can be both selfish and altruistic simultaneously with this tax.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
I thought about that Rachel Maddow commercial, where she says something to the effect of “someone built one for you, so you have to replace it for the next person”
Kay
@aimai:
Thank you. I do a lot of operational type things politically, like GOTV or voter protection, but I honestly don’t do a lot of persuasion, or haven’t.
Poopyman
Will you be using local construction companies? Will the money stay (for the most part) in the county? Those would be good points to make.
imonlylurking
I’m afraid I can’t really help you-I’ve never had kids, never plan to, but I am a wholehearted supporter of public schools. The argument about not having kids and therefore not paying for public schooling has never made sense to me-do people really want their neighborhood to be full of uneducated people, prey for any smooth-talking lunatic that wanders through?
schrodinger's cat
I would lead in with the property values pitch and end with doing your civic duty pitch.
NonyNony
What grade level of school will it be? And is it a replacement building for an existing school or is this an additional school needed because of growth in the area?
For the non-parents, finding a way to point out that everyone in the community has benefited from the schools in the past and will continue to do so in the future, even if they don’t have kids in school now, is a good start.
Cynically speaking, if you’re talking about a High School in Ohio you want to make the football team front and center. If you’re talking middle school, make sure you have imagery of middle school kids playing football with the High School colors.
(Where are you exactly in the state? You’re somewhere up in the NW area, right?)
Poopyman
@Poopyman: To follow my own point here, you’re giving county citizens the salaries that will be spent in the county. There may not be a study specific to your jurisdiction, but aren’t there studies that say X number of dollars produced in a jurisdiction creates Y dollars in income and Z dollars in locally paid taxes?
IMO, talking money always trumps altruistic reasons, but I’m just an old cynic.
low-tech cyclist
Kay – would this be a new school because the current one is way old and needs to be replaced, or because the current one is bursting at the seams, and you really need two schools?
In the latter case, a straightforward argument about why a new school is needed would be my WAG for the best approach. It’s a tougher sell in the former case; unless the cinderblocks are crumbling before people’s eyes, they always believe the old physical plant can last another few years. So I’ve got no suggestions if that’s the case.
Either way, good luck!
artem1s
Biggest ROI argument is spend the money now on keeping kids in school or spend it in a couple of years keeping them in jail. The anti-government grifters in Ohio always seem to have their fingers in both pies; privatizing schools and construction funding and other contracts for newer bigger prisons.
It’s not a feel good argument, but unfortunately it’s part of the economic reality in a state with a declining job base and is home to White Hat Management types.
If you can reassure taxpayers that the levy money won’t go to private charter schools that don’t meet certain accreditation standards, I think it helps.
Kay
@Poopyman:
No. There isn’t a non-residential contractor here, but it will stay within about 80 miles. That’s actually hugely popular here, among both Republicans and Democrats, “buy local”. I also thought about playing on the (mostly friendly) competition between districts. This is the largest district, and some of the smaller surrounding districts have new schools that were built prior to the Great Crash, so recently. I know there’s envy :)
Belafon
My theory on paying for other’s children’s education is: Which would you rather have perform heart surgery: The person who really wanted to become a doctor, or the person who became a doctor because their parents could pay for him to get his bachelors degree in 8 years?
Bill K
A good public school breaks the cycle of poverty for the next generation. A well-educated child gets out of the housing projects and becomes a tax-paying professional. Tell the misers that these kids will be running things when he is gumming his food at the nursing home.
johio
As a small town Ohio resident, I think one of your strongest arguments would be the school as center of the community. A big levy here was defeated at least partly because it included consolidating the elementary schools away from the old established neighborhood schools. It was seen as detracting from the community. Keeping a small town alive in Ohio is not easy so I think tieing it to that would help.
KS in MA
Kind of obvious, but: you might also want to explain to people why the current building is so inadequate that it needs to be replaced, not just repaired. I’m sure that was explained at the public meeting and reported in the newspaper, but I bet lots of people didn’t go to the meeting or bother to read the news.
