Moscow Education (Idaho)

From today's Spokesman Review.

At least nine cases of drug-resistant staph infections have been reported to schools across the Inland Northwest in the past week – and more are sure to follow.

With three confirmed cases in Coeur d’Alene, three cases in Post Falls, and three cases suspected in Spokane’s Roosevelt, Audubon and Jefferson elementary schools, concern about methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, has skyrocketed.

Health experts say growing awareness is likely behind the spike in MRSA reports. But school officials, seeking to calm worried parents, say they’ve adopted new protocols or emphasized existing plans to deal with the highly contagious and potentially dangerous germ.

Letters home, updated Web sites, serious scrubbing and classroom discussions are among accelerated efforts to ensure that parents and students respond appropriately to the threat of infection.

“We want to be as responsive as we can without blowing it out of true proportion,” said Judi Christianson, spokeswoman for the East Valley School District.

The schools get paid “by the head” (average daily attendance).

They have an incentive to get kids back in class sooner than later.

One of my readers sent me the following and asked that I post it.

From a reader, contributor and former parent of MSD students:

 

This post is for all the parents that have received a letter from the Moscow School District regarding direct advocacy for their children and those that are about to.

 

As you prepare to vote for more money to support education, perhaps you will want to keep in mind a law that can not be found on the web sites of the following: MSD, Moscow Education Association, Idaho Education Association - the simple act of advocating for your child's education to a teacher can bring trouble (or if you are in the Spokane school district you will be put on a list of un-cooperative parents):

 

Did you know that strong advocacy for your Child's education could be a crime?

The answer is yes and you might be surprised at how loosely these statues are used and invoked or insinuated. You likely will not find this on a school web site, for specifics visit this link at the State of Idaho web site - Idaho State Statues 33-1222 - 18-916

• http://www3.state.id.us/cgi-bin/newidst?sctid=330120022.K
• http://www3.state.id.us/cgi-bin/newidst?sctid=180090016.K

For more information on how teachers contracts figure into the education of your children - here is good reading from several State of Washington teacher agreements: 

• Bellevue School District: http://www.bsd405.org/default.aspx?tabID=780
• Olympia School District: http://kids.osd.wednet.edu/media/pagefiles/1156.2005-08_oea_agreement.pdf
• Spokane School District: http://www.spokaneschools.org/CBA/
• Tumwater School District: http://www.tumwater.k12.wa.us/departments/humanresources/TEA%20Contract%202005%20-%202008.pdf
• Vancouver School District: http://www.vansd.org/docs/VEACPA05-07.pdf

No surprise: this is continuing to spread.

Any thoughts on whether it will hit Moscow/Pullman?

From KREM News in Spokane:

Post Falls School District officials confirmed Tuesday three new cases of the MRSA staph bacteria in two different schools.

Students from both Post Falls High School and Post Falls Middle School students have been infected with the drug-resistant bacteria.

Superintendent of the Post Falls School District Jerry Keane told KREM 2 News the schools will remain open, however they will be thoroughly cleaned at night after students and staff have left.

"We believe we can do a very good job, a job that's totally complete during the off-school hours," said Keane. "We're pretty confident we can keep a lid on this."

News of the infections came the same day the Panhandle Health District held a town hall meeting about the spread of MRSA and how to keep the pubic safe from infection.

"I'd be surprised if every school district of any size didn't have a case like this," said Keane. "Staph infections in schools have been an ongoing problem for a long time."

Staph infections have been an ongoing problem.

But ones that cannot be treated with methicillin, oxacillin, penicillin and amoxicillin?

That’s why it’s called a “superbug.”

I took Jack Wenders’ data and updated it from the Idaho State School Finance Data and Statistics website.

Here’s the good, the bad, and the ugly.

• Enrollment is down 15%
• Spending is up 110%
• Staffing is up 13%
• The ratio of MSD expenditure to inflation-adjusted enrollment is a factor of 2.7 — MSD spends 2.7 times as much today per child as it did in 1989 (accounting for inflation).

