Levy Deserves Backing of Napavine Patrons
Attention all you Napavine School District voters. We have a replacement maintenance levy to pass and I would like to give you my reasons why we should vote for the levy.
I do not have kids in school or relatives employed by the school district, and therefore have no direct personal reason to support the levy. What I hope I have are some logical reasons to offer to you in support of this levy.
First, it’s not a new tax. We are already used to paying this funding. It is the necessary addition to the state and federal money that always falls short of the revenue needed to support a first-class school district.
Let’s leave no doubt, Napavine is a first-class school system. I have one excellent example of this you should be aware of. The initials M and O spell it out. I call your attention to M, as in maintenance. How many maintenance staff does Napavine have to repair equipment, maintain the buildings and grounds, provide all the preventative repair for both the elementary and high school? Exactly two.
By name they are Don Jensen and Joe Mars. They are a lesser known but vital part of school staffing. Recognize how important these fixer-uppers are because they save us taxpayers thousands of dollars every year. Without them, your M&O levy would be unaffordable.
Obviously the teachers and administrative staff rely heavily on their expertise. It helps everyone do their jobs better. I believe it makes Napavine a high-quality school district.
The kids who graduate from Napavine testify to this fact every year. Supporting the M&O levy is an easy decision for me. How about you?
Carlyle Staab
Chehalis
Morton District Reverses Direction; Vote for Levy
To the editor:
I am writing this letter to urge voters in Morton and Mineral to vote yes on the Morton School District M&O levy.
Our school has gone from being a required action district, not meeting standards, to a school of distinction in five short years. That means the Morton School District is “one of the 5 percent highest improving schools in the state of Washington for increased reading/math achievement and graduation rate over the past five years.”
This is not the time to reduce local funding for our school. There is a different feel at our school. Students and staff are involved in many activities both in and out of the classroom. The results are evident not only in improved test scores but also expanded curriculum and continued success in sports.
Support our school and our students. Help them to continue to improve and excel. Vote yes for Morton Schools.
Mike Fairhart
Morton
Obama on Supreme Court? There Is a Precedent
Some comments on the current presidential campaign:
At a recent political event, Democratic aspirant Hillary Clinton opined that Barack Obama would be a worthy justice on the Supreme Court once his tenure at the White House has lapsed. While highly unusual, the presence of a former president on the nation’s highest court would not be unprecedented.
In 1921, President Warren Harding appointed as chief justice of the United States William Howard Taft, who had been chief executive from 1909 to 1913. Taft, who also had served as governor of the Philippines and secretary of war, lost his bid for re-election in 1912 to Woodrow Wilson.
But Taft’s lifelong dream had been to be a member of the court, and he flourished as chief justice. While not a trailblazer in the interpretation of law, the former president was respected for his skill as a consolidator. Said the former chief executive: “The truth is that in my present life I don’t remember that I ever was president.”
Bernie Sanders, a self-described socialist and independent who is campaigning as a Democrat, is a fierce critic of income and wealth inequality, advocating huge boosts in the taxation of the well-heeled that best can be described as punitive and confiscatory.
Explicit in Sanders’ view is a belief that vast disparities of wealth are unfair and decadent, enabling a mindless, insatiable materialism whereby people desperate, to impress others, waste money in the most conspicuous manner possible.
On this specific matter, Sanders is not entirely amiss.
Bentley, the longtime manufacturer of luxury sedans, soon will introduce its first sport utility, the Bentayga.
As Volkswagen owns Bentley, the Bentayga will share its basic platform with the far less expensive Volkswagen Touareg, Audi Q7 and Porsche Cayenne.
On the options list for the Bentayga is a clock supplied by the Swiss timepiece company Breitling. Like billions of infinitely cheaper clocks, the Breitling has a round face and an analog dial, nothing else. No doubt it keeps good time; but so does a Swatch.
So what is the price of this bauble? A mere $160,000. That’s right. $160,000.
Sanders’ proposals on taxation are dead wrong and dangerous. But those who would unilaterally slash taxes on the very wealthy are equally wrong.
Joseph Tipler
Centralia
School Board Member Shouldn’t Use Anti-Union Agenda
Centralia has another typical political case of the fox guarding the hen house. As posted in The Chronicle Jan. 21, The Freedom Foundation, which employs Jami Lund, a Centralia School Board member, sent out letters and emails to Centralia teachers. Several Centralia teachers protested, accusing Lund of efforts of furthering his political agenda using school district email addresses and personal home addresses.
While Lund has every right to express his views personally, when he uses his position as a Centralia School Board member to disseminate those opinions, I believe he has crossed the line of a potential conflict of interest with his connections with the Freedom Foundation and the school district.
Lund said, “The short story is unions don’t like taxpayer advocates and that is what my employer does for a living.” Here is what Lund’s Freedom Foundation does. The Freedom Foundation is an organization that, among other things, promotes privatization of public schools and reducing government services, opposes minimum wage increases, and opposes paid sick leave. The Freedom Foundation is vehemently anti-union, and not just against teacher associations.
The Foundation is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization, and is limited by IRS regulations from participation in political campaigns. While the Freedom Foundation receives no governmental funding, it instead uses money received from private donations, grants, corporations and private foundations.
Some donors have included the Walton Family Foundation, as well as groups connected to Charles Koch, one of the billionaire brothers who co-own the Koch Industries. The “dark money” comes from many sources. The yearly budget of the Freedom Foundation is over $2 million, according to the latest IRS forms.
Their IRS Form Section 990, Part VI, Section B, Line 12c speaks to conflicts of interest between connections of all employees with secondary jobs or relationships. Lund may have some problems with those conflict of interest portions of the IRS forms, if not legally, at least ethically as a school board member.
While the Freedom Foundation sees unions as the enemy, I would offer that there are some things that are the government’s job to provide. How about public services like fire and police? They have unions. Our Founding Fathers like Thomas Jefferson knew that free public education was necessary to our country’s liberty. Unions are a part of education as well. I could go on and list other important parts of our society where unions and associations are involved. For example, airline pilots have unions, Boeing has an engineers union.
The Freedom Foundation says public-sector unions have a stranglehold on our government. Forty years ago, I and many others worked hard to move the Centralia School District from the days of the “good ol’ boys” running the administration to a first-rate transparent operation that included a written contract between teachers and the school board.
I believe Lund should work for the betterment of the Centralia School District, and put his efforts into making students and teachers his first priority. He should work together with the teachers, and not use his own anti-union political agenda at the cost of our students.
Paul Crowner
Centralia
Pay Attention to What Elected Officials Do
Can you answer me a question: What nationality is a child born to a parent (father) in a foreign country? It used to be the child took the father’s nationality plus his dad’s birthplace.
As far as I can see, it has changed. Eight years ago or thereabout, that was never solved.
Now we have another puzzle to solve. The father is not American, the mother is. The child is born in another country and is not American, but decides to take his mother’s nationality, so they can be judged as American. Are we saying is to be judged the same race, etc., as his or her mother?
If so, this will help with the illegal aliens. There will be no dividing families because the children were born in America and the parents weren’t, according to the previous puzzle. The children are now the same nationality as their mothers.
Tell me, will the rules apply only in some cases? And who decides this?
People read our laws and decide what is right. Let’s start paying attention to what our elected officials do, OK?
I will end with a God bless all in the upcoming years.
P.M. Paxton
Pe Ell
