It has been said that you can tell what a person truly values by what they choose to invest in.
This notion is true as individuals, and it also bears true for communities. It is this principle that leads me to write this letter of emphatic support for the Mossyrock School District levy.
First, it is important to recognize the facts. This is a replacement levy, not a new levy. Despite what Olympia may say, the state-provided funding for education is wholly inadequate, and it’s not particularly close.
There are several reasons why passing this levy matters: Regardless of how a person feels about what occurred during COVID, the facts are that numerous young people in our district and others are drastically behind in their educational, emotional and social development. I’ve been on record calling this the real crises — the crises of disconnection. During and as a result of COVID, our young people disconnected from each other, from the community, and in many ways from their educational system at a foundational point in their lives. The result is skyrocketing mental health rates, increasing criminogenic needs, stunted educational progress and elevated risks of dropping out of school.
Now is the critical time to invest in making up for the “lost years” by providing additional support, more teachers and school counselors to meet kids where they are at, and more opportunities for our kids to connect through sports, music and other venues.
We can also look at community crime rates. Numerous studies demonstrate that there is a clear connection between insufficient funding levels in schools and future arrest rates, such that the long-term savings for the community are far greater than the costs. I’ve spent my entire career working with youth involved in the justice system. The top risk factors influencing how I came to work with those young people were lack of family support, lack of connection to positive prosocial individuals and recreational opportunities in their community, and lack of school engagement.
Supporting this replacement levy is addressing two of these three risk factors and is an investment not only in our kids, but in the community as a whole.
Let us also consider the impact on property values. One of the first things many homebuyers look at is the quality of the local schools and the programs available. For many people, underfunded schools are an immediate deal-breaker for a house or property they would have otherwise considered.
An average house in Mossyrock is valued as such to where the approval of this levy would be an increase of under $12 a month. The opportunity to improve the education of hundreds of children, to positively impact young people’s physical, mental and emotional health, to reduce future crime rates, which impact the community, while simultaneously having a net positive impact on property values, all for the equivalent price of a couple of trips to my favorite coffee joint per month is an investment I can get behind.
I’m voting yes on the Mossyrock School District Levy.
Shad Hail
Salkum