Since the liberals love to say that I lie (a convenient way of not dealing with the data), I’m providing the actual data below. It can be found at the Idaho State School Finance Data and Statistics.

I’d love for someone to prove me wrong.

And I’d love to know why we need to finance 2.7 times as much waste as there was in 1989. Perhaps we should bring back the MSD Superintendent from that era?

According to the Washington Post:

Approximately one in every 150 children in the United States has autism or a closely related disorder -- a figure higher than most recent estimates -- according to a federal survey released yesterday, the most thorough ever conducted.

The new data, from 14 states, do not mean that autism is on the rise, because the criteria and definitions used were not the same as those used in the past.

Couple that with the fact that 1 out of every 8 kids in the Moscow and Pullman School Districts receive some form of special education.

Is it just me, or do these numbers just seem wild.

When you were growing up, was every 8^th kid a special ed kid?

One of my readers writes:

Ament didn't sound very tolerant this morning. He was intolerant of those who were intolerant. Of course being tolerant of toleration is tolerant to those who are tolerant of the things they should be tolerant of.

And now something completely different.

As we get ready for the upcoming MSD levy, I thought it would be interesting to get some numbers out in public.

First is the cost to renters.

One of the owners of some apartment buildings in Moscow tells me that her two bedroom apartments are currently taxed at $919 a year each. 

If the bond passes, the taxes would increase to $985 a year.

All of that will be passed on to the tenant.

So over $80/month that a renter pays on a 2–bedroom apartment goes just to our local property taxes.

That’s quite a substantial amount of money each month.

"As we widen the purpose of public schools, we weaken them…. Public schools must draw the line somewhere. To be all things to all people is a recipe for being nothing to anybody." – Liam Julian of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation.

—The Education Gadfly, 25 Oct 2007

HT: EIA

35 years ago in New Jersey. From EIA:

Remember Diane Swaim? Swaim just retired after 35 years in the Middletown school district in New Jersey, and is best known for being the architect of the 2001 teachers' illegal strike, in which 228 teachers were jailed for refusing to return to work.

 

Teachers were jailed in alphabetical order. Swaim sent the teachers back to work without a contract soon after the "Rs" were imprisoned.

From The Education Intelligence Agency.

This story reminds me of when I lived in California. The navy had a contract with a Taiwanese family to serve lunch on base.

It turned out that their food was much better and much cheaper than what the government restaurants were serving. Everyone would eat at the Tai Hut, enduring the long lines and lengthy wait just for much better and much cheaper food.

Then, the military decided that the government restaurants and workers were loosing too many customers. So they refused to renew the contract with the Tai Hut. The idea was to force the military members and civilian employees to eat at the base restaurants.

Did food on the base get any better? Of course not. So now members have to go off-base to eat.

Typical government solutions to problems.

From EIA:

What did Los Altos High School (California) administrators do when students (and teachers) refused to eat the public gruel and sought Julie Nguyen's food-catering truck? Did they re-examine their "healthy foods initiative" for the school cafeteria? Did they bow to the vox populi? Or did they use the iron boot of the government to try to ban Nguyen's truck from the neighborhood?

 

Yes, school administrators went to the city council to seek a "mobile food vendor ordinance" to keep Nguyen's vehicle more than 500 feet away from the school and limit its parking time to 10 minutes. Nguyen has a city permit to sell food to students.

 

Asked why students don't just eat the cafeteria food, one succinctly explained, "It's kinda crappy."

From The Education Intelligence Agency.

From EIA:

You don't see too many things go viral in the education corner of the blogosphere, but I'm surprised that last week's column from Mark Morford of the San Francisco Chronicle hasn't made a national splash.

 

The headline and subhead alone should warrant some attention: "American kids, dumber than dirt" and "Warning: The next generation might just be the biggest pile of idiots in U.S. history." But other than Northern California edu-bloggers Buckhorn Road and Right on the Left Coast, it doesn't seem to have caught on elsewhere, despite its status as the Chronicle's most e-mailed article and an incredible 517 reader comments, at last count.

