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Letters for Jan. 29
Please reject levies, bonds
ZIP code schooling enables the Legislature to avoid its responsibilities.
Educators are asking voters to approve $4 billion for levies and over $2.5 billion for bonds exacerbating the state’s support of racial, age, geographical and socioeconomic discrimination while indoctrinating children as they work without pay or purpose of their choice.
Results that the current levy achieved and new results expected are not usually provided. A levy is a bill that increases every year with no commitments and marketed as a “replacement” at the same levy rate deceptively implying no increased cost.
My district in Springdale is an example. Its 2019 levy cost taxpayers $287,000 a year. The 2022 “replacement” cost $359,601. The 2026 “replacement” will cost $627,243 in 2026 increasing to $778,223 in 2029. All at the same levy rate. A replacement would be $287,000, $778,223 is an increase.
I now pay $354. If passed in 2026, I will pay $618. My income will go up only 3%.
Enrollment did not significantly increase. Student scores flatlined, pay increased. Last year, 75% failed state standards in ELA, 87% in math.
Check out your district’s results to determine if you see evidence of responsible and transparent leadership and student improvement commensurable with cost increases. I do not see it in my district.
Visit 4freedomwa.com to read facts, how student improvement can be accomplished and how to become a school board director committed to empowering students.
We had the McCleary decision. Funding education is a state responsibility.
Please reject levies and bonds.
John Axtell
Spokane Valley
Clean up place we call home
Throughout my time living in the Spokane region, I have made it my goal to try and clean up the place I call home. Every weekend I go out and pick up as much as I can, usually taking home two, sometimes four bags of trash with each place I visit. Yet, these places will look almost exactly as they did before just a few days later. Not to mention, I have also found some unusual items that make you think about who dumped these things and why. Some of them include two car batteries, a rug, several sets of cardboard, enough to fill two trash cans, toy guns, “pleasure-seeking” tools, and many other objects, all found within the confines of Spokane Valley.
All of this brings to question when this will end. There’s only so much a few people can do to keep an ever-expanding city clean for so long, and eventually, everything will return to its prior state, just as filthy as it was before. I’m tired of how little is being done to help this place regain its fleeting beauty, and I hope I’m not alone in that sentiment. I ask of you, those who still care about Spokane, to make an effort to clean even the smallest bit of land you can. It could be a local park, an empty lot, or even the space around your home. We cannot have this once beautiful town be overshadowed by leftover cans and plastic bags.
Nicholas Strandlof
Greenacres
Felons never stop
Looking at The Spokesman-Review Northwest section headline Monday morning: “Two men with combined 28 felonies accused of robbing, shooting 70-year-old man in December.” I wonder, whatever happened to “three strikes and you’re out”?
Karen Buck
Millwood