Poopyman
@Kay: The prime could still hire local subs such as excavation and HVAC and who knows what else. Ask around and see if a business or two would get work. Then I’d talk to them about lobbying for the levy.
feebog
For those “read my lips” Conservatives, good schools = stable or increased property values. I would make the argument that this is no different than an investment in the stock market, except without the risk. You are investing in your community, your profit is increased value In your property. I can tell you that in my little corner of the Los Angeles ‘burbs” it is true. We have the largest and one of the most successful public charter high schools in the country. Our property values are reflected in the fact that homes in this area are snatched up immediately, even though many of them were built pre and post WWII and are therefore smaller than comparable homes in other nearby communities.
Jim Pharo
Besides the points mentioned, I talk to people about this by starting with the notion that taxes for specific items like schools are not the same thing as user fees (which in academia we call tuition). Instead, like any tax, they represent a value judgment to invest the public wealth in a certain way. In the case of a school, the tax levy reflects our value that a good education benefits society as a whole, not merely the students. All those Rotarians who contribute to the area? Those lovely local judges? All educated at the public’s expense (with very rare exceptions, no doubt), and their educations benefit everyone who deals with the Rotary, who appears before a judge, etc, — i.e., the self same public that paid for them.
Surely no on believes that we don’t need to have taxes at all. That’s nothing more than anarchy. Paying for schools is an investment in a better future for everyone. If they think that the strategy of starving the schools that we’ve been following for decades is helping, they should look around and see that our society is paying a heavy price for its penny-wise and pound-foolish ways.
anubis bard
A few years ago, I was working on a Demos project where we looked at making the case for good governance and paying your taxes. What we found was that starting the conversation from the idea that the basic public structures – like schools, roads, communications grids, court systems, etc. – are the foundation of US prosperity. So making sure our public structures are in good shape is not only just a basic responsibility of citizenship – it’s key to building prosperity as well.
ericblair
I’d go with the property values pitch, too. The resident may not have kids, but a lot of people who’d want to move in would, and people do choose neighborhoods based on the quality of the school all the time. Sucks, but that argument seems to work.
Kay
@low-tech cyclist:
The schools are old and small. Narrow halls, lots of stairs. One of them is great looking building, IMO, but they spend an awful lot of time carting the kids from place to place; one school is on the east side and the other is on the west, and the west has the open areas for athletic fields and big events. In the old days they had two K-8 (the east side was the shabbier school, because the east side has a lot of rental properties and lower value housing) but then they had to split the grades up between two buildings on opposite sides of town. They also made this state funding-dependent vow to make the schools energy efficient and it’s impossible to retrofit at a reasonable price with the older, smaller buildings.
raven
Any chance of getting some local “success” stories to come in (or on video)?
Suffern ACE
A replacement school is different than a new school in terms of the sale. For the new school I’d go for the civic booster approach before the property values line. Point out that the need for the new school is a sign that the community is growing and successful and has something to offer people – that it’s actually a sign that your town is healthy. A beacon in the sea of central Ohio that is attracting all of the parents with bright students. (O.K that may be a bit much).
Then move on to the threat/trouble. If the school isn’t built, the town won’t be able to thrive or grow.
Don’t be like those folks in Shelbyville…
Kay
@ericblair:
It’s funny, because it benefits my house. I bought the house because it’s across from the best park, and the new school property will be alongside that park, so it’s all one seamless whole. It makes a lot of sense because they can get to most of their after school activities (sports fields) using pedestrian paths, including the Y which is the “school swimming pool” and also is the most popular latch-key program. They could do their whole day w/out hitting a street.
? Martin
@ericblair:
That only works if there is a place not covered by the fees/expansion to contrast with which people are likely to move from, or to avoid when moving into the area. Increasing property values implies a choice – one with better schools that people will pay more for and one with worse schools that people will pay less for. Property values works as a pitch for a tax increase in my city (which we’ve done), but not in my state (which we’ve also done), or probably even my county. People will generally stay within the same county due to their jobs, but they might live in a different town and commute.