 

It's hard to tell if Morford's article is a manifesto, a polemic, an overreaction or a publicity stunt, but he cites the experiences of an Oakland high school teacher of his acquaintance. Here's a taste:

"But most of all, he simply observes his students, year to year, noting all the obvious evidence of teens' decreasing abilities when confronted with even the most basic intellectual tasks, from understanding simple history to working through moderately complex ideas to even (in a couple recent examples that particularly distressed him) being able to define the words 'agriculture,' or even 'democracy.' Not a single student could do it.

"It gets worse. My friend cites the fact that, of the 6,000 high school students he estimates he's taught over the span of his career, only a small fraction now make it to his grade with a functioning understanding of written English. They do not know how to form a sentence. They cannot write an intelligible paragraph. Recently, after giving an assignment that required drawing lines, he realized that not a single student actually knew how to use a ruler."

Morford worries that the world's problems pale in comparison to that of "a populace far too ignorant to know how to properly manage any of it, much less change it all for the better."

From The Education Intelligence Agency.

The cast picture from the 2007 Junior Varsity production of Tom Sawyer.

Mark J. Perry is a professor of economics and finance in the School of Management at the Flint campus of the University of Michigan. Perry holds two graduate degrees in economics (M.A. and Ph.D.) from George Mason University in Washington, D.C.

Mark has an excellent economics blogsite: Carpe Diem.

What do you get when you give more money to public education? You get more administrators and “instructional staff”, not more teachers.

This is cross-posted from his site.

A previous post documented the 10X increase in the real cost per public school student from 1929-2007. Why has the cost of public education increased so much in real terms?

One important factor is the increase in the number of public school employees in relation to student enrollment. From the Cato Institute report "Saving Money and Improving Education":

"As shown in the graph above (click to enlarge), student enrollment in public schools grew by 13% between 1979 and 2000. During the same period the total number of school employees grew by 61%, and the number of teachers grew by 35%. Nationally, public schools now have about 1 employee for every 8.1 students, and teachers make up only 40% of total school employees."

From my article "The Educational Octopus":

Consider the following cases of bloated, costly public school administration.

1. The Chicago Board of Education, which has 3,300 employees, is larger than the entire Japanese Ministry of Education.

2. The New York City public schools system has 250 times as many administrators as the New York Catholic school system (6,000 administrators in public school system versus 24 in Catholic school system), even though New York public schools have only four times as many students as the Catholic schools.

3. Administrative costs have exploded since World War II as the number of school districts has declined, from over 100,000 districts in 1945 to fewer than 16,000 in 1980. As school districts have consolidated and grown in size, they have become increasingly bloated--more top-heavy, more bureaucratic, more centralized, less efficient--and more costly to administer.

Mark J. Perry is a professor of economics and finance in the School of Management at the Flint campus of the University of Michigan. Perry holds two graduate degrees in economics (M.A. and Ph.D.) from George Mason University in Washington, D.C.

Mark has an excellent economics blogsite: Carpe Diem.

This is cross-posted from his site.

Using data from this U.S. 2006 Department of Education report, the graph above (click to enlarge) shows average tuition at private schools (elementary and secondary) vs. average per pupil spending for public schools (elementary and secondary) for the 2003-2004 school year.

 

Average private school tuition ($6,600) was about 1/3 less than the spending per pupil in public schools ($9,620) in 2003-2004 (the most recent year available), and average Catholic school tuition ($4,254) was less than half of public school spending per student.

Not only was the average private school tuition between 1/3 and 1/2 less than the cost per public school student, the private schools had on average 18% more teachers per 1000 students (72.25 in private schools vs. 61 in public schools) in 2003-2004.

