It’s too bad that Anchorage has sufficient numbers of narrow-minded and short-sighted voters, such that it is next to impossible for an admittedly large, but badly needed, school bond proposition to be approved by the voters.
I also think it’s too bad that the Anchorage School District chronically insists upon lumping all school district needs into one huge bond package, instead of presenting several smaller, less-costly bond packages before the voters. If a series of lower-cost school bond proposals were on a municipal ballot, it seems plausible that a few might pass, and at least a few badly-needed facility improvement or maintenance issues could be funded, simply because their lower cost might not frighten voters.
As it is, in this last election, the school district unwisely put all its facilities maintenance and improvement needs “into one basket,” i.e., into one very costly bond measure, with the result that the voters turned down such a costly measure, and the school district now has nothing — no money — to show for its efforts. I hope the district uses better psychology in the future in presenting school bond measures before Anchorage voters.
— Stephan Paliwoda
Anchorage
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