At the county level you need to appeal to employers – what will bring your jobs here vs there. And property values will follow that. Here a university or a trade school is the bigger draw. At the state level, it’s a pure ‘this is what’s right for everyone’ pitch. It doesn’t directly matter if California’s public schools are better or worse than Nevada’s – that might come out in some large scale economic analysis, but it’s not going to have a direct and immediate economic benefit to voters. That only happens at the most local level.
Violet
Sell it as something that helps them. Property values are higher in good school districts. An educated populace means a better standard of living–more jobs, better jobs, more interesting place to live (theater, shops, etc).
And for those that don’t have kids, ask them who’s going to be in charge of the place when they’re at the age where they need help. Wouldn’t they rather have smart adults running the place? They’re educating the people who will take care of them one day.
gelfling545
I think that the best selling point for the non-parent group is property value. Around here real estate agents advertise the school district in their listings if it is one with a good rep. The better the schools (and this includes the physical plant) the more desirable your property becomes.
hitchhiker
I like the “studies show” argument. There’s some interesting data here:
http://www.communitiesinschools.org/about/publications/publication/economic-impact-communities-schools
ryanayr
I usually like to say that in a democracy, the government is only as smart as the people governed, so we have a collective need for good schools.
gian
Do you want your future doctor to come from an inadequate school? Good schools help make good doctors and increase property values too.
piratedan
a modern school for modern times is a theme I’d use, schools back then weren’t set up for wireless or computerized advances, as the infrastructure changes, the schools need to do so as well.
Mojotron
“I’d like to propose a program where we pay for the housing, food, education, and healthcare for roughly 10% of our population, and will give preferential treatment to minorities. And this will be entirely funded by taxes, staffed by union jobs, and will have little to no oversight.”
“What I’ve just proposed is actually our current prison system. Instead of the failed status quo I’d prefer to invest this money in our country’s future instead of pissing it away on cheap license plates and a de facto gang initiation program.”
Gvg
The property value argument is best most times but you might use a backup argument when first try doesn’t seem to be taking.
How would they like it if there were no doctors or nurses who had been to school when they have a heart attack? How do they think they would like air conditioner repair men or car mechanics that couldn’t read manuals? Remind them that every worker that does any thing for them, grocery clerk to plumber to cop is likely to have kids and move away if the schools aren’t at least ok.
People who think that schools don’t matter after their own kids grow up are silly and have never thought about where goods and services come from.
aimai
@gelfling545: Absolutely. The only places that keep their property value over time are places with good schools, but it takes some explaining to make that clear to people without kids as to why that is. One reason is that the kind of people who continue to buy houses in a downturn are people with kids–for everyone else the purchase can be put off or may be going the other way as people move back into cities and apartments when they retire.
Avery Greynold
Property values, with a twist for the Republicans (fear and hate). If you don’t keep your schools up, property values decline. Then more of Those People can afford to move in. Those People have large families, and that actually increases the tax load on your city. It starts a downward spiral as Your People flee to better neighborhoods.
Yes, I feel dirty for suggesting that. But really, is the argument effective?
Kent
My district just passed a levy last spring here in the Republican heartland of Central Texas that is funding some new construction, iPads for all kids, new music and arts facilities, and believe it or not…an indoor practice facility for football and other sports. What was the secret to getting it passed? The district admin types running the election are very savvy.
We have a district of about 7000 students spread across 10 schools. Here in Texas local school elections are basically just run by the local districts as stand alone elections and not folded into larger elections for the most part. So they have a lot of flexibility in how to run the election. What they did was the following:
1. Set up a rotating early voting precinct that moved from school to school during the two weeks leading up to the election. So Monday they had the voting machines at the HS, Tuesday at the middle school, Weds at one of the elementary schools and so on.
2. Administrators and counselors rotated around the building on election day to cover for teachers who wanted to slip out of their rooms and vote. We got lots of emails about this. Basically if you wanted a 20 minute break from your class an administrator would be right by to watch your kids so you could go vote and get the starbucks coffee and muffins that the PTA had set up next to the polling room as a thank you for teachers.