Bottom Line: Private schools can educate students at a lower cost, with more teachers per 1000 students, than the public schools. Reason: Private schools must have significantly fewer non-instructional administrative employees, and therefore significantly lower administrative expenses than their public counterparts.

Good luck, Jerry. You will keep getting contradicting stories on where the money goes.

The following article ran in today’s Lewiston Tribune.

Gerald Weitz says he won't support the Moscow School District's rerun of its March levy without an explicit explanation of where the money is being spent.

"I would support the levy, and have always said this, if they would take care of the kids who aren't going to college. And they aren't," Weitz said in his first conversation with the Lewiston Tribune since a judge ruled on his lawsuit against the Moscow School District.

He was advised by his attorney to not speak about the case while it was before the court.

Superintendent Candis Donicht said the money from the levy will go to support the same programs, class sizes and teacher salaries the district has been providing in recent years.

The $1.97 million increase to the indefinite $5.6 million levy is being sent back to the voters Nov. 13 after 2nd District Judge John Bradbury ruled the language on the March ballot was not accurate.

Weitz challenged that ballot as well as the three prior ballots, dating back to 1992, in a civil lawsuit against the district.

He has long been a proponent of professional-technical education as well as dual enrollment for both vocational students and advanced placement students.

Weitz said he has been vilified because of the lawsuit and believes that is unfair. His dental business declined as much as 20 percent after the suit was filed, although it is growing again.

"I am the bad guy because I am asking the question," he said. "We should be looking not at me but at making sure the kids not going to college are taken care of."

Weitz is quick to compare the Moscow School District with the Pullman district.

"Pullman is very connected," he said, adding part of that comes from running a levy election every two years and having to answer to the people.

"Moscow says we want our money until the end of time."

He said he is suspicious of the request for $1.97 million when the district admits that failing the measure would mean cutting $400,000 from this year's budget.

He wants to see everything above the $400,000 put to vocational education.

Moscow passed a permanent levy in 1992 through a state provision allowing districts that have had seven consecutive years of successful levy elections to ask voters for a permanent levy.

The district has gone back to the voters four times to increase that value.

Donicht said that is the nature of an indefinite-term levy.

"As time goes on the buying power of that amount of money is eroded."

She said that immediately after an increase passes the district has a pool of money.

"Our trustees have to be conscious of that," she said, because that pool is expected to cover growing expenses a few years down the road.

When the pool of money can no longer cover the predicted increase in expenses, the district's auditor recommends the district ask for an increase, she said.

Weitz said Pullman has great vocational programs as well as advanced classes.

"They (Moscow) aren't as good as other districts," Weitz said.

"Comparing an Idaho school district to a Washington school district is a comparing apples to oranges event," Donicht said.

Weitz said the district needs to be more open leading up to the November rerun.

"There needs to be a full discussion and there has to be some light," he said. "We are in a culture in Moscow of arguing about everything and getting nothing done."

Donicht said the information regarding the rerun is available for patrons.

"It is for the same amount of money and for the same things."

Weitz said he contacted the district prior to the March election to say the ballot was illegal but the district chose to ignore his warning.

"They said they would get back and they didn't," Weitz said. "I can't imagine being fairer to the district."

Donicht said Weitz did contact the district.

"He was in contact with us, threatening to file suit with us if we did not make curricular changes that he advances," Donicht said.

Weitz said the suit was not about the levy and the money associated with it.

"It's not about money. It has never been about money. If they run it properly and take care of the kids then I am for anything."

He said he doesn't want to be in the spotlight, he just wants to see course offerings for all students.

"I don't want to be the martyr here because I don't feel like the martyr."

Rep. Tom Trail and Sen. Gary Schroeder, both Republicans from Moscow, announced their support for the Moscow School District Levy to be held on Tuesday, November 13th.

They encourage voters to to vote "Yes" on this important measure and have purchased a quantity of "Moscow YES" yard signs.

Carpe Diem just keeps getting better and better. Here’s an interesting discussion of the cost of oil verses the cost of public schools.