3. HS seniors who had just turned 18 were encouraged to vote. Since it was a May election there was a bunch of them.
4. The regular election day at the regular polling place at the city hall was pretty unadvertised. If you work for the district or have kids in the school you got tons of information about the election through school email and PTA type channels but if you rely on the local newspaper or TV news there was pretty much nothing.
In the end the levy passed with about 52% of the vote. The early voting at the schools which was mostly teachers and parents picking up and dropping off kids was about 65% in favor of the levy. The voting on election day which was mostly the older retired types who never miss an election was about 45% in favor. So without all the efforts to get teachers and parents to early vote at the schools the thing would have gone down in defeat.
burnspbesq
This may not be as relevant where you are, but in suburbia there is an easily observable and well understood link between the perceived quality of public schools and residential real estate values. By voting for good schools, homeowners are adding value to their biggest asset. That’s a message worth delivering.
Roger Moore
I would say two things:
1) It’s important to know why you need a new school. Is it to replace an obsolete school or to handle an increase in the local student population? That’s the first question I’d ask if I were being asked to build a new school, so I assume the people you’re talking to will have the same question. Also, be prepared to answer questions about the alternatives you’ve considered: why not expand or renovate the current school, etc. Part of people’s reflexive anti-tax stance is the idea that the government just throws money at problems rather than being a wise steward of the people’s money, so showing that you’ve seriously considered alternatives and this will really give people the best bang for their buck will help to quiet those fears.
2) You may need to change your pitch depending on your audience. Some people will be more receptive to a selfish argument about property values, some will respond to guilt about the schools having been there when they (or their kids) were using them, and others will care about their civic duty. One of the advantages of retail politics is that you can size up your audience and adjust your pitch depending on what you think will work best.
Belafon
@Kent: Which location is that? I’m in Rockwall, and I could see us needing to do something like this at some point in the future.
hoodie
Guess my experience has been that these kind of things are usually easy sells to Democrats, whatever their age. Sounds like you’re lucky and don’t have a lot of anti-tax agitators or a big schism between urban and suburban in your community. I’d rely on the Rotary types to run interference and tout the economic advantages in competition with other neighboring districts. Older folks will go for that, simply because they tend to respect authority figures like business people. The most successful school districts I’ve seen have real buy-in from local businesses, and those guys tend to get juiced thinking they’re community leaders and not just guys that sell farm implements, sell real estate or run car washes. You could also emphasize how bad or inefficient the current infrastructure is and that you’re not building a Taj Mahal. A favorite tactic of wingnut tax protester types is to characterize these needed projects as vanity projects and “waste, fraud and abuse.” That tactic usually works best in communities that already have schisms and are not very tight knit. People who think they’re all in the same boat tend to bite the bullet and approve these kinds of bonds.
burnspbesq
Good news is never OT: a conservative Republican congress critter gets ambushed by Obamacare supporters at his town hall meeting.
http://mobile.rawstory.com/therawstory/#!/entry/obamacare-supporters-challenge-tea-party-congressman-at-town-hall,5204ee1cda27f5d9d008316a/2
More of this would be nice.
The Other Bob
If you are demolishing the old school, just say “asbestos” a lot and everyone will want the kids out.
Mary G
It was done where I used to live and they did two things: lead tours through the school which helped convince voters capable of empathy, and make the property values argument to those who were not. Emphasizing the fact that it’s local and that no one’s hard earned dollars were being sent to those moochers in the state or Federal government to be given away to THOSE people also helped.
scav
Is there anything interesting to be gained from looking into, publishing past efforts the community made into building schools? When was the first one built, how many since, old photos of ground-breakings, graduations, etc. Schools did provide built foci for communities etc and emphasizing that historical and ongoing effort might help with some people. Might pull one or a few short priming newspaper articles out of it. An effort, a commitment rooted in the past and builing toward the future, that sort of thing. Dick and Jane through the periods and generations?