At least we get better gas mileage today than we did in 1929. I would hate to compare the education that students receive today verses what our grandparents got in 1929.

From Carpe Diem:

Using these data from the U.S. Department of Education and oil prices from Global Financial Data, the graph above (click to enlarge) shows expenditures per pupil in public elementary and secondary schools from 1929-2007, adjusted for inflation, and oil prices during the same period, also adjusted for inflation. Both series are price indexes set to equal 100 in 1929.

The data for public school spending are only available through the 2001-2002 school year from the Department of Education, and I was unable to find a comparable series through 2007, but I extended the series from 2002 through 2007 by assuming that the trend in spending for education would continue (about a 3% per year real growth rate).

That leads to his three conclusions:

Conclusion #1: Oil prices in real dollars have increased 2.4X since 1929 (the inflation-adjusted price index in the graph above goes from 100 to 240).

Conclusion #2: On the other hand, the average cost of educating a student in U.S. public schools today is about 10X the cost in 1929, measured in real dollars (the inflation-adjusted price index in the graph goes from 100 to 1000).

Conclusion #3: Consider also the the quality of a barrel of oil has probably remained the same since 1929, and we probably can't say that about the quality of public school education over the last 78 years. For example, see this 8th grade exam from 1895, how many high school students could pass this today?

As reported in today's edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

University of Idaho President Bob Hoover warned that adverse effects of further cuts to higher education would extend beyond the university. The local business community will be hurt as well.

Trickle-down economics from UI and WSU.

When UI catches a cold, Moscow gets the flu.

UI has had declining enrollment since Fall 2005.

Moscow is chasing business revenue out of town.

And our mayor has continued to raise local taxes at the maximum rate that she is legally allowed.

When will it end?

As reported in today's edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

The University of Idaho has embarked on a $250,000 campaign - using magazines, television, and newspapers - to change its image from that of a remote party school.

Yea, there’s taxpayer money well spent.

See Tim Galloway’s article in the Argonaut last month where he states what everyone in the USA knows:

This town is home to the University of Idaho, the most infamous party school in the Northwest.

NSA's tuition rate of $8,500 per year — just over one-third (35.8%) the national average of private college tuition ($23,712) and 62.5% of public university costs ($13,589). Almost all Christian colleges are in the $20,000 range (+/- $3K).

I can't name another that is below $10k.

The average private college student received $9,300 in financial aid—more than NSA’s total tuition.

Other Reformed colleges charge the following rates:

• Covenant College (GA): $22,160 per year
• Calvin College (MI): $21,460 per year
• Geneva College (PA): $19,430 per year
• Dordt College (IA): $19,600 per year
• Providence Christian College (CA): $17,530 per year
• Trinity Christian College (IL): $18,896 per year
• Average ARIHE-member tuition: $19,846

Some other "Classical" Colleges:

• Patrick Henry College (VA): $16,900 per year
• St. John's College-Annapolis (MD): $36,346 per year
• Thomas Aquinas College (CA): $20,400 per year

Some Northwest Colleges:

• College of Idaho (formerly Albertson College; ID): $17,000 per year
• Whitworth College (WA): $25,382 per year (that's really tuition only)
• Northwest Nazarene University (ID): $19,700 per year

I asked Sue Driskill, the MSD Business Manager, what the bottom line would be for the MSD levy.

Here is her response.

The total levy for school taxes will be $6.71 per thousand dollars of taxable value. This levy rate is the total of the supplemental levy rate of $6.62 and the tort levy of $.09 per thousand dollars of taxable value. This is an estimate based on the Sept 2007 Latah Co taxable market value for the district. The actual levy will be based on 12/31/07 values so could vary from this estimate.

Attached is the official notice of the MSD levy.

Here's the question:

Shall the Board of Trustees of Moscow School District No. 281, Latah County, State of Idaho, be authorized and empowered to levy an increase to the Indefinite Term Supplemental Levy in the amount of $1,970,000 (One Million Nine Hundred Seventy Thousand Dollars) for a total annual levy of $7,616,000 (Seven Million Six Hundred Sixteen Thousand Dollars) for an indefinite number of years, for the purpose of paying all lawful expenses of maintaining and operating the schools of the District?

To download an absentee ballot request, go to http://www.sd281.k12.id.us/Board_of_Trustees/AbsenteeBallot.pdf

You can click on this image below to enlarge to see the exact wording and what you will be voting for/against.

Yesterday’s edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News had an article about “Islamo-Fascism Week” at WSU.

But here was one quote that caught my eye. From Progressive Student Union member Chelsea Tremblay:

“We stand behind Muslims. Bombs are not going to stop terrorism,” she said. “Education will.”

Salvation and protection by education.

It look like it was orderly and went well — unlike at other campuses across the nation. From the Daily News:

Nearly 70 Washington State University students gathered peacefully Wednesday night after the College Republicans aired a film about radical Islam.

More than 200 faculty and students watched the movie, a montage of footage from Palestinian and Iranian television, interspersed with viewpoints from a Palestinian journalist and media watch expert, an Arab-American writer, a former Palestinian Liberation Organization terrorist, an American professor and policy advisers.

The movie included footage of children praying in school for the destruction of America, England and Israel. The film incorporates footage of a 1941 Franklin D. Roosevelt speech. As Roosevelt says, "we've been here before," the film shows people running from the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001. "It's coming very close to home," Roosevelt's voice continues. The film warns of Islamic fundamentalists who are living in the United States

The beginning of the film clearly states it was about the acts of a few extremist radicals.

After the movie, students went upstairs to discuss the film.

"But what they insinuated demonized Muslims at large," said Erika Abad, a WSU student studying American Studies.

The College Republicans hired two extra student police officers to provide security for the film and the forum; the Progressive Student Union requested the presence of faculty and a WSU counselor at the forum.

It’s interesting to me that the movie makes statements of fact (“extremist radicals have done this”), but the “progressives” are calling for counselors in case someone’s self esteem is hurt.

This really is no longer the universities of my childhood.

And Moscow’s liberals are going to go crazy.

How dare Pullman bring in business to the Palouse? Think of the water! Think of the money! Think of the kids!

PULLMAN, Wash.-Washington State University is looking for a private development company to partner with the university to design, build and operate a hotel and conference center on the Pullman campus.

According to a report by WSU's School of Economic Sciences, a wired lecture hall or amphitheater, smaller breakout rooms, convenient dining and comfortable rooms --- the basics of most conference centers --- would allow Pullman to host hundreds of conferences and annual meetings that are now lost to more urban areas.

"We are talking about bringing in another level of activity that we don't have now," said Gerald Schlatter, associate vice president of Capital Planning and Development.

There is no facility in Pullman that works well for a two- or three-day conference with 50 to 200 people, he said. Beyond that, a campus hotel with a restaurant would provide another social venue --- a meeting place for alumni, visiting scholars and local residents, he said.

Unlike a typical setting for a conference center, Pullman presents some challenges, such as its remote location. But it also has some advantages, such as a home constituency that attends and plans hundreds of conferences each year. WSU's Hospitality and Business Management program could both bolster and benefit from the hotel/conference center, Schlatter said.

"I can see some interesting things evolving from this," he said. But, to find a solution that works for Pullman, developers are going to have to "think outside the box."

Interested development companies are being invited to submit a listing of their qualifications by Nov. 1, but the deadline could be extended if necessary.

Unlike a request for design proposals, this request is an attempt to identify two or three development companies with the necessary experience in university-based hotel and conference center management to put together a financially viable plan for a self-supporting or profit-generating facility.

"All we are looking for is their qualifications," Schlatter said. Once a few well-qualified companies have been identified, they will be asked to present specific proposals.

"The challenge is, you don't want to do something like this and have it fail financially," he said.