Dr. Dave
In some cases it may help to point out the benefits a well-educated populace brings to everybody–well-educated kids grow up to have good jobs, pay their own taxes, et cetera. Any business owner presumably wants employees who are able to become productive quickly and with as little on-the-job training as possible, so s/he should prefer that the schools produce graduates ready to go to work.
Xecky Gilchrist
@imonlylurking: -I’ve never had kids, never plan to, but I am a wholehearted supporter of public schools. The argument about not having kids and therefore not paying for public schooling has never made sense to me-do people really want their neighborhood to be full of uneducated people, prey for any smooth-talking lunatic that wanders through?
Second this. It might not sway Republicans, but it will get some people on board. To me a lot of political questions come down to what kind of society you want to live in, and are you willing to pony up for it.
Kay
@scav:
I think people here would love that approach. Thanks so much. They’re mad-historical.
Violet
@Kay: In that case, can you enlist the help of a grandma who went to the old school and remembers when it was new and is so excited that her granddaughter might get to go to the new school? Maybe profile both of them in the newspaper, or a three-generations kind of thing. Things like “our community, we support it through the generations” might work.
RSA
I’m in category 2, but I’m an easy sell. If you tell me a single serious problem that the new school will fix (kids riding an hour on a schoolbus, classrooms holding way too many kids), or a lot of little problems, I’m on board. I suppose that’s not enough for many Republicans, but convincing them that better K-12 education improves the community might be harder.
piratedan
@burnspbesq: pretty telling when he goes on to say what kind of health care plan that he would support and essentially lists off all of the things that are already within the ACA, just sad that there was no follow up question regarding where the fuck is the legislation that makes the ACA “better” since he already had a “better plan” in his back pocket.
Kay
@Violet:
I think the historical thing is a bit much, honestly, my friend Jane is the local historian at the library and I tease her that she collates her family history over there (true!) but they do love them some old photos. Big collectors, bordering on hoarders :)
RANDOMMENTALITY
How about the fact that the kids you are educating are the future of the community? Unless you’re a magnet area with lots of people moving there, these kids will be your doctor in your old age, your lawyer if you need a will, your realtor if you want to sell your home, and so forth. They may be “someone else’s kids” but you ultimately reap the benefit – or pay the price – if they have a sub-standard education.
danimal
Tell them that the taxpayers can build an adequate school building and then a charter school can form, replace the government school teacher union thugs, rent the upgraded school for pennies on the (taxpayer) dollar and make the charter school owners and administrators rich, rich, rich.
Then they can go to sleep at night knowing the free market works.
Sorry, Kay, I’m feeling a bit cynical these days.
Violet
@Kay: Can you get your friend to loan or give you some of the old photos to put up on the wall during any presentations on this issue? A Powerpoint rotating slide show would also work, but people may benefit from looking at the photos closely before and after the meeting. Remind them how it looks when people pull together to build for the community. And also just how old the school is–which is why I suggested finding someone in the community who went to the school when it was new.
Manyakitty
@Kay: I like the “Leave something better behind for the next generation” approach. That said, I have no kids, and generally voted against the levies for my old school district because I hated it so much. Also, it’s one of the wealthiest in our county, yet somehow they managed to go bankrupt. When I bought my house (in a different district), I changed my mind, simply for the property values associated with better schools.
The approach that would work best with me, at least, is one that comes with hard numbers and a plan for the money.
cckids
@Kay: This. And your own comment about the school being the base, or the cornerstone of the community. Also, though you probably don’t want to quote Elizabeth Warren to your people, her writing about schools being the main driver of property values can’t hurt! Give them a bit of altruism & community values, follow up with how it is also good for the pocketbook.
Good on you for the work you do. Good luck!!
sparrow
Speaking as someone who doesn’t have kids, if someone came to my door I would want to know some details of the plan (as others have said). I’d like to know some breakdown of where the money is going. Here in MD I started voting down tax hikes for nebulous plans because of the rampant corruption locally. If they put something on the ballot that is *very specific*, like to build a particular school, I would vote for it, especially if the case was made well. You don’t need a long speech, just something more than “give us money for schools! details TBD”
? Martin
@burnspbesq:
We’re a bit of an outlier on that. There are parts of Ohio where that would definitely work, but more places where it wouldn’t. Irvine is the case study in using public education funding to drive property values, and it’s been extremely successful. Irvine is a solid $100K higher than neighboring Costa Mesa in home prices, and I think most of that traces back to why people live in each (Irvine for schools, Costa Mesa for not being Irvine).