The parameters of the proposal are that WSU wants a conference center that can accommodate groups of up to 200 people, with both a large amphitheater for multi-media presentations and breakout rooms for smaller gatherings. A full-service restaurant would be part of the plan, and the hotel portion of the project would serve both overnight guests and extended-stay visitors. The project description does not include a specific number of rooms, preferring to see what the development company recommends.

The suggested building site is north of the Student Recreation Center, along North Fairway Drive, but Schlatter said other sites could be considered as well. WSU will maintain ownership of the land, he said, but could provide the development company with a ground lease.

WSU has been considering a hotel/conference center for a long time. Two feasibility reports were conducted in 2002, including the survey by the School of Economic Sciences. But, Schlatter said, the missing piece was the new golf course. Without a golf course, he said, it is very difficult to attract large groups for multi-day conferences.

Alex Williams, Vice President of the WSU College Republicans, has a great article in The Daily Evergreen.

He points out the same thing I’ve been saying here since the beginning: liberals want tolerance; but only of that which they agree with.

Our campuses are ripe with this kind of liberal hypocrisy.

Williams writes in today's edition of the Daily Evergreen:

Many of you have probably seen the outcry on campus this week for tolerance and the diversity of opinion. However, several groups on campus who are part of the far, far left side think their opinion is the only one that can be tolerated. I would like use a quote directly from fliers that groups participating in a Week of Tolerance were handing out on the mall this week. “The students of WSU deserve more than a biased viewpoint based on prejudice and lack of facts. It is important to allow free and open expression of opinion…” Guess what? I could not agree more. The opinions these groups are putting forward is more biased and uninformed than the opinions they are accusing the College Republicans (a group in which I am vice president) of holding. These groups are jumping to conclusions and are out in arms before they even research the addressed topic or the message that the other side is trying to portray. There is always more than one opinion on any particular issue, and each side has the right to express themselves without fear. The administration, faculty and staff, multiple campus groups, and uninformed writers are trying to express their beliefs while prohibiting the other side from voicing their opinion. For those of you who don’t know, that is illegal in the United States. Every person in America has the right to believe in what they want; that is the beauty of living in a free country. You can be Republican, Democrat, gay, straight, male, female and you are able to express your beliefs on any particular issue freely. People should not have to worry that they will be publicly slandered and demeaned by outright lies and personal attacks.  

…

The liberal gatekeepers of the media try to hide the truth and other viewpoints, especially on college campuses. Those protesting for tolerance must also realize their actions are not at all tolerant and just because you do not agree with someone does not make them wrong and you right.

The following letter to the editor appeared in Monday’s Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

I wish to correct a recent Daily News article (Oct. 10) concerning the Moscow School District levy. Even though the district knew about former students coming specifically to the board meeting to testify about vocational education and dual enrollment, the district explicitly informed the audience they could not talk about dual enrollment or vocational education but only about whether we supported the levy or not. We were to limit our statements to two minutes. In spite of this, I talked about the benefits of dual enrollment and not about vocational education as reported in the paper.

Before I made my presentation, I observed a former MSD student, who failed to graduate, called out of order as he politely tried to make his short presentation about the importance of vocational education. An elderly gentleman also was called out of order as he conversed about vocational education and his experience of trying to work with the district in that regard. Since most of the public comment was dominated by MSD employees, the district's conduct has had a disquieting effect upon me.

I recently graduated from Washington State University in the honors program with a number of Pullman High School graduates. To say this briefly, the Pullman graduates had an overwhelming advantage over my training at the MSD because of their high school involvement with WSU. Moscow ought to value input and be respectful when former students try to help the district improve.

Go Bears.

Griffin Guess, Moscow

As reported in today's edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

The Moscow School District's Facilities Planning Committee members have decided to support construction of a new Moscow High School rather than renovate the existing high school.

Which went down in flames.

And everyone blamed Christ Church for it (the liberal’s whipping boy).

I wonder if MCA loses the City Council this time, if it will be blamed on the CC conspiracy?