But it relies on a very fluid ownership market, which SoCal definitely has. Our near constant turnover of homes means that over time those property values can be realized as the markets are constantly being re-evaluated. It means that people can be very fluid within communities as well (there’s a clear migration among Irvine communities as parents move from Woodbridge for pools/parks/elementary/middle schools to Turtle Rock for high school). In most parts of the country, you just don’t have that kind of fluidity. They either don’t have the income (closing costs on a move are non-trivial), or they don’t have the turnover to make buying a new home as convenient as it is here where you can literally pick a model that you like, wait a month or two and you’ll find one for sale – even in the most in-demand communities.
So property value arguments here are immediately realized because of the turnover, so they work. Kay says that they have a deep historical appreciation for their community, which suggests that they have no intention of leaving, so the property value argument won’t work quite as well. Plus, here, increasing property value is a clear benefit because of Prop 13. My dad is considering moving because his value in Oregon have gone up so much he’s getting squeezed on his property taxes – so for him, it’s been a burden until the point he sells – and he wasn’t planning on ever selling – that was his retirement house. I’d imagine some of that would apply in Ohio.
If Kay thinks there’s a deep investment in the community, then I think that’s the way to sell it – it’s an investment in the community that they’ll look back on in 20 or 50 years with pride, and around that you sell the benefits to the kids, suggesting that with a community that invest in them, they’ll want to stay in town rather than leave, that kind of thing. As you move to more self-dependent communities, those things become increasingly important. SoCal is extremely independent. If nobody that lived in Irvine worked in Irvine, nobody would give a shit. Our density is so high it’d be easy to pull workers from surrounding communities. So there is zero historical appreciation for these cities. Unless your name is Bren, Irvine, etc. your family is pretty much just passing through. There’s no legacy to be left here so who gives a shit how the school will be viewed in 30 years. Few of us will still be here, and the folks that were here won’t remember it being built.
Gretchen
I live in a Kansas City suburb on the Missouri-Kansas border. The taxes are higher, and the schools much better, on the Kansas side. The same house is also worth more on the Kansas side. When my kids were in preschool, and mothers discussed where their children were going to elementary school, some would say “We live on the Missouri side, so we have to do private school”, as if public schools didn’t even exist. Parents all get the quality of schools issue, but all property owners get the “the schools are so bad nobody with kids will buy your house” argument.
Roger Moore
@? Martin:
I think density makes a big difference, too. In a dense area like Southern California, you have the choice of a dozen communities and school districts within a 5-10 mile radius, which gives you a lot of school options without requiring a huge lifestyle change. That’s not going to be true of a rural area, where you have to move a lot further to get to the next school district. The tendency to move for schools may also be more prevalent in areas that have separate elementary and high school districts rather than unified school districts.
Ms. D. Ranged in AZ
For those who no longer have children in the system….do they have grandchildren, nieces, nephews….every family has kids at some point and they all want them to get a good education. The key is to find out what kids they have in their wider family…surely they have a concern for their futures.
J R in WV
My late great-aunt Mae taught school her whole working life, starting about 1910 in a one-room schoolhouse built of logs by the parents. Surely we want a better building for our kids today?
Kay
@? Martin:
I think what you’re saying about property values is basically true. I think the better argument might be “make the area more desirable” because we have trouble attracting certain people, like physicians, for example.
My husband’s (former) doctor (retired) told us he was the only person in his med school class with a rural route address for his parents. The old style RR addresses were “RR (numeral) Name of Town”
John
Kay,
Live in similar county.
I think the best argument is that someone will have to take care of you in the nursing home/assisted living facility. Would you like for those caregivers to be well-educate AND appreciative….or not?
Ed
I predict your levy will pass 55% to 45%. There are a bunch of greedy bastards out there, but there are more people who care about their community. about 10% more.
stinger
Really great suggestions above! Why aren’t all you people doing PR for national, state, and local Democrats?? The Dems need better messaging, desperately.
Although I’m a former public schoolteacher, I’ve never had kids. My district in Iowa sounds very much the same as yours, Kay. I think for people like me the best argument begins with the need from a student/educational standpoint, touches firmly on property values and lightly on “new jobs” and Buy Local and Civic Duty, but should end by answering the question, “(Roughly) what will it cost ME?” How big will the increase in MY taxes be? The best-intentioned of older citizens may yet be on a fixed income, and this will matter to them.
Bill in Section 147
In our area real estate values and crime rates are pretty much paralleled by the quality of the school in the neighborhood. My area is mid-income but we have a high proportion of apartments and single parent households and the school quality is due mostly to a great culture of parental involvement. This is not directly related to the tax for new school issue but the main point is that community involvement is key. Focus on the representation of the community that the school carries.
I would approach the selling point along the lines of making the campus a quality place for the community, an indication of the quality and concern of the community as a whole – the school is always more than just a place students gather. Our schools are also used for a lot of community events. And just like having well maintained private property, well maintained and up-to-date public spaces elevate community involvement and pride. What better civic lesson to show young people that the community is concerned and caring than a quality facility.
Also real estate is moved by new families moving in to a community and a lot of local business thrives on new customers not just the installed base. Most new families are totally school-focused. A lot of homes are sold to people so they can be in a good school and a better facility gives a good impression.
Chickamin Slam
This one district kept putting up levies and bonds only to have them voted down time and time again. The last one finally passed after they spelled out exactly what they were doing, all the monies coming in/out, partnerships (schools as part of community centres/United Way/military dollars, etc). This seemed to sit well with the otherwise “No more taxes!” “Gov’mint git outta my hair” types in that part of the county. So yeah showing and telling and explaining made it sink in.
Nellie in NZ
I use the pitch that I need a good doctor and I will when I’m 80. But I won’t necessarily want an 80 year old doctor when I’m 80. I’m investing in my future when I support public education. I want a pool of good earners contributing to social security when I’m drawing social security. I want a safe society, an educated society to conduct my life in. In other words, I appeal to the selfish gene that is so very vibrant in American these days.
jay Noble
Our town will soon be voting on a bond issue (which then becomes a levy increase to pay for the bonds) for a new K-4 school that will replace three older schools (one dates to 1929, the others to the mid-50s). One of the big selling points, is that the borrowing rates will never be as good as they are now. If ya need a new school, now’s the time to pay for it. On the other hand one selling point hasn’t been quite honest. They claim overcrowding, while the actual and projected enrollment is only roughly 60-70% what it was during the 60’s and 70’s. Physically it isn’t overcrowded, but State aid is reduced if a class has more than 20 students. That’s a legit argument. When I came thru the system, we had 30 or more kids in those same classrooms.
Another plus argument, is an enormous savings in energy costs – if they do it right. And that’s without going all Green Peace with the construction.
Ruckus
@imonlylurking:
Agreed.
I once bought a house partially because it was in what was considered a good school district. (Kay, it was in a suburb of Columbus) I have no kids and never will. But we all live in a community and the community is only as good as we make it. And we can only make it good if we not only maintain what we have but build for the future of not only my non-existent kids but yours too. And that means schools and roads and yes business. Do you want a strip club in your neighborhood? Why not? Because it lowers property values and it degrades life in the area. Crappy schools do the same thing. Good schools do exactly the opposite.
The idea of only being for schools if you have kids is insane. Your kids will only be in local public schools for 12 yrs, after that you don’t give a shit about your neighbors or property values?
Betsy
@Kay: that’s hilarious, because it will take probably a thousand years of lower energy use to replace the embodied energy in the materials of the old buildings, or to pay the energy costs of producing the materials for the new buildings.
The “we must build new because old buildings are energy inefficient” argument is 99 times out of 100, a total crock of shit.